Mabyn

Saint Mabyn (Mabena, Mabon) is a saint of Cornwall, whose name is kept in the village and parish church of St Mabyn. According to local Cornish tradition she was one of the many children of King Brychan of Brycheiniog in Wales.

The earliest source to mention her is the twelfth-⁠century Life of Saint Nectan, in its list of Brychan's children. Later medieval texts say little about her, and two even describe her as a man. Sabine Baring-⁠Gould suggested that the true founder of the church was Saint Mabon, a Welsh saint held to be a brother of Saint Teilo, and an Orthodox calendar from England likewise describes a man of the sixth century, born in Wales or Cornwall, who preached Christ together with Teilo. The sources therefore do not agree even on the sex of the saint.

Nicholas Roscarrock relates that around 1500, when the church was rebuilt, a hymn to Mabyn was still sung. Her image appears on a window of 1523 or 1528 at St Neot, in robes and a crown, with a book and a palm branch. She is commemorated on 21 September, and local tradition also gives 18 November.