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 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 ...

in Wales and Cornwall. She is associated with the parish church of St Teath 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 ...

of Whit Tuesday. 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 church in Wales.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 records give the companion of Breaca and patron of St Teath the name Tecla, a form of the name Thecla borne by the first female martyr in Christianity. The Acts of Paul and Thecla was a common apocryphal 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' 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 of Brycheiniog 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 Brychan, king of Brycheiniog in Wales,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 Wales and Cornwall. 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 Cornwall from Ireland around AD 460, by Leland and William of Worcester. Unlike some of her companions, she does not seem to have been martyred by Tewdwr Mawr, the hostile king of Penwith. (Note, however, that Borlase 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 St Teath 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