{{Short description|6th-century saint}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox saint |honorific_prefix=Saint |name=Rumon of Tavistock |birth_date= |death_date=6th century |feast_day=5 January (translation of relics)<br />1 June (Brittany)<br />22 July (Ireland)<br />28 August (England)<br />30 August (Orthodox) |venerated_in=Catholic Church<br />Anglican Communion<br />Orthodox Church |image= |imagesize= |caption= |birth_place= |death_place= |titles= |beatified_date= |beatified_place= |beatified_by= |canonized_date=Pre-Congregation |canonized_place= |canonized_by= |attributes= |patronage=Tavistock, Devon, England<br />Romansleigh, England |major_shrine=Abbey of St Mary & St Rumon (''destroyed'') |suppressed_date= |issues=Identity}} '''Rumon of Tavistock''' (also Ronan, Ruadan, or Ruan) is a saint venerated in the traditions of the Catholic, Anglican Communion, and Orthodox churches.
== Biography == Rumon was likely a missionary originally from Ireland.<ref>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14466c.htm Hunter-Blair, Oswald. "Tavistock Abbey." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 5 December 2021 {{PD-notice}}</ref> According to Alban Butler, Rumon was a bishop, though it is not known of what see.
Antiquary John Leland said that a manuscript discovered at Tavistock at the time of the dissolution claimed that Rumon emigrated from Ireland in the fifth or sixth century and established a hermitage near Falmouth, Cornwall.
Some authorities believe him to be the same historical figure as Ronan who is venerated in Brittany on 1 June.<ref>"Keltic Kalendar", in ''The Cornish Church Guide''. Truro: Blackford; pp. 9-16</ref> A "Life of St. Rumon", likely written at Tavistock sometime between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, adapts the Life of St. Ronan. Historian Nicholas Orme considers the only accurate part is that pertaining to Ruan Lanihorne and Tavistock.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=JxIjiMStTKIC&dq=Rumon+of+Tavistock&pg=PA226 Orme, Nicholas. ''The Saints of Cornwall''] OUP Oxford, 2000, p. 226 {{ISBN|9780191542893}}</ref> A ''sanctum vita'' of Rumon in a fourteenth-century manuscript in the Ducal Library of Gotha, Germany is also based on a tenth-century Life of the Breton saint Ronan. Portions of this text relating to Rumon are quoted in the fourteenth-century ''Catalogus sanctorum in Anglia pausancium'', a list of the resting places of English saints.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Medieval Cult of St Petroc|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zY-CBHHw-lIC&pg=PA3|first=Karen|last=Jankulak|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|year=2000|series=Studies in Celtic history|volume=19|page=3| isbn=978-0-85115-777-1 }}</ref>
==Veneration== thumb|St. Rumon Church, Ruan Lanihorne In 974, Ordulf, Earl of Devon, established the Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Rumon at Tavistock.<ref>{{cite book|first=Mary|last=Freeman|chapter=Ordulf's Shadow in Tavistock|pages=23–36|editor=Bliss, Jane|display-editors=etal|title=Aspects of Devon History|publisher=Devon History Society|year=2012|isbn=978-0-903766-02-9}}</ref> On 981, the relics of Rumon, minus his head, were translated from the Celtic monastery at Ruan Lanihorne to Tavistock.<ref>[https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100433176 '' The Oxford Dictionary of Saints''] 5th rev. (David Farmer. ed.) OUP, 2011, {{ISBN|9780199596607}}</ref>
Henry I of England granted the abbey the privilege of a fair for three days at the feast of St. Rumon.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=I0p5TZ5bLmcC&dq=Rumon+of+Tavistock&pg=PA114 "Notices of Tavistock and its Abbey", ''The Gentleman's Magazine''] Vol. 100, Edw. Cave, February 1830, p. 117</ref>
In the Catholic Church, the feast of Saint Rumon is observed on various dates in different British locations. The translation of Saint Rumon is celebrated on 5 January in both the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church.<ref>{{cite web|website=Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church: a Parish of the Moscow Patriarchate|url=https://www.holytrinityorthodox.com/htc/orthodox-calendar/calendar-search/?search=Rumon|title=Calendar Search: January 18 / January 5|access-date=30 January 2025|quote=Translation of the relics of St. Rumon, bishop, to Tavistock.}}</ref> The Holy Hierarch Rumon is venerated on 30 August according in Orthodoxy.
Rumon is the patron of Tavistock and Romansleigh<ref>Harris, Helen. ''A Handbook of Devon Parishes'', Tiverton. Halsgrove, 2004, p. 142 {{isbn|1-84114-314-6}}</ref> in Devon and of Ruan Lanihorne in Cornwall. Ruan celebrates its patronal festival every year on the last Sunday in August.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chct.info/histories/ruan-lanihorne-st-rumon/|title=Ruan Lanihorne, St Rumon|website=Cornwall Historic Churches Trust}}</ref>
Rumon is depicted as a bishop in a stained glass window in the Lady Chapel of St Eustachius' Church, Tavistock.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cornishstainedglass.org.uk/mgsdb/window.xhtml?churchid=423&locid=46|title=The stained glass of Tavistock, St Eustachius|website=Cornish Stained Glass}}</ref> Several churches in Devon and Cornwall are named after him<ref name="opendomesday">{{cite web|url=https://opendomesday.org/name/513400/tavistock-st-mary-st-rumon-abbey-of/|author=Anna Powell-Smith|title=Tavistock (St Mary & St Rumon), abbey of {{pipe}} Domesday Book|website=opendomesday.org|accessdate=2018-08-02}}</ref> as well as the village of Romansleigh.
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Catholic|wstitle=Tavistock Abbey}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rumon Of Tavistock}} Category:6th-century Irish Christian clergy Category:Christian missionaries in the United Kingdom Category:6th-century Christian saints Category:Christianity in Devon Category:Medieval Cornish saints