{{Short description|Sixth-century Breton saint}} {{Infobox saint |name=Saint Tryphine |image=Trephine.jpg |imagesize=250px |caption=Statue of St Tryphine in Côtes-d'Armor, Brittany ({{c.}} 1850) |birth_date= c. 530 |death_date=c. 550 |feast_day=7 November; 21 July (Tryphine & Tremeur) |venerated_in=Roman Catholicism |birth_place=Vannes, Brittany |death_place=Brittany |titles=Martyr |beatified_date= |beatified_place= |beatified_by= |canonized_date= |canonized_place= |canonized_by= |attributes= beheaded woman |patronage= pregnant women, sick children |suppressed_date= |issues= }} '''Saint Tryphine''' (also spelled '''Trifine''', '''Triphine''' and '''Tréphine''') is a semi-legendary Breton saint whose life is often considered to be the basis of the story of Bluebeard.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Warner |first1=Marina |title=From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers |date=1994 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York |pages=260–261}}</ref> In Brittany she is widely revered as a patron saint of sick children and those whose birth is overdue.<ref>''Dictionnaire des Saints Breton'', Paris, 1979, p.350.</ref> The legend of Saint Tryphine probably derives from a historical individual who was the wife of the early Breton ruler Conomor.
==Historical background== Conomor is said to have married Tryphine, the daughter of his ally Waroch I, but seems later to have violently abused and then murdered her.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jobbé-Duval |first=Emile |date=1929 |title=LES IDÉES PRIMITIVES DANS LA BRETAGNE CONTEMPORAINE: ÉTUDES COMPLÉMENTAIRES. — I. Les contrats. II. Les vœux |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45402607 |journal=Revue historique de droit français et étranger (1922-) |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=431–472 |jstor=45402607 |issn=0035-3280}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Russo |first=Stephanie |title=Tudor and Stuart Consorts |chapter=The Literary Afterlives of the Tudor Consorts |date=2022 |series=Queenship and Power |pages=181–200 |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95197-9_11 |access-date=2024-01-30 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-95197-9_11 |isbn=978-3-030-95196-2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dubreuil |first=Léon |date=1951 |title=Lettres de Maurice Barrès à Charles Le Goffic. La revue. Les Chroniques |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/abpo_0003-391x_1951_num_58_1_1899 |journal=Annales de Bretagne et des pays de l'Ouest |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=19–88 |doi=10.3406/abpo.1951.1899}}</ref> Conomor was later killed in battle with a rival, and became a legendary villain in Breton history. Tryphine was elevated to the position of a martyred saint, along with her son Tremeur, and there are many churches dedicated to them.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Duncker |first=Patricia |title=Re-imagining the fairy tales: Angela Carter's bloody chambers |date=2003 |work=Popular Fictions |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315015934-14/re-imagining-fairy-tales-angela-carter-bloody-chambers-patricia-duncker |access-date=2024-01-30 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781315015934-14 |doi-broken-date=12 July 2025 |isbn=978-1-315-01593-4}}</ref> The village of Sainte-Tréphine is named for the former.
==Myth of Tryphine and Tremeur== In later legend Conomor's villainy is extended to include the murders of three wives before Tryphine. Tryphine refuses to marry him because of his reputation, but when he threatens to invade her father's lands she agrees, to spare the lives of her father's people. While Conomor is away Tryphine finds a secret room containing relics of the deceased wives.<ref name=":0"/><ref>{{Cite journal |last=van der Schoot |first=Albert |date=2005 |title=A song that will not die: Shifting symbolism in the interpretation of two sanguineous operas |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/muz0505057v |journal=Muzikologija |issue=5 |pages=57–84 |doi=10.2298/muz0505057v |issn=1450-9814}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Citation |last=Mulvey-Roberts |first=Marie |title=From Bluebeard's Bloody Chamber to Demonic Stigmatic |date=2009 |work=The Female Gothic: New Directions |pages=98–114 |editor-last=Wallace |editor-first=Diana |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230245457_7 |access-date=2024-01-30 |place=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |language=en |doi=10.1057/9780230245457_7 |isbn=978-0-230-24545-7 |editor2-last=Smith |editor2-first=Andrew|url-access=subscription }}</ref> She prays for their souls, and their ghosts appear to her warning her that Conomor will kill her if she becomes pregnant. Depending on the version of the myth this is either because a prophecy states that he will be killed by his own son or because he is only interested in his wives as providers of sexual pleasure.
When he returns he discovers that she is pregnant. Tryphine escapes with magical aid from the dead wives and gives birth in a forest. She hides her son before Conomor catches her and beheads her.<ref name=":0"/> However, Saint Gildas finds her and miraculously restores her to life.<ref name=":1"/> She and her son both live lives of saintly retirement, but after Tryphine's death Conomor eventually finds Tremeur and kills him. In other versions Conomor is killed when his castle miraculously collapses onto him.<ref name ="wen">Wendy Mewes, ''Discovering the History of Brittany'', Red Dog, 2006, p. 44</ref>
It has been suggested that the story of Bluebeard derives from this myth.<ref>Gilles Rihouay, ''Konomor, Barbe-bleue breton'', Éd. Keltia Graphic, 29540 Spézet, 2001</ref>
==Myth of Tryphine and King Arthur== The folklorist François-Marie Luzel collected a mystery play about Tryphine and King Arthur.<ref name="brig">Brigitte Cazelles and Brett Wells, "Arthur as Barbe-Bleue: The Martyrdom of Saint Tryphine (Breton Mystery)", ''Yale French Studies'', No. 95, Rereading Allegory: Essays in Memory of Daniel Poirion (1999), pp. 134-151</ref> In this story Arthur replaced Comonor as Tryphine's husband and Tryphine acquires some of the characteristics of Guinevere. The plot involves Tryphine's evil brother, Kervoura, who schemes to inherit the kingdom from Arthur. When he discovers that Tryphine is pregnant, he decides to eliminate Arthur's bloodline. As Tryphine is about to give birth, Kevoura kidnaps her and hides the child. He then accuses Tryphine of murdering her son and uses forged evidence to implicate her in a supposed plot to kill Arthur. Arthur orders Tryphine's arrest, but she escapes and hides for six years working as a servant. She is eventually discovered and brought back to court. Arthur now accepts her innocence and they have a daughter together. Kervoura then accuses her of adultery, using bribed witnesses. She is condemned to be executed. However, her son Tremeur has now grown up and has escaped from his captors to return. He reveals himself just as Tryphine is about to be beheaded by the executioner and challenges Kervoura to a duel. He kills Kervoura, who confesses his crimes before he dies. Arthur and Tryphine are reunited.<ref name="brig"/>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tryphine}} Category:6th-century Breton people Category:6th-century Breton women Category:6th-century Christian saints Category:Arthurian legend Category:Southwestern Brythonic saints Category:Bluebeard