Saint Sulien, Sulian, or Silin was the reputed 6th-century founder-abbot of a monastery at

Luxulyan Luxulyan (; kw, Logsulyan), also spelt Luxullian or Luxulian, is a village and civil parish in mid Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village lies four miles (6.5 km) northeast of St Austell and six miles (10 km) south of Bodmin. ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

. His feast day is 29 July. There have probably been other Christian Celtic saints with the same (or similar) name, and a variant of it is also used as an alias of Saint

Tysilio Saint Tysilio (also known as/confused with Saint Suliac; la, Tysilius, Suliacus; died 640 AD) was a Welsh bishop, prince and scholar, son of the reigning King of Powys, Brochwel Ysgithrog, maternal nephew of the great Abbot Dunod of Bangor ...

(see below).

Etymology

Sulien is a Welsh variant of the given name "Julian," but has also been interpreted as being derived from the Welsh ''sul'', meaning "sun" + ''geni'', meaning "born," Sulien being the name of a Celtic solar deity. Doble, G. H. (1970) ''The Saints of Cornwall: part 5''. Truro: Dean and Chapter; pp. 104–126

Other Saint Suliens

Confusion has arisen between different legends of Celtic saints with the name Sulien (in a variety of spellings). The three most commonly encountered are: * Saint Sulien (of Cornwall), founder-abbot of

monastery,

– feast day 29 July. * Saint Sulien (of Brittany) or Saint Sulinus, of

Cornouaille Cornouaille (; br, Kernev, Kerne) is a historical region on the west coast of Brittany in West France. The name is cognate with Cornwall in neighbouring Great Britain. This can be explained by the settlement of Cornouaille by migrant princ ...

and

Domnonée Domnonée is the modern French form of Domnonia or Dumnonia (Latin for "Devon"; br, Domnonea), a historic kingdom in northern Armorica (Brittany) founded by British immigrants from Dumnonia (Sub-Roman Devon) fleeing the Saxon invasions of Britai ...

, East

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

– feast day 1 October. * Saint Sulien (of Wales) or Saint

or Saint Suliau, a Welsh prince – feast day 8 November. The first two, who originate from the Celtic states in broadly similar historical context, may be the same person. However, the fact that separate feast days have been assigned to them from antiquity is strong evidence that they are different people, and that there were in fact three different Celtic saints with the same (or similar) name.

References

Sources

*"Saint Sulian: founder of Luxulyan church (?)" in: G. H. Doble, ''The Saints of Cornwall; part 5: Saints of Mid-Cornwall''. Truro: Dean and Chapter, 1970, pp. 104–26 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sulien People from Luxulyan Medieval Cornish saints 6th-century Christian saints