St. Petroc was the son of a Welsh king who declined the throne on his father’s death. Petroc instead became a monk and, with sixty fellow noblemen, went to study in Ireland for twenty years.

St. Petroc returned to Wales and sailed for Cornwall. Landing at Padstow, he encountered a hermit; on requesting a drink of water and being told to find it himself, he struck the ground three times with his staff and a spring appeared. A bishop nearby called Wethenoc was more hospitable and donated his cell to Petroc. Petroc and his followers lived there for thirty years before going on pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land.

St. Petroc was then warned by an angel to return to Cornwall, where he drove away a huge serpent terrorising the local population. Petroc is also reputed to have healed a dragon later on which waited patiently outside his cell for days until he removed a splinter from its eye. Grateful for this small mercy, it left the area – it seems that for Celtic saints, not all situations involving dragons required that battle be joined and that they be slain!

St. Petroc then chose to live a more solitary life, probably at Little Petherick near Padstow. It was here he saved a stag being hunted by a rich ruler called Constantine and his men by hiding it beneath his cloak, Constantine’s arm suddenly going lifeless and numb. The king and his men were duly converted to the faith, and his arm was miraculously restored.

Near the end of his life Petroc moved further inland to a more solitary place where the busy market town of Bodmin is now to be found. There he met a hermit called Guron. who gave his cell over to Petroc. Guron then moved a day’s journey to the south to where the village of Gorran now stands. Petroc died at Treravel near Padstow, and was buried afterwards in Padstow.

In 981 Padstow was laid waste by Vikings, and it was probably around this time that Petroc’s bones were moved to Bodmin. In 1478 William Worcester mentions seeing Petroc’s shrine in the church there, probably in the chancel. The shrine was suppressed in the Reformation, but the ornate Arabic reliquary was later found in the 18th century, hidden in a room above the church porch, Petroc’s bones sadly missing. This reliquary and Guron’s holy well can now be seen at St Petroc’s Church, Bodmin. The reliquary was stolen in 1994, but later turned up in a field in Yorkshire, much to Cornwall’s relief.

St. Petroc – Feast day is June 4th

Prayer:

Almighty God, by whose grace Petroc, kindled with the fire of your love, became a burning and shining light in our nation: inflame us with the same spirit of discipline and love, that we may ever walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

St. Michael is the Archangel  – - – Feast day : September 29

The name Michael signifies “Who is like to God?” and was the war-cry of the good angels in the battle fought in heaven against satan and his followers. Holy Scripture describes St. Michael as “one of the chief princes,” and leader of the forces of heaven in their triumph over the powers of hell. He has been especially honored and invoked as patron and protector by the Church from the time of the Apostles.

Although he is always called “the Archangel” the Greek Fathers and many others place him over all the angels - as Prince of the Seraphim.

St. Michael is the patron of grocers, mariners, paratroopers, police and sickness.

Four times his name is recorded in Scripture:

(1) Daniel 10:13 sqq., Gabriel says to Daniel, when he asks God to permit the Jews to return to Jerusalem: “The Angel [D.V. prince] of the kingdom of the Persians resisted me . . . and, behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me . . . and none is my helper in all these things, but Michael your prince.”

(2) Daniel 12, the Angel speaking of the end of the world and the Antichrist says: “At that time shall Michael rise up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people.”

(3) In the Catholic Epistle of St. Jude: “When Michael the Archangel, disputing with the devil, contended about the body of Moses”, etc. St. Jude alludes to an ancient Jewish tradition of a dispute between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses, an account of which is also found in the apocryphal book on the assumption of Moses (Origen, De Principiis III.2.2). St. Michael concealed the tomb of Moses; Satan, however, by disclosing it, tried to seduce the Jewish people to the sin of hero-worship. St. Michael also guards the body of Eve, according to the “Revelation of Moses” (“Apocryphal Gospels”, etc., ed. A. Walker, Edinburgh, p. 647).

(4) Apocalypse 12:7, “And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon.” St. John speaks of the great conflict at the end of time, which reflects also the battle in heaven at the beginning of time. According to the Fathers there is often question of St. Michael in Scripture where his name is not mentioned. They say he was the cherub who stood at the gate of paradise, “to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24), the angel through whom God published the Decalogue to his chosen people, the angel who stood in the way against Balaam (Numbers 22:22 sqq.), the angel who routed the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35).

Christian tradition gives to St. Michael four offices:

1. To fight against Satan.
2. To rescue the souls of the faithful from the power of the enemy, especially at the hour of death.
3. To be the champion of God’s people
4. To call away from earth and bring men’s souls to judgment

Regarding his rank in the celestial hierarchy opinions vary; St. Basil (Hom. de angelis) and other Greek Fathers, also Salmeron, Bellarmine, etc., place St. Michael over all the angels; they say he is called “archangel” because he is the prince of the other angels; some others believe that he is the prince of the seraphim, the first of the nine angelic orders. The hymn of the Mozarabic Breviary places St. Michael even above the Twenty-four Elders. The Greek Liturgy styles him Archistrategos, “highest general”.

Prayer to St.Michael, the Archangel

St. Piran is the most popular of the Patron Saints of Cornwall (the others being St. Michael and St. Petroc). His family origins are obscure, but the tradition that he came from Ireland is extremely strong. Piran’s father and mother are both given Irish ancestries.

Piran spent his younger days in South Wales, where he founded a church in Caer-Teim (Cardiff). He probably received his religious schooling at the monastery of St. Cadog in Llancarfon where he would have met St. Finnian. Piran’s mother being of Irish blood, the two presumably got on well and returned together to Ireland where Finnian founded some six monasteries, including his most famous one at Clonard (Meath). Piran-Ciaran lived here before moving on to live with St. Enda on Aran Island and then St. Senan on Scattery Island. He finally founded his own community at Clonmacnoise, “Ireland’s University”.

Cornish legend tells how, in old age, Piran was captured by the local pagan Irish. Jealous of his miraculous healing powers, they tied a millstone around his neck and threw him off a cliff and into the sea during an horrendous storm. As Piran hit the water, the storm abated and the millstone bobbed to the surface as though it were made of cork!

With his new-found raft, Piran set sail for his homeland of Cornwall. He landed at Perran Beach, to which he gave his name, and built himself a small oratory on Penhale Sands at Perranporth, where he performed many miracles for the local people.

Piran’s rise to be Cornwall’s Patron stems from his popularity with the Cornish tin-miners. It is said that Piran himself first discovered tin in Cornwall (or rediscovered what the Romans knew well) when he used a large black Cornish rock to build himself a fireplace. He was amazed to find that, as the flames grew hotter, a trickle of pure white metal began to ooze from the stone. He shared this knowledge with the local people and thus provided the Cornish with a lucrative living.

The locals were so delighted that they held a sumptuous feast in Piran’s honour where the wine ran like water. Piran was fond of the odd tipple and he is still remembered today in the Cornish phrase “As drunk as a Perraner”.

The trickling white metal upon its black background, however, remains his most enduring memorial as the White Cross of St. Piran on the Cornish National flag.

St Piran’s Day – March 5th