Tetha ( kw, Tedha; cy, Tedda), also known as Teath (), Tecla, and by a variety of

other names Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), ...

, was a 5th-century

virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

and

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

and

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 ...

. She is associated with the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

St Teath St Teath (; kw, Eglostedha) is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, in the United Kingdom. Geography The village is situated approximately three miles (5 km) southwest of Camelford and seven miles (11 km) northeast o ...

in Cornwall. Baring-Gould gives her

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

as 27 October, but this has been called a mistaken conflation with

Saint Ia Saint Ia of Cornwall (also known as ''Eia'', ''Hia'' or ''Hya'') was an evangelist and martyr of the 5th or 6th centuries in Cornwall. She is said to have been an Irish princess, the sister of Erc of Slane and a student of Saint Baricus. Legend ...

.Bartrum
p. 687: "St. Tecla"
In 1878, it was held on the

movable feast A moveable feast is an observance in a Christian liturgical calendar which occurs on different dates in different years.John Ayto ''Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms'' 2010 p123 019954378X "a movable feast an event which takes place at no reg ...

Whit Tuesday Whit Tuesday (syn. ''Whittuesday'', ''Whitsun Tuesday'') is the Christian holiday celebrated the day after Pentecost Monday, the third day of the week beginning on Pentecost. Pentecost is a movable feast in the Christian calendar dependent upon ...

. Other sources place it on 1 May, 6 September, and (mistakenly) 15 January. It is no longer observed by either the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

The Church in Wales.
The Book of Common Prayer for Use in the Church in Wales: The New Calendar and the Collects
. 2003. Accessed 18 Nov 2014. or

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church in

.The Catholic Church in England and Wales.
Liturgy Office: November 2015
. Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, 2014. Accessed 18 Nov 2014.

Name and identity

Early

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

records give the companion of Breaca and patron of St Teath the name Tecla, a form of the name

Thecla Thecla ( grc, Θέκλα, ) was a saint of the early Christian Church, and a reported follower of Paul the Apostle. The earliest record of her life comes from the ancient apocryphal ''Acts of Paul and Thecla''. Church tradition The ''Acts of ...

borne by the first female martyr in

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. The

Acts of Paul and Thecla The ''Acts of Paul and Thecla'' (''Acta Pauli et Theclae'') is an apocryphal story– Edgar J. Goodspeed called it a " religious romance"–of Paul the Apostle's influence on a young virgin named Thecla. It is one of the writings of the New Testa ...

was a common

apocrypha Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

l work in the early church and the name was formerly relatively common.Baring-Gould, Sabine & al
''The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in Britain'', Vol. IV, pp. 219 ff
Chas. Clark (London), 1908. Hosted at Archive.org. Accessed 25 Nov 2014. The editor of the

Bollandists The Bollandist Society ( la, Societas Bollandistarum french: Société des Bollandistes) are an association of scholars, philologists, and historians (originally all Jesuits, but now including non-Jesuits) who since the early seventeenth century h ...

' mention of the saint and Bartrum consider the name mistaken or fictitious, but do not account for the early appearance of the name in records at St Teath itself. Accounts of Breaca's journey give her the additional name Etha,Bartrum
p. 698: "St. Tetha"
which some have considered a corruption of "Itha". This in turn has led to the saint becoming confused and conflated with the

Irish saint This is a list of the saints of Ireland, which attempts to give an overview of saints from Ireland or venerated in Ireland. The vast majority of these saints lived during the 4th–10th centuries, the period of early Christian Ireland, when Celti ...

Íde of Killeedy Íde is a feminine given name of ancient Irish origin. Prior to the Irish spelling reform, the name was spelt Íte. St. Íde has her feast day on the 15th of January. Míde is an early pet-form of the name. The name has been anglicised as Ita, ...

. Meanwhile, other accounts credit St Teath to a daughter of

Brychan Brychan Brycheiniog was a legendary 5th-century king of Brycheiniog (Brecknockshire, alternatively Breconshire) in Mid Wales. Life According to Celtic hagiography Brychan was born in Ireland, the son of a Prince Anlach, son of Coronac, and h ...

Brycheiniog Brycheiniog was an independent kingdom in South Wales in the Early Middle Ages. It often acted as a buffer state between England to the east and the south Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth to the west. It was conquered and pacified by the Normans be ...

named Tedda,Bartrum, Peter C
''A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend up to about A.D. 1000'', p. 687: "St. Tedda"
National Library of Wales, 1993. Tethe, &c.

Life

In Cornish sources, Tetha was listed among the daughters of

, king of

,Orme, Nicholas
''English Church Dedications: With a Survey of Cornwall and Devon'', p. 119
University of Exeter Press (Exeter), 1996. making her the sister of numerous other saints in

and

. She is listed among

Saint Breaca Breage or Breaca (with many variant spellings) is a saint venerated in Cornwall and South West England. According to her late hagiography, she was an Irish nun of the 5th or 6th century who founded a church in Cornwall. The village and civil pari ...

's companions, who missionized

from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

around AD 460, by Leland and

William of Worcester William Worcester, also called William of Worcester, William Worcestre or William Botoner (1415) was an English topographer, antiquary and chronicler. Life He was a son of another William of Worcester, a Bristol whittawer (worker in white leather ...

. Unlike some of her companions, she does not seem to have been

martyred A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

Tewdwr Mawr Tewdwr Mawr (Breton for "Theodore the Great"; kw, Teudar Maur or '; cy, Tewdr; la, Theodorus; french: Thierry; mid-6th century) was an early medieval king in Armorica (now Cornouaille, France) and Cornwall. Life Tewdwr was a member of the roya ...

, the hostile king of

Penwith Penwith (; kw, Pennwydh) is an area of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, located on the peninsula of the same name. It is also the name of a former Non-metropolitan district, local government district, whose council was based in Penzance. ...

. (Note, however, that

Borlase Borlase is a surname and masculine given name. A branch of the family De Taillefer, of Périgord, who were descended from the Count of Angoulême, came to England before the reign of Henry III (1207–1272). A king granted lands in the parish of ...

was of the opinion that the saint's name had been inserted in the list of Breaca's companions by mistake.)

Legacy

A church of 'St Tecla' is attested in

as early as 1201. The present Church of St Tetha largely consists of 15th-century improvements to a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

original. It is listed as a Grade I protected building.English Heritage
"Church of St Tetha"
2014. Accessed 30 Nov 2014.

References

{{authority control 5th-century Welsh people Welsh royalty 5th-century Christian saints Female saints of medieval Wales Medieval Cornish saints

Name and identity

Life

Legacy

See also

References