{{Short description|Welsh saint}} {{Use British English|date=June 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} thumb|upright=0.75|St Keyne's well, Cornwall
'''Keyne''' ({{IPAc-en|k|eɪ|n|,_|k|iː|n|ə}};<ref>{{cite web|title=St. Keyne|url=https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=702|publisher=Catholic Online|access-date=2020-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Author tries to reduce confusion over pronunciation of Cornish place names|url=https://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/7192743.author-tries-to-reduce-confusion-over-pronunciation-of-cornish-place-names/|date=2003-08-23|work=Somerset County Gazette|access-date=2020-01-01}}</ref> also referred to as Keane, Kayane<ref name=Meyrick>J. Meyrick ''A Pilgrim's Guide to the Holy Wells of Cornwall'', pp. 68–69</ref> Keyna, Cenau, Cenedion,<ref name=Spencer/> Ceinwen<ref name=Spencer>Ray Spencer ''A Guide to the Saints of Wales and the Westcountry'', pp. 51–52</ref><ref name=Farmer>David Hugh Farmer ''Oxford English Dictionary of Saints''</ref>) was a 5th-century holy woman and hermitess who was said to have travelled widely through what is now South Wales and Cornwall.
== Sources == Numerous dedications to Saint Keyne exist in areas as diverse as South Wales, Anglesey, Somerset, Hertfordshire, and Cornwall.<ref name="Feminine Sanctity and Spirituality in Medieval Wales">{{cite book|last1=Cartwright|first1=Jane|title=Feminine Sanctity and Spirituality in Medieval Wales|date=2008|publisher=University of Wales Press|location=Cardiff|isbn=9780708319994|page=68|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5mlSxlL6eIEC&q=saint+nectan+saint+keyne+and+the+children+of+Brychan+in+cornwall&pg=PA277}}</ref> The only literary source on the life of Saint Keyne is the ''Vita Sanctae Keynae'', which was edited by John of Tynemouth and included in his ''Sanctilogium Angliae Walliae Scotiae et Hiberniae'' in the 14th century.<ref name="Butler's Lives of the Saints">{{cite book|last1=Farmer|first1=general consultant ed.: David Hugh|title=Butler's lives of the Saints|date=1996|publisher=Burns & Oates|location=Tunbridge Wells|isbn=086012259X|edition=1. publ.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RhzAkvei_U8C&q=saint+keyne+vita&pg=PA51}}</ref> Unfortunately, this account is probably not trustworthy, as it was recorded nearly 800 years after her death. No contemporary sources about her or her life have survived.
==Life== [[File:Thomas Creswick - The Well of St. Keyne - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|left|''The Well of St Keyne''; by Thomas Creswick]] Keyne was one of the 12 daughters of the Welsh king Brychan of Brycheiniog<ref name="Butler's Lives of the Saints" /> in what is now South Wales (A different source, ''De Situ Brecheniauc'', says that he actually had 24 daughters, all of whom were saints.)<ref name="Feminine Sanctity and Spirituality in Medieval Wales" /> Although she was a great beauty and received many offers of marriage, Keyne took a vow of virginity and pursued a religious life (hence her Welsh name, ''Cain Wyry'', or Keyne the Maiden).<ref name="Butler's Lives of the Saints" />
Her ''vita'' reports that she travelled widely, and is said to have founded several oratories,<ref name="Butler's Lives of the Saints" /> including Llangeinor in mid-Glamorgan, Llangunnor and Llangain in Dyfed, and Rockfield (Llangennon) in Runston, Gwent.<ref name=Spencer/> Eventually she is said to have crossed the Severn into Cornwall, where she resided as a hermitess for many years. The village of St Keyne in Cornwall is named after her and is the site of a church and a holy well which also take her name.
thumb|upright=0.8|Plaque at St Keyne's well Around 490, she is alleged to have visited her nephew Saint Cadoc at St Michael's Mount.<ref name=Spencer/> Cadoc persuaded her to return to Wales, and a healing spring marked the location where she settled and eventually died. She died a virgin on 5 October in either 490 or 505. Llangeinor in Glamorgan has been proposed as a likely spot, as an ancient well is situated there, which is still said to have healing properties.<ref name="Butler's Lives of the Saints" />
==Legacy== Saint Keyne's feast is celebrated on 8 October, although it is also recorded as 30 September. She was the original patron saint of what is now St Martin-by-Looe (Penndrumm). Popularly, she is linked with the River Kenwyn in Truro, which had been mentioned in Ptolemy's Geography as early as in mid c.II AD,<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_BKJA_GDRGT4C/page/n97/mode/1up Internet Archive: Claudii Ptolemaei Geographia edidit Carolus Fridericus Augustus Nobbe (1843), Lib. II., Cap. 3., p. 68, Κενίωνος ποταμοῦ ἑκβολαί ϊδ να £ δ']</ref> three centuries before her life. Her most enduring and romanticized legacy is linked to the holy well that takes its name from her, located in St Keyne, Cornwall. According to legend, whichever partner in a marriage drinks from the well first will have the upper hand in the marriage, and rule over the other. This story was known in the Middle Ages, and was memorialized in Robert Southey's poem "The Well of St Keyne".<ref>[http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-well-of-st-keyne/ "The Well of St. Keyne", Poemhunter]</ref>
Some sources credit her as the patron saint of Keynsham in Somerset, where she is said to resided near the banks of the Avon, which was swarming with serpents and uninhabitable. After Saint Keyne issued a fervent prayer, the serpents were transformed to stone, and the area became habitable.<ref name="St. Keyne Wyry">{{cite web|last1=Ford|first1=David Nash|title=St. Keyne Wyry|url=http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/keynewbg.html|website=David Nash Ford's Early British Kingdoms|accessdate=10 June 2015}}</ref> (Today, these are known to be the fossilized remains of ammonites). However, a similar miracle is also attributed to St Hilda, and it has been suggested that Keynsham instead takes its name from "Ceagin's (Caega) Hamm".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Farmer|first1=David Hugh|title=The Oxford dictionary of saints|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=9780199596607|page=255|edition=5th ed. Rev.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_zJJtvK2_KsC&q=saint+nectan+saint+keyne+and+the+children+of+Brychan+in+cornwall&pg=PA255}}</ref>
There is a tradition that one of a pair of altars in the Berkeley Chapel in Bristol Cathedral was dedicated to St Keyna.<ref>Rogan, John (2000) ''Bristol Cathedral, History and Architecture'' Tempus Publishing Ltd; pp 102</ref>
==Interpretations== The Edwardian scholar G.H. Doble found it hard to accept that a woman could have travelled so far or founded so many settlements, and therefore she "quite may well have been a man".<ref name="Feminine Sanctity and Spirituality in Medieval Wales" /> He believed that the journeyings were more in character with male saints from this period, a sentiment which was shared by the scholar Alban Butler,<ref name="Butler's Lives of the Saints" /> who believed a number of female saints had actually been men. This view has been challenged by scholars such as Jane Cartwright, who states that this is indicative of a school of thought in which male saints are much more likely to be real historical figures than female saints, and that maleness alone is greater evidence of historicity than femaleness.<ref name="Feminine Sanctity and Spirituality in Medieval Wales" />
==St Keyne's well== The holy well of Saint Keyne is located about {{convert|0.8|km|1}} southeast of St Keyne's Church in Cornwall, and is now in a small housing made of dressed granite. The original housing was built in the 16th century, it was rebuilt in 1936 after the adjoining lane was widened.<ref name="St. Keyne's Holy Well">{{cite web|title=St Keyne's Holy Well|url=http://www.intocornwall.com/engine/azabout.asp?guide=St+Keyne's+Holy+Well|website=intocornwall.com|accessdate=10 June 2015}}</ref> The plaque next to the well describes the spell which Saint Keyne is said to have cast upon the water of the well. The plaque reads: "The legend of Saint Keyne Well. Saint Keyne was a princess who lived about 600 AD. She laid on the waters of this well a spell thus described by Richard Carew in 1602 AD—'The quality that man or wife / Whom chance or choice attaines / First of this sacred stream to drinke / Thereby the mastery gains.'"
In Victorian times the well had the reputation of conferring supremacy to the marriage partner who first tasted it. There is also a ballad called ''The Well of St Keyne''<ref>{{cite news|title=Local News|work=The Cornishman|issue=86|date=4 March 1880|page=5}}</ref> written by Robert Southey; it is set to an adaptation of the air of the Helston Furry Dance.<ref>MacMahon, Desmond (1939) ''Nelson's New National and Folk Song Book; pt. II''. London: Thomas Nelson; pp. 176-77</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Wales|Cornwall}} * St Ceinwen's Church, Cerrigceinwen – a church in Anglesey dedicated to her
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=702 Catholic Online: St Keyne] *[https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2021/05/27/the-vita-sancta-keyna-an-extract-from-the-vita-s-cadoci-and-a-modern-myth-about-the-year-490-at-st-michaels-mount/ Latin text and English translation of the Vita Sanctae Keynae].
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Keyne}} Category:Female saints of medieval Cornwall Category:Medieval Cornish saints Category:Female saints of medieval Wales Category:Medieval Welsh saints Category:Children of Brychan Category:People from Powys Category:5th-century births Category:5th-century Christian saints Category:5th-century Welsh women Category:5th-century Welsh people Category:Welsh Roman Catholic saints Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Year of death unknown Category:Welsh royalty Category:Welsh hermits Category:Holy wells in Cornwall