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S. ACHEBRAN, Confessor

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.2 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

The

IN the Inquisitio Nonarum she is entered as S. Athewenna. 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.

North Cornwall. He derives this from a legend of S. Nectan preserved at Hartland. So does William of Worcester (ed. Nasmith, 1778), from a notice of Brychan he found at S. Michael's Mount.

Among the daughters of Brychan known to the Welsh there is only one that might with any degree of probability be identified with her, and that is Dwynwen, and Mr. W. Copeland Borlase conjectured that the chapel of Advent was originally Llanddwynwen.1 But this is mere conjecture. The church is annexed to Lanteglos, and owing to this circumstance meets with no notice in the Exeter Episcopal Registers.

Dr. Borlase states that Advent parish church was originally dedicated to S. Tathan, as this name occurs, says he, in old deeds. Sir John Maclean quotes deeds in which the name is spelt S. Tawthan (1559), S. Adwen (1572), "Tathen alias Adventte " (1601), etc. But the Inquisitio Nonarum is the better authority for the dedication. See further under S. DWYNWEN.

2

S. AEDDAN, see S. AIDAN

S. AELGYFARCH, or ELGYFARCH, Confessor

NOTHING is known of this saint further than that he was one of the twelve sons of Helig ab Glannog,3 whose territory, called Tyno Helig, was overflowed by the sea in the sixth century. The Lavan Sands, between Anglesey and Carnarvonshire, formed a portion of the territory, which extended to the Great Orme's Head. After the loss of his land, Helig and his sons devoted themselves to religion. Most of them founded churches in various parts of Wales. They are said to have been members of the monastery of Bangor Iscoed in the first instance, but afterwards some of them went to Bardsey, No churches are dedicated to S. Aelgyfarch, nor is his name to be found in any Calendar.

1 The Age of the Saints, pp. 153-4, 159. Truro, 1893. Mr. Borlase supposes that Adwen is a corruption of Llan-dwyn, becoming Ladwyn and then Adwen. Carew calls her Athawyn, Survey, p. 92.

2 Deanery of Trigg Minor, sub nom. Advent, ii, p. 318.

3 Myv. Arch., p. 418; Iolo MSS., p. 124.

S. AELHAIARN, or ELHAIARN, Abbot, Confessor

THE parentage of this Aelhaiarn is unknown. He was a disciple of S. Dyfrig at Matle.1 He appears as witness to several grants made to this saint, as that of Lann Iunabui,2 and that of Cum Barruc,3 and that of Cil Hal. He also witnessed the grant of Penally to Dyfrig.5 When, later, Cinuin, the king, regranted Cum Barruc to Bishop Elgistil, the same witnesses, both clerical and lay, are quoted, and the grant is apparently only a reaffirmation of the original transfer. When a grant was made to Bishop Comeregius, Aelhaiarn signed as Abbot of Lann Guruoe, i.e. Lann Guorboe. As such he also witnessed the grant of Lann Loudeu to Bishop Iunapeius.8

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Lann Guorboe has been supposed to be Garway, but incorrectly; it was in campo Malochu. Mais mail Lochou, now represented by the name Mawfield for an older Malefield in Testa de Nevill and the Malvern Charters, was the name of Inis Ebrdil, and denoted the country between the Dore valley and the Wye from Moccas down to about Hereford, and the Worm. Guorboe Gwrfwy in modern Welsh. For this note on the locality of Lann Guorboe we are indebted to Mr. Egerton Phillimore. Whether he migrated to Brittany with S. Teilo and so many bishops, abbots, and clerics on the breaking out of the Yellow Plague in 547 we do not know. Teilo, we do know, received grants from King Budic of Cornouaille, and it is significant that adjoining Plogonnec, near Quimper, where S. Teilo receives a cult, is S. Alouarn, who has given his name to a castle and to a canonry. Alouarn, apparently, is the hermit with staff, bearing a Celtic bell, represented in the same window with Teilo at Plogonnec, in glass of the fifteenth century. On his way through Cornwall along with Teilo, Aelhaiarn may have founded Lanherne, but the parish church is dedicated to the more important S. Maughan or Mawgan.

S. AELHAIARN, Confessor

AELHAIARN ("the Iron Eyebrow ") lived in the seventh century, and was a brother to SS. Llwchaiarn and Cynhaiarn.

The pedigrees of the Welsh saints show great variations on the

1 Book of Llan Dâv, p. 80.

2 Ibid., p. 73.

s Ibid., p. 77.

8 Ibid., p. 164.

3 Ibid., p. 74.

• Ibid., p. 163.

▲ Ibid., p. 75.
7 Ibid., p. 166.

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