View source for Mabyn

{{Short description|Medieval Cornish saint}}{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2014}}
{{Infobox saint
|name=Saint Mabyn
|birth_date=
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|feast_day=18 November
|venerated_in=[[Roman Catholic Church]]<br>[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]<br>[[Anglican Communion]]
|image=Saint_mabena.jpg
|imagesize=200px
|caption=
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|death_place=
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|canonized_date=
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|patronage=[[St Mabyn]]
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
}}
'''Mabyn''', also known as '''Mabena''', '''Mabon''', etc., was a medieval [[Cornwall|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==
[[File:Mabena at st neot.jpg|thumb|Mabena depicted on the "wives' window" in St Neot Church]]
The earliest known source to mention Mabyn is the 12th-century Cornish Latin ''[[Life of Saint Nectan]]''. She appears in the appended list of the various children of King [[Brychan]] of [[Brycheiniog]], which includes [[Saint Nectan|Nectan]] himself and many other saints.<ref name=Orme>Orme, ''Saints of Cornwall'', pp. 168–169.</ref> Brychan and his saintly children appear earlier in Welsh sources and were known also in [[Ireland]] and [[Brittany]], though none of these sources mention Mabyn.<ref>Orme, ''Saints of Cornwall'', pp. 76–77; 169.</ref> The fact that the ''Life'' includes Mabyn alongside several other saints with churches dedicated to them in the [[West Country]] suggests that [[St Mabyn Parish Church]] was already established when the list was written.<ref name=Orme/>
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.<ref name=Orme/> [[Sabine Baring-Gould]] suggested that the true founder of St Mabyn's Church was actually the male Welsh saint Mabon, supposedly a brother of Saint [[Teilo]] and the founder of [[Llanvabon]], and that the attribution to a female Mabyn came about after the true history had been lost.<ref>Baring-Gould, ''Lives of the Saints'', p. 276.</ref> At any rate the associations of Mabyn with the family of Brychan as it appears in the ''Life of Saint Nectan'' proved quite strong in Cornish tradition, and apparently survived until at least the 16th century. [[Nicholas Roscarrock]] records hearing, from people alive at the time St Mabyn Church was rebuilt around 1500, that at that time a "song or hymn" to Mabyn was sung that corresponded strongly with the list in the ''Life''. He further records her [[feast day]] as 18 November.<ref name=Orme/>
Mabyn is depicted in a 1523 (or 1528)<ref name=Mattingly251-2>Mattingly, "Pre-Reformation saints' cults in Cornwall", pp. 251–2</ref> [[stained glass window]] in the local church in the nearby village of [[St Neot, Cornwall|St Neot]], which lies to the east of the village. The window portrays her wearing robes and a crown, carrying a book and a [[Palm branch (symbol)|palm branch]], a symbol of [[martyr]]dom.<ref name=Orme/> She is one of six local Cornish saints to appear in the north-aisle windows, while those of the south aisle were reserved for internationally renowned saints and subjects of a more didactic nature.<ref name=Mattingly249-52>Mattingly, "Pre-Reformation saints' cults in Cornwall", p. 249–52</ref> Five of these six saints used to appear on windows donated by three single-sex associations: the wives of the western part of the parish, the "sisters" (probably unmarried women) and the young men. The wives were the donors of St Mabyn's window, which also features St [[Meubred]] of [[Cardinham]].<ref name=Mattingly251-2 />
[[File:Credence table.jpg|thumb|Credence table in St Mabyn Church]]
A [[credence table]] which survives at St Mabyn may originally have been the panel of a tomb raised in Mabyn's honour.<ref name=Mattingly259-60>Mattingly, "Pre-Reformation saints' cults in Cornwall", p. 259–60</ref> It is possible that all her sisters had tombs erected for them.<ref name=Mattingly259-60 />
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==References==
*{{cite book |title= The Lives of the Saints |last= Baring-Gould|first= Sabine |author-link= Sabine Baring-Gould|year= 2000 |publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 0-19-820765-4|url= https://archive.org/details/livessaints03barigoog|access-date=15 January 2010}}
*{{cite book |title= The Saints of Cornwall |last= Orme|first= Nicholas |year= 2000 |publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 0-19-820765-4|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JxIjiMStTKIC|access-date=15 January 2010}}
*{{cite encyclopedia |last=Mattingly |first=Joanna |editor=Jane Cartwright |encyclopedia=Celtic Hagiography and Saints' Cults |title=Pre-Reformation Saints' Cults in Cornwall – with particular reference to the St Neot windows |year=2003 |publisher=University of Wales Press |location=Cardiff |pages=249–70 }}
==Further reading==
{{Portal|Cornwall}}
*Olson, B.L. and [[O.J. Padel]], "A tenth-century list of Cornish parochial saints". ''[[Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies]]'' 12 (1986). pp.&nbsp;33–71.
{{authority control}}
[[Category:Children of Brychan]]
[[Category:Female saints of medieval Cornwall]]
[[Category:Medieval Cornish saints]]
[[Category:Female saints of medieval Wales]]
[[Category:Medieval Welsh saints]]
[[Category:6th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:5th-century births]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]
[[Category:6th-century Welsh women]]
[[Category:6th-century Welsh people]]