{{Short description|Legendary Christian saint who was venerated in medieval Glasgow, Scotland}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}} {{Use British English|date=October 2017}} {{Distinguish|Enoch}} {{Infobox saint |honorific_prefix=Saint |name=Teneu |birth_date= |death_date=6th or 7th century |feast_day=18 July |venerated_in= Eastern Orthodox Church; Roman Catholic Church |image=Traprain Law 4.jpg |imagesize=250px |caption=Traprain Law: the cliff from which Teneu was thrown |birth_place=Traprain Law, Lothian (alleged) |death_place= |titles= |beatified_date= |beatified_place= |beatified_by= |canonized_date=Pre-Congregation |canonized_place= |canonized_by= |attributes= |patronage=Glasgow, Scotland |major_shrine= |suppressed_date= |issues= |prayer= |prayer_attrib= }} '''Teneu''' (or '''Thenew''' ({{langx|la|Theneva}}), '''Tannoch''', '''Thaney''', '''Thanea''', '''Denw''', etc.) is a legendary Christian saint who was venerated in medieval Glasgow, Scotland. Traditionally she was a sixth-century Brittonic princess of the ancient kingdom of Gododdin (in what became Lothian) and the mother of Saint Mungo, apostle to the Britons of Strathclyde and founder of the city of Glas Ghu (Glasgow). She and her son are regarded as the city's co-patrons, and Glasgow's St Enoch Square allegedly marks the site of a medieval chapel dedicated to her, built on or near her grave ("'''St. Enoch'''" is in fact a corruption of "St. Teneu").<ref>[http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image.php?inum=TGSA01081 The Glasgow Story: "St. Enoch's Church"]. Retrieved 15 April 2012.</ref> She is commemorated annually on 18 July.
==Name== In the first recorded hagiography of her son, her name is given as '''Thaney'''.<ref name="Durkan" /> The ''Vita Kentigerni'' ("Life of Saint Mungo"),<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/Jocelyn-LifeofKentigern.asp The ''Vita Kentigerni'']</ref> which was commissioned by Bishop Jocelin of Glasgow and redacted later (circa 1185) by the monk Jocelyn of Furness (who claimed he rewrote it from an earlier Glasgow legend and an old Gaelic document), gives her name as '''Taneu'''; so does John Capgrave, printed 1516.<ref name="Durkan" /> Variants include '''Thenewe''', given by the ''Aberdeen Breviary''; '''Thennow''' of ''Adam King's Calendar''; and the Welsh ''Bonedd y Saint'' calls her '''Denyw''' (or '''Dwynwen''').<ref name="Durkan" /> In 1521, she appeared in John Mair's chronicle ''Historia Majoris Britanniae'' as '''Thametes''', daughter of King Lot and sister of Gawain.<ref>Bruce, Christopher. [http://gorddcymru.org/twilight/camelot/bruce_dictionary/index_t.htm Entry "Thametes". ''The Arthurian Name Dictionary''].</ref> Sometimes her name is given as '''Thameta''' or '''Thenelis'''.
Alex Woolf has suggested that the character Teneu may have been derived from Danaë, mother of the classical hero Perseus in the ''Fabulae'' of Gaius Julius Hyginius.<ref>Woolf, Alex (2022), "A Classical Source for the story of the birth of Saint Kentigern", in ''The Pictish Arts Society Newsletter'' 104, Summer 2022, pp. 6 - 8</ref>
==Legend== Saint Teneu has been described as "Scotland's first recorded rape victim, battered woman and unmarried mother".<ref name=Durkan>{{Cite journal | last1 = Durkan | first1 = J. | doi = 10.3366/inr.2000.51.1.80 | title = What's in a Name? Thaney or Enoch | journal = Innes Review | volume = 51 | pages = 80–00 | year = 2000 }}</ref> Her son was conceived when the Welsh prince Owain mab Urien raped her. Owain was disguised as a woman, and after sexually assaulting the naïve princess, he confused her by saying: "Weep not, my sister, for I have not known thee as a man is used to know a virgin. Am I not a woman like thyself?"<ref name=schul>Schulenburg, Jane Tibbetts. [https://books.google.com/books?id=w8FMjgPTWBUC&pg=PA226 ''Forgetful of Their Sex: Female Sanctity and Society, ca. 500-1100'']. Harvard University Press, 1998, p. 226.</ref> Upon discovering her pregnancy, her angry father King Lleuddun sentenced her to death and she was hurled from Traprain Law.<ref>{{cite book |last= Bromwich|first= Rachel |author-link=Rachel Bromwich |title= Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain |publisher= University of Wales Press|year= 2006 |page=414-415|isbn= 0-7083-1386-8}}</ref> Miraculously she survived the fall; when discovered alive at the foot of the cliff, Teneu was set adrift in a coracle and travelled across the Firth of Forth to Culross, where she was given shelter at the community of Saint Serf. There she gave birth to and raised her son Kentigern, whom Serf nicknamed ''Mungo'', "very dear one".
There are also Welsh legends about Teneu: {{quotation|The cult which grew around St Thenew in Glasgow also developed in Wales where it was held that she had other sons by her marriage to the northern Prince Dingad, son of Nudd. The earliest surviving reference to her is in fact in the ''Life of St Winifred'' (c. 1140), in which Winifred, went to St Eleri for instruction. St Eleri put Winifred in the care of his mother "'''Theonia'''" whom Winifred eventually succeeded as abbess of Gwytherin (Clwyd). Kentigern was also a cult figure in Clwyd.<ref>Woolf, Alex. [http://www.theglasgowstory.com/story.php?id=TGSAH02 "The Glasgow Story: Saint Thenew"]. Retrieved 15 April 2012.</ref>}}
==Modern adaptations== She is the subject of Kathleen Herbert's historical novel, ''Bride of the Spear'', part of her Dark Ages of Britain trilogy,<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2973409-bride-of-the-spear| title = Bride of the Spear by Kathleen Herbert}} </ref> as '''Taniu''', (1982, St Martin's Press), and of Nigel Tranter's historical novel ''Druid Sacrifice'' (1993, Hodder & Stoughton), as '''Thanea.'''
In 2025 a new site-specific poetry play entitled '''''Maiden Mother Mage''''' was performed by actors at Culross Abbey and Glasgow Cathedral, written and directed by Rebecca Sharp. The work shows imagined versions of Thaney at three stages of life, speaking in the first person - as Maiden / Thaney, Mother / Teneu, Mage / Enoch. The book of ''Maiden Mother Mage'' is published by Matecznik Press.
==See also== *Wish tree
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080928110045/http://saints.sqpn.com/saintt1r.htm Saints SQPN.com » Saint Theneva] *[http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/thaneygn.html Early British Kingdoms - Saint Thaney] *[http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/tangwystyl/brythonic/denyw.html 5-7c. Brythonic Women's Names: Den(y)w] *[https://www.matecznikpress.com/new-products-1/maiden-mother-mage ''Maiden Mother Mage'', Matecznik Press] *[https://www.rebeccajoysharp.com/maiden-mother-mage ''Maiden Mother Mage'', 2025 performances]
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Category:6th-century births Category:6th-century Christian saints Category:6th-century deaths Category:Arthurian characters Category:Converts to Christianity from paganism Category:Northern Brythonic saints Category:People associated with Glasgow Category:People from East Lothian Category:Female saints of medieval Scotland Category:Mythological rape victims Category:6th-century Scottish women Category:6th-century Scottish people Category:Rape in Scotland