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S. ACHEBRAN, Confessor

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IN Domesday, Lanachebran is the name of the manor of S. Kevern in the Lizard district of Cornwall. Canonici Sancti Achebranni tenent Lan-Achebran et tenebant tempore regis Eduardi.”

Achebran is presumedly the Irish Aed Cobhran, one of the sons of Bochra; and his brothers were Laidcenn and Cainrech.1 Bochra was the name of the mother. Their father's name is unknown. The three brothers were commemorated as Saints of Achad Raithin in Hy MacGaille, in Waterford. But Aed Cobhran had a special commemoration on January 28, as having a cell under Inis Cathy. He was consequently associated with S. Senan, if he belonged to the same period. His cell was not in the island of Inis Cathy, but at Kilrush, on the mainland, in Clare. He is there forgotten; there are two old churches in the place, but both are named after S. Senan. This is due to Aed Cobhran not having founded his church, but to his having occupied one belonging to S. Senan.

It is probable that Achebran came to Cornwall along with S. Senan and the party that attended S. Breaca, and that he made his settlement in the Lizard district. Cobhran became Kevern, for the Irish bh is sounded like v. In later times he seems to have been forgotten or mistaken for S. Cieran, from whom he is wholly distinct. If we are not mistaken, he settled permanently in France, where his name was still further corrupted into Abran.

Flodoard (d. 966), in his History of the Church of Rheims, says: "Delata sunt etiam tunc temporibus ad ecclesiam beati Remigii memoria Sancti Gibriani a pago Catalaunensi, ubi peregrinatus fuisse noscitur et humatus. Advenerunt siquidem in hanc provinciam septem fratres ab Hibernia peregrinationis ob amorem Christi gratia : hi scilicet, Gibrianus, Helanus, Tressanus, Germanus, Veranus, Abranus, Petranus, cum tribus sororibus suis Fracla, Promptia, Possenna, eligentes sibi super fluvium nomine Maternam, opportuna degendi loca." 2

This arrival took place whilst S. Remigius presided over the Church of Rheims (459-530), and Sigebert of Gemblours fixes the date at 509. The Rheims Breviary merely says that it was during the reign of Clovis I (481-511), so that the date given by Sigebert is approximately right.

Leland, quoting from the lost life of S. Breaca (Itin., iii, p. 15), says: "Breaca venit in Cornubiam comitata multis Sanctis, inter quos

1 Martyrology of Oengus, ed. Whitley Stokes, 1871, p. clxxiii. Caenrich= Cuindech (?)

2 Flodoard, Hist. Ecclesiast. Rem., lib. iv, c. 9 (ed. de Douai, 1617, p. 638).

fuerunt Sinninus abbas, qui Romæ cum Patricio fuit, Maruanus monachus, Germochus rex, Elwen, Crewenna, Helena." In one MS. Thecla is added. It is possible to recognise some of these among those who went to Rheims. Sinninus is Sennen, or Senan of Inis Cathy, who probably brought Aed Cobhran with him. Germochus may be the Germanus of Flodoard. Helena is probably his Helanus. Promptia we suspect is Crewenna, the Goidelic hard c becoming p, and

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CHURCHES OF THE COMPANIONS OF S. ACHEBRAN.

Flodoard's Fracla is Leland's Thecla. The party may be traced on or near the Rance, rendering it probable that they landed at Aleth. S. Helan is recognised at S. Helan and the adjoining parish of Lanhelin near Dinan. Tressan is seen at Tressaint, further up the river, and S. Veranus is discoverable at Trévron and Evran; also at S. Vran, near Merdrignac. S. Abran has a chapel at Perret; Petran is commemorated at S. Pern; and there is a chain of Germanus foundations in Ille-et-Vilaine. We are somewhat disposed to identify Aed Cobhran with the Abran who has a chapel at N. Dame de Guermené in Perret, near Gouarzec (Côtes du Nord), where he is com

memorated on December 3. He is there represented in monastic habit, girded about the waist by a cord; his head is bare, his hood thrown back over his shoulders. His feet are covered by his habit. In his right hand he carries a curved stick or pen-bras; in his left hand is a closed book. The statue is of the fifteenth century. There is a parish of S. Abran or Abraham in Morbihan, but in the ancient diocese of S. Malo; it was annexed to the diocese of Vannes in 1801.

It is not necessary to accept Flodoard's statement that the party consisted of actual brothers and sisters after the flesh; they probably were spiritual brethren.

In the Life of S. Ailbe we are informed that this illustrious saint, on his way home from Rome, founded a monastic establishment, in which he placed the sons of Guil, previous to his reaching Dol.1 Germanus, one of the seven who visited Remigius, is inserted in the Irish Martyrologies as MacGoll, and it is possible enough that Ailbe did for a while associate with this party of seven on the river Rance. The time would suit, as Ailbe was in Gaul at the very beginning of the sixth century. Moreover Aed Cobhran and his brothers were of the MacGaille territory.

The day of Aed Cobhran, as already said, in the Irish Martyrologies, is January 28, but he is also commemorated along with his brothers on November 28. In that of Donegal he is mentioned as of Cill-Ruis or Kilrush, in the county of Clare, but he is no longer there remembered. Cill-Ruis was in the diocese of Iniscathy, which seems to indicate, as already mentioned, that he was a disciple of S. Senan, who is the Cornish Sennen. He is commemorated in the Félire of Oengus, and in the Martyrology of Tallagh as well.

S. ADWEN, Virgin

IN the Inquisitio Nonarum she is entered as S. Athewenna. The parish of Advent in Cornwall is locally called S. Anne or S. Tane. In 1340 it is entered as Capella Sanctæ Athewennæ.3 Leland (Coll., iv, 153) gives Adwen as one of Brychan's children who settled in

1 Vita S. Albei, Acta SS. Hibern. ex Codice Salmanticensi, Edinb. 1888, col. 244. 2 Letters containing information relative to the Antiquities of Clare, in Pro gress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839, ii, p. 2.

3 Maclean, Deanery of Trigg Minor, ii, p. 297.

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