Wenna of Cornwall

Saint Wenna (Gwen) is a saint venerated in Cornwall, whom some regard as a queen of the land. She is said to have founded churches at St Wenn and Morval, but the details of her life are uncertain, and the sources give no act of canonization. She is commemorated on 18 October.

Who she was

Very little is known of her, and her identity is unclear. She may have been one of the daughters of Saint Brychan of Brecknock, a Welsh king who helped to Christianize Cornwall. She may have been the woman known in Wales as Gwen, daughter of Cynyr Ceinfarfog of Caer Goch in Pembrokeshire, married to Salomon or Selyf, king of Cornwall, and mother of Saints Cybi (commemorated on 8 November) and Cadfan (1 November). In that case she would be the sister of Saint Non (5 August), thus aunt of Saint David of Wales. According to another tradition she died a martyr in Brittany, with her husband. One of the dates gives her as dying in the year 544.

Several churches in Devon and Cornwall are dedicated to her. The parish church of Morval, a hamlet in south-⁠east Cornwall near Looe, built in the thirteenth century, bears the dedication to Saint Wenna, either to her or to another contemporary Wenna, queen of Cornwall. In the English Orthodox tradition, a troparion in the fourth tone praises her faithfulness unto death.