Saint Endellion

In 5th-century southern Wales we find the Kingdom of Brycheiniog (circled red on the map), ruled by King Brychan. Brychan had many children, one of whom was named Cenheidlon, whose Latinized name was Endellion.

At some point in her life she crossed the Bristol Channel to North Cornwall where her siblings were working to convert the local population to Christianity, stopping first at the Isle of Lundy to found a small chapel (the ruins are listed as a "Scheduled Monument"; it was later erroneously named "St. Helen" [link]). She then traveled to stay with her brother before moving on. Although she frequently went back to spend time in Lundy, she settled in Trentinney near what is now the town of St. Endellion.

She lived as a hermit, supposedly subsisting on nothing but the milk of a certain cow and water (there are two wells named for her near the town of Endellion). Her sister, also a saint, lived nearby. Where the two would occasionally meet to spend time together, it is said that the grass where they walked always grew more lush and green afterward. (If you are realizing that we strayed from historical record to legend, hang on: there's more to come.) A chapel where she lived was destroyed during the Reformation; only a bare foundation remains.

Her cow strayed into the herd of the Lord of Trentinney, who killed it. Legend says that her godfather, King Arthur, killed the Lord of Trentinney for killing the cow, but Endellion was so unhappy to have someone killed on her behalf that she restored the man to life.

The Church of St. Endellion in the town of St. Endellion is supposedly the site of her gave. Prior to her death, she asked that her burial site be chosen by putting her body on a sledge pulled by bullocks. The bullocks were to be given free rein, and wherever they stopped was where she should be buried. The bullocks stopped at the top of a hill. She was buried there and the Church of St. Endellion was built on the site.

I mentioned that her sister was also a saint, Saint Dilic. So was her brother. So was...well, the family was quite religious-minded, and I'll tell you more about them tomorrow.

Prebends and Prebendaries

How would you like to be given a stipend based on a job whose duties you would never have to perform? How about receiving the revenue from a place you'd never have to visit? Let us talk about prebends.

Members of secular churches, like monasteries, were supported by the rents paid by those using the land they possessed. A cathedral diocese had many such smaller churches attached to it, and each of those generated revenue from their property. In the 12th century, it became more common for an amount of money from such local revenue to be given as a grant to the local pastor. The Latin for "to grant" was præbere and in English the word prebend referred to this grant. The person receiving this grant was a prebendary.

As it happened, a prebend could be given to an official of the cathedral as a source of revenue, even though he never visited the church from which the revenue came or administered to the parishioners. (The church itself would be allowed what was necessary for administration; profit would go to the distant prebendary.) Bishops and archbishops gave prebends for faithful service.

One person could be granted several prebends, or a prebend even though he already had a position that supported him. Ralph Neville, one-time Chancellor of England, was Dean of Lichfield (head of the chapter of canons there) in the early 1200s, but also had a prebend in the diocese of London.

Prebends were largely abolished in England and Wales after Henry VIII's Reformation. Henry dissolved the collegiate churches in the same Act, but some survived by being associated and "hidden" in the administration of a university. Cornwall, however, managed to hang onto the prebendary system, and even has prebendaries to this day. The picture above is of the installation of three new prebendaries at the Church of Saint Endellion in Cornwall in 2012. [link]

Who was Saint Endellion? She is an entirely new name for this blog, and we haven't spent much time in Cornwall, so let's look at the life of this 5th century saint next time.