Saint Piran,
The Patron Saint of Cornwall and of Tinners
Remembrance Date: 5 March
St. Piran's Flag has been adopted as the flag of Cornwall. The white diagonal
cross against the black field is thought to have two meanings.
• The white cross represents the pure smelted tin
and the black field the raw Cornish tin ore.
• The white cross on the black field also stands
for the victory of Christianity over evil.
St Piran also has a tartan associated with his name, a black and white
with red lines, - designed by Mr RAWE.
Legend or folklore describes how in the 6-7th Century St. Piran's pagan
enemies, jealous of his power to heal and work miracles, tied him to a
millstone and rolled him off the Irish cliffs into the Atlantic sea amidst
crashes of thunder and bolts of lightning. As he reached the sea a miracle
occurred and the storm abated, the sun shone and St.Piran could be seen
seated peacefully on the floating millstone. It bore him safely across
to Cornwall and he landed on the north Cornish coast at place which he
named as Perranzabuloe. St. Piran also gave his name to other Cornish places
- Perranporth, Perranwell, Perranuthnoe, and Perran-ar-worthal.
St Piran built his small chapel in the Penhale sand dunes of Perranzabuloe
and his first disciples were said to be a badger, a fox and a bear. One
cold night he built an enormous fire and, staring into the flames, he noticed
that the black rocks he placed at the back of the fire were melting into
a silver stream. St Piran had discovered the secret of extracting tin from
Cornish rocks. He became known as the Tinners' Saint. It is said that St
Piran lived a good and useful life, bringing Christianity to Cornwall and
surviving to the ripe old age of 206 !
Exeter Cathedral is also refuted to have been once the fortunate possessor
of one of St Piran’s arms; whilst according to an inventory in 1281, St
Piran's church was a mausoleum containing his head and a hearse in which
his body was placed for processions. The remains were still there in 1433,
when Sir John ARUNDEL bequeathed money “to enclose the head of the Saint
in the best and most honorable way they could”.
In more recent times it is claimed that a huge skeleton unearthed
near Perranzabuloe, it could be that of St Piran. The Chapel was
abandoned in the 11th Century and a new Chapel built further inland but
that too was buried in sand over time. The original Chapel ruins, which
are one of the oldest in Cornwall dating from 6 to 8th Century and are
similar to Irish Celtic Chapels, were rediscovered half buried in water
in Penhale sands during the last century. In 1970s the Chapel was sealed
within a concrete hut and reburied under the sands to protect them from
vandals. Today there is a stone marker over the site. Near the ruins of
the church and close the 11th Century Chapel is the four holed Cross of
St Piran which is said to be one of the oldest crosses in Cornwall. This
cross is mentioned in a Charter of King Edgar in AD 960, and was an old
landmark even at then.
