{{Distinguish|Morwenna Banks}}{{Short description|Eponymous patron saint of Morwenstow, Cornwall, UK}} {{about|the saint|people of that name|Morwenna (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}} {{Use British English|date=June 2014}} {{Infobox saint |name=Saint Morwenna |birth_date= |death_date=6th century |feast_day= 8 July |honored_in= Anglican Church, Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church |image=Church Window at St Morwenna and St John the Baptist's - geograph.org.uk - 413334.jpg |imagesize=200px |caption=A stained glass window at the Church of St Morwenna (with her depicted in the bottom-left) |birth_place= |death_place= |titles= |beatified_date= |beatified_place= |beatified_by= |canonized_date=Pre-Congregation |canonized_place= |canonized_by= |attributes= |patronage=Morwenstow, Cornwall, England |major_shrine= |suppressed_date= |issues= |prayer= |prayer_attrib= }} '''Morwenna''' is the eponymous patron saint of Morwenstow, a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, UK. Her name is thought to be cognate with Welsh ''morwyn'' "maiden",<ref>Baring-Gould, Sabine (1914), ''The Lives of the Saints'', J. Grant, p. 263.</ref> although the first name is also used in Wales and Brittany and said to be composed of "Mor" and "Gwenn", meaning "White sea" in both Welsh and Breton.

==Life== Morwenna first appears in a 12th-century life of Saint Nectan that lists her alongside Endelient, Mabyn and Menfre (among many others) as a daughter of the Welsh king Brychan.<ref name="orme">Orme, Nicholas (2000). {{Google books|JxIjiMStTKIC|The Saints of Cornwall|page=196}}, Oxford University Press, p. 196.</ref>

She was trained in Ireland before crossing over to Cornwall. Morwenna made her home in a little hermitage at Hennacliff (the Raven's Crag), afterwards called Morwenstow (meaning "Morwenna's holy-place"). It stands near the top of a high cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, where the sea is almost constantly stormy, and from where, in certain atmospheric conditions, the coast of Wales can be seen. She built a church there, for the local people, with her own hands. It is said that she carried the stone on her head from beneath the cliff and where she once stopped for a rest, a spring gushed forth to the west of the church.<ref name=aoca>{{cite web |title= St. Morwenna of Morwenstow, Cornwall|url= http://www.antiochian.org/node/18933 |website= Antiochian Orthodox Church |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231128003743/http://ww1.antiochian.org/node/18933#expand |archive-date= 2023-11-28}}</ref>

Early in the sixth century, while she lay dying, her brother, St. Nectan, came to see her, and she asked him to raise her up so that she might look once more on her native shore. She was buried at the church in Morwenstow.<ref name=aoca/>

A painting was later found on the north wall of the Morwenstow church, thought to represent St. Morwenna. It shows a gaunt female clasping a scroll to her breast with her left hand; the right arm is raised in blessing over a kneeling monk.<ref name=aoca/>

A local saint, she is depicted in a stained glass window of the parish church, St Morwenna and St John the Baptist's (Saint John was added as a dedication {{circa|1275}} when the church was given to St John the Baptist's hospital in Bridgwater).<ref>{{cite web |last= |first= |title=Morwenstow |publisher=iWalk North Cornwall |date= |url=http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk/walk/morwenstow |accessdate=20 January 2013}}</ref>

Morwenna of Morwenstow is commonly misidentified with "Marwenne" of Marhamchurch and the patron of Lamorran, a saint "Moren".<ref name="orme" /><ref name=nash>{{cite web |last=Nash Ford |first=David |title=EBK: St. Morwenna |publisher=Nash Ford Publishing |date= |url=http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/morwenna.html |accessdate=10 April 2024}}</ref>

==Morwenna's Well== thumb|The well house of the holy well of St Morwenna According to Nicholas Orme, a holy well in the parish (at {{gbmappingsmall|SS 198 153}}) is nowadays associated with her;<ref name="orme" /> it is located just over 500 metres to the west of the church, 'halfway down a precipice' and is now dry.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-220000-111000/page/15 "Curious Morwenstow", BBC Domesday Reloaded]</ref> The well house is a grade II listed building.<ref>{{NHLE |num= 1231518 |desc=Holy well of St Morwenna about 14 metres down the cliff to the west of the church of St Morwenna|accessdate= 10 April 2024|mode=cs2|fewer-links=yes}}</ref> In legend this is the spot where Morwenna once stopped to rest whilst carrying stones from the beach below up to the church she was building on the cliff top.<ref name="nash" />

==References== {{Portal|Cornwall}} {{Reflist}}

==See also== *Christianity in Cornwall

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Category:Children of Brychan Category:Female saints of medieval Cornwall Category:Medieval Cornish saints Category:Female saints of medieval Wales Category:Medieval Welsh saints Category:Holy wells in Cornwall Category:6th-century deaths Category:People from Morwenstow Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Year of death unknown