Melor

Saint Melor
Mélar in Chapelle Saint-Brieuc, Plonivel [fr], Finistère, with severed hand
Died	10th-century
Venerated in	Catholic Church
Major shrine	Amesbury Abbey (original)
Feast	1 October (Exeter Cathedral) 3 January 28 August (former) Sunday nearest 25 October 4 December

Melor (also known in

Melor had a popular cult in Brittany, but his story has been obfuscated by a number of biographers who confused names, dates and places to the point where reality has been almost completely obscured. There actually appear to have been at least three, if not four, saints of this or similar name:

• Prince Melor of Cornouaille
• Saint Mylor of Cornwall
• Saint Meglar of Cornwall
• Bishop Melor of Redon^{[citation needed]}

The first and second individuals are generally believed to be the same, and the Melor commonly identified as the Amesbury saint.

Breton legend

Melor's legend makes him a

Melor's cult probably spread to Cornwall from Brittany. There are churches dedicated to him at Mylor and Linkinhorne in Cornwall, and at Amesbury in Wiltshire.

In the 10th century, Melor's body is said to have been taken on tour to England. When it was placed on the

In the publication "Notes on the Parish of Mylor" (1907) is the following reference to the saint: "This St Melior or Melioris is reputed to have been the son of Melianus, Duke of Cornwall, and is said to have been slain for embracing Christianity, August 28, A. D. 411, by his pagan brother-in-law Rinaldus, or Remigius, who first cut off Milor’s right hand, then his left leg, and finally his head". But the book later quotes another source (the Somersetshire Archaeological Society, 1898) thus: "If we may credit the Legenda Sanctorum compiled by Bishop Grandisson, Meliorus was the son of Melainus, King of Cornwall, by his wife Aurella, a lady of Devon; that at seven years of age he lost his royal father; that his uncle Rivoldus by his father's side returning from abroad cruelly treated the youth and at length contrived his decapitation".

During the restoration of Mylor church in the late 19th century, an obelisk of granite which had been serving as a flying buttress was discovered to be the 17½-foot granite cross which had purportedly stood on St Mylor's grave. It was replaced in the churchyard on what was reckoned to be its original site.

The poet Charles Causley published "The Mystery of St Mylor" in his 1988 collection A Field of Vision.

Feast day

The