![]() ![]() The jury is still out as to whether St Piran was the Irish Bishop Ciaran of Saighir (c.501-530) Bishop Ciaran of Clonmacnoise (516-546), whose father was reputed to have been Cornish or if he was a native Dumnonian priest who may have trained in Ireland (Dumnonia was the Celtic kingdom that included both Cornwall and Devon). There, in the great expanse of sand dunes beyond the beach he built his oratory that is reputed to be the remarkable building that survives to this day (or a likely forerunner of it). The tale is that he was thrown from an Irish cliff by antagonistic local chieftains, chained to a millstone which then floated miraculously, bearing him safely across the Celtic Sea to a landfall at Perranporth. True to the traditions of Cornish saints, Piran himself is something of a mystery, for he has never been conclusively identified. Originally, he was the patron saint of tinners. St Piran is the third in a succession of patron saints of Cornwall, after St Petroc and St Michael the Archangel. With grateful thanks to CRAIG WEATHERHILL ![]()
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