Nectan of Hartland

Holy Martyr Nectan of Hartland was a hermit of Welsh origin, settled at Hartland in Devon (south-⁠west England) and killed by robbers. The OCA text places him in the sixth century, while other listings give around the year 510. He is commemorated on 17 June by the old calendar.

He was born in Wales and was the eldest of the twenty-⁠four children of Saint Brychan of Brecknock. Still in his homeland, God inspired him to follow the example of Saint Anthony and other ascetics and to embrace the monastic life. Seeking solitude, Nectan and his companions left Wales intending to settle wherever their boat would carry them. Divine providence brought them to the north coast of Devon, at Hartland, where they lived for several years in a dense forest. His family visited him on the last day of the year. Later he moved to a remote valley with a spring.

One day he found a stray pig and returned it to its owner; the swineherd, in thanks, gave him two cows. The saint accepted them, but the cows were stolen by two robbers. Nectan found them and tried to speak to them of Christ, but they grew angry and cut off his head. According to tradition, the saint took up his head and carried it half a mile, laying it down by the spring near his cell. Seeing this, the murderer lost his mind, while the other robber buried him. From that time miracles began at his tomb.

In 937, on the eve of the Battle of Brunanburh, a young man of Hartland, in a tent beside King Athelstan's pavilion, felt himself struck by the plague that was destroying the English army and cried out loudly to God and Saint Nectan, waking the king. Saint Nectan appeared to him after midnight, touched the afflicted place and healed him. In the morning the young man told the king the life and martyrdom of the saint and urged him to trust in him with faith. The king promised to honour God and Saint Nectan, won the battle, the plague ceased and the soldiers recovered. On his first visit to Hartland, Athelstan gave property to the saint's church, and to the end of his life he had great confidence in his intercession.

Saint Nectan is the patron of Hartland. The fullest surviving Life dates from the twelfth century.