Saint Kenelm
Saint Kenelm | |
---|---|
Born | c. 786 |
Died | 17 July 821 Clent Hills |
Venerated in | Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
Major shrine | Winchcombe Abbey |
Feast | 17 July |
Saint Kenelm (or Cynehelm) was an
In legend, St Kenelm was a member of the royal family of Mercia, a boy king and martyr, murdered by an ambitious relative despite receiving a prophetic dream warning him of the danger. His body, after being concealed, was discovered by miraculous intervention, and transported by the monks of Winchcombe to a major shrine. There it remained for several hundred years.
The two locales most closely linked to this legend are the Clent Hills, south of Birmingham, England, identified as the scene of his murder, and the small Gloucestershire town of Winchcombe, near Cheltenham, where his body was interred.[1] The small church of St Kenelm, dating from the 12th century in a village called Kenelstowe, now stands with a handful of houses within the larger village of Romsley in the Clent Hills. For many years, villagers celebrated St Kenelm's Day (17 July) with a village fair and the ancient custom of "crabbing the parson" - bombarding the unfortunate cleric with a volley of crab apples.
The Legend of St Kenelm
Winchcombe Abbey
The earliest account of St Kenelm's legend lies in a manuscript copy from the 12th century at Winchcombe Abbey, which claims to be derived from an account given by a Worcester monk named Wilfin. Other accounts in chronicles are evidently derived from the same source. The story told by that manuscript is as follows:
In AD 819 (or 821?), Coenwulf of Mercia died, leaving two daughters, Quendryda (Cwenthryth) and Burgenhilda, and a son, a child of seven years old, named Kenelm, who was chosen to succeed him. Quendryda envied her little brother and thought that if he were killed, she might reign as Queen. She therefore conspired with her lover, Askobert, her brother's tutor and guardian, and gave him money, saying, 'Slay my brother for me, that I may reign'. In the Forests of Worcestershire, on a hunting trip, the opportunity arose.[2]
The night before the hunting trip, Kenelm had a dream in which he climbed a large tree decorated with flowers and lanterns. From on high, he saw all four quarters of his kingdom. Three bowed down before him, but the fourth began to chop away at the tree until it fell. Then Kenelm transformed into a white bird and flew away to safety. On waking, the young king related his dream to his nanny, a wise old woman skilled in interpreting dreams. She wept, for she knew that the boy was destined to die.[2]
In the middle of the hunt's first day, young Kenelm, tired and hot, decided to lie down beneath a tree to rest. Askobert began to dig a grave, in preparation for the murder, but the boy suddenly awoke and admonished him, 'You think to kill me here in vain, for I shall be slain in another spot. In token, thereof, see this rod blossom'. As he thrust his stick into the ground, it instantly took root and began to flower. It grew, in years after, to be a great ash tree, which was known as St Kenelm's Ash. Unperturbed by this turn of events, Askobert took the little king up to the Clent Hills, and as the child began to sing the Te Deum, the assassin smote his head clean off and buried him where he fell.[2]
Kenelm's soul rose in the form of a dove carrying a scroll, and flew away to Rome where it dropped the scroll at the feet of the Pope. The message on the scroll read: 'Low in a mead of
Accordingly, the Pope wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who commissioned a party from the Mercian capital, Winchcombe, to seek the body. As they walked, they saw a pillar of light shining over a thicket in Worcestershire and beneath it the body of Kenelm. As it was taken up, a rushing fountain burst out of the ground, and flowed away into a stream, which brought health to anyone who drank from it. The body was then solemnly carried towards Winchcombe, but at the ford called Pyriford over the River Avon, the burial party was met by an armed band from Worcester Abbey who also claimed title to the remains. The dispute was settled as follows: whichever party woke first on the following morning could take the prize. This proved to be the monks from Winchcombe. Despite their agreement, however, they were closely pursued by the Worcester party. Exhausted from their rapid march, they stopped just within sight of Winchcombe Abbey. As they struck their staffs into the ground, a spring burst forth, and this refreshed them so that they were able to press on to the Royal Mercian Abbey at Winchcombe, where the bells sounded and rang without the hand of man.
Then Quendryda asked what all this ringing meant and was told how her brother's body was brought in procession into the abbey. 'If that be true,' said she, 'may both my eyes fall upon this book', and then both her eyes fell out of her head upon the
South English Legendary
The legend of Saint Kenelm is included in a medieval collection of saints' lives in Middle English known as the
Factual records of Kenelm's life
Like many medieval hagiographies, St Kenelm's legend appears to bear little relation to any known facts. It can be ascertained from the wider historical record that, on the death of
Other associations with St Kenelm
Churches
There are eight
-
1. St Kenelm's Church, Clent Hills, Worcestershire
-
2. St Kenelm's Church, Sapperton, Gloucestershire (Redundant)
-
3. St Kenelm's Church,Clifton-upon-Teme, Worcestershire
-
4. St Kenelm's Church, Enstone, Oxfordshire
-
5. St Kenelm's, Church, Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire
-
6. St Kenelm's Church, Upton Snodsbury, Worcestershire
-
8. St Kenelm's Church, Hinton Prava & Stanbridge, Dorset (Redundant)
In addition, there are two
In 2023, a pastoral area of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton was named in honour of Kenelm.[7]
Literature
- St Kenelm is alluded to inChaucer's The Nun's Priest's Tale:[8]
Why in the 'Life' of Saint Kenelm I read
Who was Kenelphus' son, the noble king
Of Mercia, how Kenelm dreamed a thing
A while before he was murdered, so they say,
His own death in a vision saw, one day.
His nurse interpreted, as records tell,
That vision, bidding him to guard him well
From treason; but he was but seven years old,
And therefore 'twas but little he'd been told
Of any dream, so holy was his heart.
By God! I'd rather than retain my shirt
That you had read this legend, as have I.
- His tale is told in one of William Shenstone's elegies.
- Francis Brett Young wrote a long poem called The Ballad of St Kenelm, AD 821; this was later set to music by Andrew Downes for a commission by the Frances Brett Young Society,
- Geoffrey Hill makes direct mention of St Kenelm and Romsley, Worcestershire, in his book-length poem,The Triumph of Love.[9]
Walks
There are two long-distance walks commemorating the life of St Kenelm, both linking Clent and Winchcombe, but using differing routes. One is known as St Kenelm's Trail, the other as St Kenelm's Way.[10]
Notes
- ^ ISBN 9780820427645
- ^ a b c d Baring-Gould 1897, pp. 427, 428.
- ^ D'Evelyn & Mill 1967, pp. 279–91.
- ^ "cyne-līċ 'Royal' where the second part is a suffix, but combinations of prefix and suffix do not occur; cyne must therefore be interpreted as an allomorph of cyning " but on the way to becoming a prefix." helm means helm or hat so cyne-helm(ian) means "to crown" (Hogg & Denison 2006, p. 228)
- ^ "Anglo-Saxons.net: S 184". Sean Miller. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
- ISBN 9780140710984.
- ^ "Parishes". Clifton Diocese. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
- ^ "From Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales", The Nun's Priest's Tale, lines 344-355". www.librarius.com.
- ^ Hill 1998, pp. 1, 2.
- ^ "St Kenelm's Way & Trail". The British Pilgrimage Trust.
References
- Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine) (1897). The Lives of the Saints. Vol. 8, part 2. London: John C. Nimmo. pp. 427–428.
- D'Evelyn, Charlotte; Mill, Anna J., eds. (1967) [1956]. "Saint Kenelm, from Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 145". The South English Legendary: Edited from Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 145 and British Museum MS Harley 2277. Vol. 1. Published for the Early English Text Society by Oxford University Press. pp. 279–291.
- ISBN 9780395912355.
- Hogg, Richard M.; Denison, David (2006). A history of the English language (illustrated ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-521-66227-7.
Further reading
- Amphlett, J. (1890). A short history of Clent. London: Parker.
- Farmer, David (2011). The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Fifth, Revised ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-19-959660-7.
- Love, Rosalind C. (1996). "Life and Miracles of St. Kenelm". Three Eleventh-Century Anglo-Latin Saints' Lives. Oxford University Press. pp. 49–89.
- Smith, William, (Sir); Wace, Henry (1877). "Kenethrytha (Cwoenthritha, Cynethritha)". A Dictionary of Christian biography, literature, sects and doctrines: being a continuation of 'The dictionary of the Bible'. Vol. 3. London: J. Murray. pp. 601, 602.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) A dictionary entry and alternative spellings for Cwenthryth - Wall, J. Charles (1905). "Chapter V: Shrines of Royal Saints: St. Kenelm". In Cox, J. Charles (ed.). Shrines of British Saints. Antiquaries Book. Methuen & Co.
External links
- Cynehelm 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- The Legend of St Kenelm.
- Document - probably copied from Amphlett.
- South English Legendary Saint Kenelm, from Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 145. Modern English prose translation.