l52 CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 



St. Newlyna, Yirgin, Martyr. 



The Cliurch of NeAvlyn is described in the Episcopal Eegis- 

 ters as Ecclesia S'^"" NeuHne (Bronescombe, 1263), Bishop 

 Bronescombe dedicated it on reconstruction on the 26th 

 September, 1259 (Ecclesia Stae NiweHnde). It is similarly 

 described by B. Quivil, 1283, B. Bytton 1309 ; Bishop Grandisson, 

 1332, 1349, &c. ; B. Stafford, 1400. 



Newlyn is the same as the Breton Noualen, Latinised into 

 Noyala. The name is from the Welsh Niwl-wen, White Mist. 

 Nothing is known of her date or of the facts of her life. 



Nicolas Eoscarrock, writing about 1610, says that she was 

 daughter of a king, who in contempt of the christian religion 

 martyred her with his own hands. This is not quite the story 

 as it is told traditionally in Brittany. There the story goes: — 



That she was a virgin from Cornwall who crossed into 

 Armorica, along with her nurse or foster mother, and came to 

 Bignan in Morbihan, where she was put to death by a local 

 chieftain named Nizam, who cut off her head. She is, in fact, a 

 Breton replica of S. Winefred. When she had been beheaded, 

 she rose, took up her head in her hands, and carried it as far as 

 Noyal Pontivy, full thirty miles. As shall be shewn presently this 

 fable springs from a very simple cause. 



Pontivy possesses a church richly decorated, dedicated to the 

 Saint. Formerly there was s^juhe or rood screen there, on which 

 her legend was painted. This was wantonly destroyed in 1684, 

 by order of the vicar-general, because it obscured the sight of 

 a gaudy reredos in the debased style of the period. This taste- 

 less construction has now been swept away, and the paintings 

 that formerly decorated ih.ejuhe have been reproduced in stained 

 glass in the parish church and on the walls of a chapel. In the 

 chapel is a Holy Well. Through the courtesy of M.l'abbe de 

 Bellez, cure of Noyal Pontivy, I am able to give the subjects of 

 the old paintings that were destroyed, and the inscriptions under 

 them, that were in Grothic characters, and were happily tran- 

 scribed into the archives of the parish. 



I. Comment Sanct Noial en son commencement hantait 

 I'eglise et donnait lomone aulx pavrres pour 1' amour de Dieu. 



