SAINT PIRAN

Posted: 02.03.23 in Articles category

Have you heard of St Piran? It is unlikely that you have unless you live in Cornwall where he is venerated as the local patron saint. You might have seen the Cornish flag, featuring a white cross on a black background, which is also known as St Piran’s flag. That connection stems from the saint’s curious association with tin-smelting which he was said to ‘rediscover’ after the Roman occupation. The story goes that tin had been smelted in Cornwall prior to the Romans’ arrival, yet the methods of smelting had been lost until Piran. His black hearthstone was evidently a slab of tin-bearing ore, and as it heated beneath the fireplace the tin contained in the rock rose to the surface to form a white cross – hence the image subsequently used for the flag.

Piran lived in the 5th century and is said to have come to Cornwall from Ireland from which he was allegedly expelled on account of his powerful preaching. He therefore would have been contemporaneous with St Kevin of Glendalough – the early Irish saint best known for his association with animals and birds including the Blackbird which nested on his outstretched hand during a very lengthy prayer vigil! I cannot find any avian associations for Piran, but there are animal stories about the Cornish saint which is why he is being featured on the website. It is said that his first disciples in Cornwall were a trio of wild and indigenous mammals – a badger, fox and bear – whom the saint presumably befriended during his solitude as a hermit. I also presume that the choice of these three different animals as disciples was symbolic, but the nature and purpose of that symbolism is completely unknown to me at the time of writing. All I do know is that some children across Cornwall these days dress up in costume as badgers, foxes and bears to celebrate St Piran’s Day on 5 March.