Mabyn

Mabyn, also known as Mabena, Mabon, etc., was a medieval Cornish saint. According to local Cornish tradition she was one of the many children of Brychan, king of Brycheiniog in Wales in the 5th century. The village and civil parish of St Mabyn is named for her, and the local St Mabyn Parish Church is dedicated to her.

History

The earliest known source to mention Mabyn is the 12th-century Cornish Latin

There are several later medieval references to Mabyn and her church, but they offer little information about her, and two sources even describe her as a man.

feast day as 18 November.^[1]

Mabyn is depicted in a 1523 (or 1528)

Meubred of Cardinham.^[4]

A credence table which survives at St Mabyn may originally have been the panel of a tomb raised in Mabyn's honour.^[6] It is possible that all her sisters had tombs erected for them.^[6]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Orme, Saints of Cornwall, pp. 168–169.
2. ^ Orme, Saints of Cornwall, pp. 76–77; 169.
3. ^ Baring-Gould, Lives of the Saints, p. 276.
4. ^ ^{a b} Mattingly, "Pre-Reformation saints' cults in Cornwall", pp. 251–2
5. ^ Mattingly, "Pre-Reformation saints' cults in Cornwall", p. 249–52
6. ^ ^{a b} Mattingly, "Pre-Reformation saints' cults in Cornwall", p. 259–60

References

• ISBN 0-19-820765-4
  . Retrieved 15 January 2010.
• Orme, Nicholas (2000). The Saints of Cornwall. Oxford University Press.
  ISBN 0-19-820765-4
  . Retrieved 15 January 2010.
• Mattingly, Joanna (2003). "Pre-Reformation Saints' Cults in Cornwall – with particular reference to the St Neot windows". In Jane Cartwright (ed.). Celtic Hagiography and Saints' Cults. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. pp. 249–70.

Further reading

• Olson, B.L. and
  Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies
  12 (1986). pp. 33–71.