in the south of Leinster. Senach was of Iverk in the south-west of Ossory, which was occupied by his clan, the Hy Eircc, and was a cousin of S. Colman of Iverk.

One day Findach, a robber, came to the church near the house where Creda was, and concealed himself in a thorn tree above the holy well, hard by, waiting for an opportunity to break into the church and rob it.

Whilst he was there concealed, Crida came to the well to wash her hands. Findach, beholding her beauty, forgot about the church treasure and carried her off instead.1 By him she became the mother of S. Boethin, who is commemorated on May 22.

In the Félire of Oengus she is spoken of thus:

Cred, good was the woman,

Daughter of Ronan, King of Leinster.

With her lovable church, constant, pure,
Mother of Boethin, son of Findach.

In the Martyrology of Donegal, on August II, is the commemoration of" the Daughter of Senach," but it does not give her name.

She is given on this day by Sir Harris Nicolas as Credyw.

She had a church at Kilcredy, in the deanery of Ida, dedicated to her, and that was probably the place of her residence. Another of her churches is Kilcready in Upper Ossory. These two churches, and another in Rosture, now Rosmore, near Kilmanagh, are the only mementos of her existence in the land.

Aedh, son of Senach, was one of the ecclesiastics who accompanied S. Moling, Bishop of Ferns, about 673, to obtain the remission of the Boromaan tribute of cows paid by the Leinster men to the king of Ireland. It has been supposed that he was brother of S. Crida, but it is hardly possible to put Crida so late. S. Canice, her father's friend, died at the age of eighty-four in 598; there is no reason for supposing that Senach Ron became a monk and died, till he was at a good age, and we can hardly put S. Crida down as living later than 670. Aedh must have been a grandson and not son of Senach. She must have had sisters, for the Martyrology of Tallagh gives, on August II," the daughters of Senach."

In Bishop Stapeldon's Register, Creed is called Ecclesia Sanctæ Crida (1310); so also in those of Bytton (1314) and Brantyngham (1375), and in the Taxatio of 1291. Grade may also have her as an earlier patroness than the Holy Cross. In Bronescombe's Register the church is that Stæ. Crucis de Rosewycke, 1261; but Brantyngham gives it as Ecclesia Stæ. Gradæ, 1381.

1 Gloss on Félire of Oengus, ed. Whitley Stokes, p. lxxxix.

It may be noticed that Creed is not in the district colonized by SS. Senan, Ia, Erc, Breaca, Burien, and Ciaran. But then she belonged to a century, or nearly a century, later, viz. to that of S. Finbar, with whom possibly she may have come.

On account of the population having drifted to Grampound, the church of S. Creed has been recently restored from a condition of ruin. It is picturesquely situated, and is very late in architecture.

S. Creed Feast is on the Sunday nearest to November 30.

In 1411 Ralph Tregrisiou, Dean of Exeter, bequeathed to the church of S. Crida, the Virgin, “ubi fui oriundus,” 40s. to the store for the church, and a silver cup engraved with the Arms of the See. A fresco representing a female saint labelled “S. Crede," crowned, and holding a sceptre, was uncovered in Lanivet church. There was a chapel of S. Crida at Padstow.

S. CREDAN, Abbot, Confessor

LELAND (Coll., i, 10) says that the body of this Saint reposed at Bodmin. He, with Medan and Dagan or Dachuna, were disciples of S. Petrock.

Some difficulty exists as to his parentage. A Credan, brother of Dagan, was son of Colman and Coeltigherna, and was nephew of S. Coemgen of Glendalough.

Another Credan was son of Illadhan or Iolladan, whom we find at Illogan, and is variously called Criotan, Critoc, Cred, Credan and Mocritoc. The terminations oc and an are used indifferently as diminutives.

The date of the death of the former Credan would be about 650. That of the latter about 580, as his uncle Cairbre Dubh, King of Leinster, died in 546.

Petrock and Coemgen (Kevin) were certainly associated together for a while, and Petrock probably died in 580, somewhat earlier than Coemgen.

The son of Illadhan is too late to have been the disciple of Petrock. The Credan of Bodmin was Dagan's brother. The Credan at Sancreed we suspect was the son of Illadhan.

Nicolas Roscarrock, in speaking of Sancreed, says :-"I have harde that they have by tradition there that he killed, by misfortune, his owne father, with which he was so moved as abandoning the world

he became a hogherd, and lived so exemplarly as he was after esteemed a saint."

In Bishop Grandisson's Register, 1331 and 1332, Sancreed is given as dedicated to S. Credus. In Brantyngham's Register, S. Cretus, 1374, 1378. In Bishop Stafford's Register he becomes S. Sancreotus, but in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas he is S. Credus. He went to Ireland and settled at Aghamanach in Moyne and Ballinachor in the County of Wicklow. It is "The plain of the monks," encircled by sheltering hills, in a highly romantic situation. Not far off are the townlands of East and West Macredin or Moycredin, the Magh, or plain, of S. Credan. Illadhan, his father, was son of Cormac, King of Leinster. His great-aunts were baptized by S. Patrick about 460.

The aunts of S. Credan were probably the founders of a church at Camborne, and one at Sithney. As Illadhan died about 560, we may suppose that Credan died in 590.

In the Irish Calendars S. Credan or Mocritoc, the son of Illadhan, is given on May 11. Whytford gives August 20.

A Bishop Credan or Criotan of Mahee Island, County Down, is commemorated on May 17; he died in 632 or 638, but he is out of the question.

Another Saint of the same name, commemorated on November 18, and again another on December 13, found in the later Martyrologies, are known only by name.

S. CREWENNA, Virgin

THIS Saint, according to Leland and William of Worcester, was one of the party of Irish that came over and settled in Penwith and Kerrier in Cornwall at the dawn of the sixth century.

The parish church of Crowan is dedicated to her, and her feast is observed on February 2.

The Bollandists gave her on October 27, but merely as one of a number of Cornish Saints whom they lump together with S. Hia, whom Challoner arbitrarily inserted on this day. It will, therefore, be seen that there is no traditional or other warrant for giving October 27 to S. Crewenna.

The name is common in the Irish Calendars as Croine or Crone. There was one so called at Kilcrony in Wicklow, where are the remains of a very early church. She is commemorated on January 27.