Saint Noyale (), also known as Noaluen, was a semi-legendary 5th-century

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

and

virgin martyr The title Virgin (, ) is an honorific bestowed on female saints and blesseds, primarily used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. Chastity is one of the seven virtues in Christian tradition, listed by Pope Gregory I at the end ...

. She is a popular saint in both

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

and

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

, where she is memorialized at

Newlyn East St Newlyn East () is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is approximately three miles (5 km) south of Newquay. The name St Newlyn East is locally abbreviated to Newlyn East and according to an anon ...

. According to legend, it is there that a

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and i ...

tree growing from the south wall of the church grew from Noyale's staff. A

holy well A holy well or sacred spring is a well, Spring (hydrosphere), spring or small pool of water revered either in a Christianity, Christian or Paganism, pagan context, sometimes both. The water of holy wells is often thought to have healing qualitie ...

nearby was the site of her

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

dom. She was one of the numerous Celtic settlers who travelled to Brittany during the

Anglo-Saxon invasion The settlement of Great Britain by Germanic peoples from continental Europe led to the development of an Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon cultural identity and a shared Germanic language—Old English—whose closest known relative is Old Frisian, s ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Name

Noyale is also known as Noyala of Brittany, Noyala the White, Noaluen, Nolwenn, Newlyn, Neulina, or Newlina.

Origins

According to the earlier

hagiographer A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an wiktionary:adulatory, adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religi ...

s, Noyale was

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and Irish, the daughter of a British king. Modern scholarship now suspects her to have been one of the numerous

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

settlers who travelled to

.Kathleen Hanrahan and Mo Langdo
St. Noyala of Brittany, Virgin Martyr

Legend

Her legend is typical of the 5th-century

cephalophore A cephalophore (from the Greek for 'head-carrier') is a saint who is generally depicted carrying their severed head. In Christian art, this was usually meant to signify that the subject in question had been martyred by beheading. Depicting the ...

saints. When her father, an English king, wanted to marry her; she fled to

. She and her nurse sailed to the region around

Vannes Vannes (; , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, French department of Morbihan, Brittany (administrative region), Brittany, northwestern mainland France. It was founded over 2,000 years ago. History Celtic ...

in France, or Beignan where a local lord also wanted to marry her. She refused him and in a rage he

behead Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...

ed her.Rev.

Sabine Baring-Gould Sabine Baring-Gould (; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 pu ...

(M.A.). "S. NOYALA, V.M. (DATE UNCERTAIN.)." In: ''The Lives of the Saints''; vol. 7: July – Part I. London: John C. Nimmo, 1898. pp. 137-140. The legend then states that the

ed saint picked up her head, and led by her maid, returned to England. "According to the popular belief in Brittany, unsupported by any evidence, Noyale or Noaluen was a maiden, who floated over to Brittany with her nurse on the leaf of a tree. She was decapitated in Beignan and walked to Pontivy holding her head in her hands. The chapel dedicated to her at Pontivy was remarkable in the 18th century for several interesting paintings on gold grounds representing this fanciful story."

Legacy

She is the

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

St Newlyn East St Newlyn East () is a civil parishes in England, civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is approximately three miles (5 km) south of Newquay. The name St Newlyn East is locally abbreviated to Newlyn Ea ...

, and a

church building A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. ''Church'' is also ...

there bears her

name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A person ...

. A

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

is celebrated on 27 April. She is also revered as a Pre-Schism Western Saint of the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

. Her feast day is 6 July. A small stone image of her carrying her head was unearthed in the churchyard at Newlyn East.S. Baring-Gould and John Fisher, ''Lives of the British Saints'', IV, (London, 1913) pp. 10–14. Reference to her is made in

Ali Smith Ali Smith CBE FRSL (born 24 August 1962) is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as "Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting". Early life and education Smith was born in Inverness on 24 A ...

's novel,

Winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Dif ...

References

{{authority control Year of birth unknown Year of death missing 5th-century births 6th-century Christian saints Cephalophores Medieval Breton saints Female saints of medieval Brittany Medieval Cornish saints Female saints of medieval Cornwall Virgin martyrs

Name

Origins

Legend

Legacy

See also

References