# Morwenna > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Morwenna > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Morwenna.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morwenna > Source revision: 1355673269 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Not to be confused with [Morwenna Banks](/source/Morwenna_Banks). This article is about the saint. For people of that name, see [Morwenna (disambiguation)](/source/Morwenna_(disambiguation)). **Morwenna** is the [eponymous](/source/Eponymous) [patron saint](/source/Patron_saint) of [Morwenstow](/source/Morwenstow), a [civil parish](/source/Civil_parishes_in_Cornwall) and village in [north Cornwall](/source/North_Cornwall), UK. Her name is thought to be [cognate](/source/Cognate) with [Welsh](/source/Welsh_language) *[morwyn](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/morwyn)* "maiden",[1] although the first name is also used in [Wales](/source/Wales) and [Brittany](/source/Brittany) and said to be composed of "Mor" and "Gwenn", meaning "White sea" in both [Welsh](/source/Welsh_language) and [Breton](/source/Breton_language). ## Life Morwenna first appears in a 12th-century [life](/source/Hagiography) of [Saint Nectan](/source/Nectan_of_Hartland) that lists her alongside [Endelient](/source/Saint_Endelienta), [Mabyn](/source/Mabyn) and [Menfre](/source/Saint_Menefrida) (among many others) as a daughter of the Welsh king [Brychan](/source/Brychan).[2] 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](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-stow)"). 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.[3] 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.[3] 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.[3] A [local saint](/source/List_of_Cornish_saints), she is depicted in a [stained glass](/source/Stained_glass) window of the parish church, [St Morwenna and St John the Baptist's](/source/Church_of_St_Morwenna_and_St_John_the_Baptist,_Morwenstow) ([Saint John](/source/John_the_Baptist) was added as a dedication c. 1275 when the church was given to St John the Baptist's hospital in [Bridgwater](/source/Bridgwater)).[4] Morwenna of Morwenstow is commonly misidentified with "Marwenne" of [Marhamchurch](/source/Marhamchurch) and the patron of [Lamorran](/source/Lamorran), a saint "Moren".[2][5] ## Morwenna's Well According to [Nicholas Orme](/source/Nicholas_Orme), a [holy well](/source/Holy_well) in the parish (at ) is nowadays associated with her;[2] it is located just over 500 metres to the west of the church, 'halfway down a precipice' and is now dry.[6] The well house is a grade II [listed building](/source/Listed_building).[7] 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.[5] ## References 1. [Baring-Gould, Sabine](/source/Sabine_Baring-Gould) (1914), *The Lives of the Saints*, J. Grant, p. 263. 1. [Orme, Nicholas](/source/Nicholas_Orme) (2000). [The Saints of Cornwall](https://books.google.com/books?id=JxIjiMStTKIC), [Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press), p. 196. 1. ["St. Morwenna of Morwenstow, Cornwall"](https://web.archive.org/web/20231128003743/http://ww1.antiochian.org/node/18933#expand). *Antiochian Orthodox Church*. Archived from [the original](http://www.antiochian.org/node/18933) on 2023-11-28. 1. ["Morwenstow"](http://www.iwalknorthcornwall.co.uk/walk/morwenstow). iWalk North Cornwall. Retrieved 20 January 2013. 1. Nash Ford, David. ["EBK: St. Morwenna"](http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/morwenna.html). Nash Ford Publishing. Retrieved 10 April 2024. 1. ["Curious Morwenstow", BBC Domesday Reloaded](https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/domesday/dblock/GB-220000-111000/page/15) ## See also - [Christianity in Cornwall](/source/Christianity_in_Cornwall) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Morwenna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morwenna) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morwenna?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.