5th century; a second feast is celebrated on October 19. According to
a dubious "vita," Madrun was the daughter of Vortimer and wife of Ynyr
Gwent, ruler of the area around Caerwent (Monmouthshire). Following the
battle described by Nennius in which Vortigern was killed, Madrun fled
with the youngest of her three children, Ceidio, first to Carn Fadryn
and then to Cornwall. She was either Welsh or Cornish, and churches are
dedicated to her honour in Tintagel and Minster (near Boscastle), where
she was buried
(
Benedictines,
Farmer).
Another Life:
The church perched on the cliffs above Tintagel, with its fine Norman
windows and lichen covered gravestones, buttressed against the Atlantic
gales, is dedicated to St. Materiana. The village, lying below in a more
sheltered spot, now makes a living from visitors to the headland, with
its romantic remains of castle and monastery. The headland is Tintagel,
the village, in fact, Trevenna, and the church an outlying Chapel of the
old Priory at Minster, in which was the shrine of St. Materiana. The
Austin Friars have gone, and so has the shrine, but the Priory Church
continues as the mother church of Boscastle.
Materiana was more a refugee than a missionary, but that has been one of
the ways the faith has been spread since the earliest days of the
Gospel. We read in the Acts of the Apostles, after the martyrdom of S.
Stephen:
Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere
preaching the word,
and that appears to be the case with St. Materiana.
She was the daughter of Vortimer, marrying Ynyr Gwent, who ruled that
part of Monmonthshire east of the Usk river and in Wales was called
Madrum or Madryn. Her sister Anna married Cynyr and was the mother of
St. Non.
Ynyr was responsible for establishing St. Tathan and his school at
Caerwent, and the holy man became the family's spiritual director. No
doubt Madrum learnt a great deal from St. Tathan but her daughter Tegiwg
grew up a self willed young lady and ran off with a handsome young
carpenter. The carpenter, however, deserted her, and she was found dead
by St. Beuno's shepherds. The good bishop resuscitated her, and she then
was persuaded to enter a convent.
Soon after this, the native Britons rose in revolt against the Irish
landowners, and Ynyr fled with his wife Madrun to the fortress of
Vortigern in Carnarvenshire, in a valley beneath Snowdon. The rebels
besieged and set fire to the castle, Ynyr was killed and Madrun escaped
with her son Ceidio in her arms and made a new home in Cornwall. In
Wales, Trawsfynydd, and in Cornwall, both Minster and Tintagel claim her
as their foundress. Her day in Wales and Cornwall is April 9th
(
Baring-Gould & Fisher,
John,
Bowen).