6th century. Near Port Isaac, on the north coast of Cornwall, is the
little village of Endellion, where the Roscarrock family made their home
for four hundred years, and where Nicholas, to whom we owe so much
information about the saints of Cornwall was born. He lived through the
latter part of the sixteenth century and into the early years of the
seventeenth, at a time when the veneration of the saints was being
suppressed, and their shrines were being demolished. He had a great
regard for the saint of his native village, and it is from his
description that we are able to identify the original shrine of St.
Endellion.
St. Endelienta was one of the numerous children of Brychan, who settled
at Trenkeny, where she lived a very austere life, sustained by the
milk
of one cow only.
This animal was killed by the lord of Tregony because
it trespassed on his land. Her godfather, a great man, had the lord
killed for this offence, but Endellion miraculously brought him back to
life.
When she perceived that the day of her death was drawing near, she asked
her friend that her body should be laid on a bier and be buried where
certain young stots, bullocks and calves, should of their own accord
draw her.
The beasts drew the bier to the top of a hill, where there
was a piece of waste mirey ground, and there she was buried and a church
raised over the grave dedicated to her memory.
The late Sir John Betjeman poet laureate wrote
Inside the church gives
the impression that it goes on praying night and day, whether there are
people in it or not.
A modern carved angel in memory of Sir John
Betjeman may be seen in the sanctuary above a slate tablet.
Nicholas Roscarrock tells
us that there was another church bearing her name on Lundy Island, which
is opposite Hartland, where her brother St. Nectan is buried. He also
mentions two wells called after her and says that the one more distant
from Endellion Church is the one she used.
The tomb, which is now in the south aisle, is evidence of the affection
and reverence with which she was held in the middle ages, for it is
fifteenth century workmanship, in Catacluse stone, with fine niches and
moulding. It originally stood under the easternmost arch of the nave on
the south side, and as the tomb is empty, the bones of the saint are
probably buried under the floor in that place. In the fourteenth century
the church was served by a college of priests. The parish revel was held
on the Saturday after the Ascension but Nicholas Roscarrock gives her
feast day as April 29th
(
Baring-GouldFisher,
Bowen).
Troparion of St Endelienta
Tone 5
O holy Endelienta,
when thy cow, thine only source of sustenance,
was cruelly killed,
thy heart was filled with forgiveness for the slaughterer.
Pray to Christ our God
that we may ever forgive our enemies and ourselves find mercy.