Saint Piran

 ( 6th-century Irish Abbots ) 

From medieval times, since Brittonic languages and Goidelic languages regularly alternate p and k sounds, he had become erroneously identified with the Irish saint Ciarán of Saigir who founded the monastery at Saighir in County Offaly. Joseph Loth has argued, on detailed philology grounds, that the names Piran and Ciarán could not possibly refer to the same person.

The fourteenth-century Life of Saint Piran, probably written at Exeter Cathedral, is a complete copy of an earlier Middle Irish life of Ciarán of Saighir, with different parentage and a different ending that takes into account Piran's works in Cornwall, and especially details of his death and the movements of his Cornish shrine; thus "excising the passages which speak of his burial at Saighir" (Doble).

Professor Nicholas Orme writes in his Churches of Medieval Exeter, that "it may well be that Piran was the inspiration for the Kerrian dedication (in Exeter), albeit believed (as Piran usually was) to be identical with Ciarán."Orme, Nicholas. "St Kerrian. The Churches of Medieval Exeter. Impress Books, 2014. . Also, the saint of the church in Exeter was Keranus or Kyeranus Queranus in Latin documents, with Kerrian being the local vernacular pronunciation. "Devon has a legacy of Celtic Saints." Western Morning News (Plymouth). Tuesday, 2 May 2006. Page 3.

The St Piran Trust has undertaken research which suggests that Piran was either Ciarán of Saighir or a disciple, as indicated by James Brennan of Kilkenny and T. F. G. Dexter, whose thesis is held in the Royal Cornwall Museum.

The Celtic scholar Charles Plummer suggested that Piran might, instead, be identified with Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, who founded the monastery of Clonmacnoise also in County Offaly, but this is doubtful since this saint is believed to have died of yellow fever at the age of thirty-two and was buried at Clonmacnoise. His father is, however, sometimes said to have been a Cornish people. David Nash Ford accepts the Ciarán of Clonmacnoise identification, whilst further suggesting that Piran's father in the Exeter life, Domuel, be identified with Dywel fab Erbin, a fifth-century prince of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall).

5 March is the traditional feast day of both Saint Ciarán of Saighir and Saint Piran. However the Calendar of Launceston Church records an alternative date of 18 November for the latter.F. Wormald. "THE CALENDAR OF THE AUGUSTINIAN PRIORY OF LAUNCESTON IN CORNWALL." The Journal of Theological Studies, Vol. 39, No. 153 (JANUARY 1938), p. 4. In Perranzabuloe parish Perran Feast is traditionally celebrated on the last Monday in October. On the previous Sunday there are services at the site of Perranzabuloe and in the parish church of St Piran.

• The Irish tied him to a mill-stone, rolled it over the edge of a cliff into a stormy sea, which immediately became calm, and the saint floated safely over the water to land upon the sandy beach of Perranzabuloe in Cornwall. His first disciples are said to have been a badger, a fox, and a bear
• He landed in Cornwall, and there established himself as a hermit. His sanctity and his austerity won for him the veneration of all around, and the Thaumaturgy, with which he was favoured, brought many to seek his charitable aid.
• He was joined at Perranzabuloe by many of his Christian converts and together they founded the Abbey of Lanpiran, with Piran as abbot.
• Piran 'rediscovered' tin-smelting (tin had been smelting in Cornwall since before the Roman Britain arrival, but the methods had since been lost) when the tin in his black hearthstone, which was evidently a slab of cassiterite, was smelted out of it and rose to the top in the form of a white cross (thus the image on the flag).

His own remains were subsequently exhumed and redistributed to be venerated in various reliquary. Exeter Cathedral was reputed to be the possessor of one of his arms, while according to an inventory, St Piran's Old Church, Perranzabuloe, had a reliquary containing his head and also a hearse in which his body was placed for processionals. In 1443, Cornish nobleman, Sir John Arundell bequeathed money in his will for the preservation of the head of St Piran in the chapel at Perranzabuloe. The Saints of Cornwall, Oxford University Press, ; by Nicholas Orme (page 221)

The churches at Perranuthnoe and Perranarworthal were dedicated to Piran and holy wells at Perranwell and Probus, Cornwall are named after him. In Brittany St. Peran, Loperan and Saint-Perran are also named after him. The Cornish Church Guide (1925) Truro: Blackford The former Methodist chapel at Laity Moor has served as the Orthodox Church of Archangel Michael and Holy Piran since 1996.

The earliest documented link to the design of the St Piran's Flag with Piran is on the coat of arms of the de Saint-Péran or Saint-Pezran (pronounced Péran) family from Cornouaille in Brittany. The earliest evidence known comes from the 15th century, with the arms being De sable à la croix pattée d'argent. (a black shield with a white cross pattée). Guide des drapeaux bretons et celtes (English: Guide of Breton and Celtic flags) by Divi Kervella and Mikael Bodlore-Penlaez, published by Yoran Embanner (in French), (2008) P. POTIER de COURCY, Nobiliaire et armorial de Bretagne, A. Aubry, 1862, p390

Mount St. Piran is a mountain in Banff National Park near Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, named after the saint. St Piran's crab, Clibanarius erythropus, was also named in his honour, in 2016.

One St Piran's Day event is the march across Penhale Sands to St Piran's cross which hundreds of people attend, generally dressed in black, white and gold, and carrying the Cornish Flag. A play of the Life of St Piran, in Cornish, has been enacted since 2000 at the event. Daffodils are also carried and placed at the cross. Daffodils also feature in celebrations in Truro, most likely due to their 'gold' colour. Black, white and gold are colours associated with Cornwall due to St Piran's Flag (black and white), and the Duchy Shield (gold coins on black).

In 2006 Cornish MP Dan Rogerson asked the government to make 5 March a public holiday in Cornwall to recognise celebrations for St Piran's Day. St Piran's holiday. BBC News. 2 March 2006, 12:19 GMT. Retrieved: 15 September 2015. In 2010, a short movie about St. Piran was made and premiered at the Heartland Film Festival.

• Perranzabuloe - St Piran's Oratory and Old Church
• St Piran Football League
• St Piran's (school)

• Carter, Eileen (2001). In the Shadow of St Piran
• Doble, G. H. (1965). The Saints of Cornwall. Dean & Chapter of Truro.
• David Hugh Farmer (2025). 9780198606291, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198606291
• Plummer, Charles (1922). Betha Naem nErenn
• Tomlin, E. W. F. (1982). In Search of St Piran: an account of his monastic foundation at Perranzabuloe, Cornwall
• Rev. Charles William Boase, M.A. (Fellow and Tutor of Exeter College, Oxford). PIRANUS, ST. In: William Smith and Henry Wace. A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines During the First Eight Centuries. Volume IV: N-Z. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1887. pp. 404–405.

• "A man of the people who liked his pint... no wonder Piran is Cornwall's hero." Europe Intelligence Wire 21 February 2012.
• Eileen Carter. In the shadow of Saint Piran, AD 500-2000: The history of the Saint and his foundations at Perranzabuloe. Wadebridge: Lodenek, 2001. 90 pages.
• Eric Walter Frederick Tomlin. In search of St. Piran: An Account of His Monastic Foundation at Perranzabuloe, Cornwall, and Its Place in the Western Or Celtic Church and Society. Padstow, Cornwall: Lodenek Press, 1982. 41 pages.
• William Haslam (Rev). St. Piran & His Oratory: The History of a Celtic Saint. Penzance: Oakmagic Publications, 1998, 1845. 58 pages.
• William Haslam (Rev). Perran-Zabuloe: With an Account of the Past and Present State of the Oratory of St. Piran in the Sands. London: John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, 1844. 181 pages. ( see: Chapter II, pp. 53-56).
• Anthony Allen Clinnick. The Story of the Three Churches of St. Piran, the miners' patron saint of Cornwall. A.W. Jordan: Truro, 1936. 15 pages.
• George Basil Barham. How St. Piran came to Cornwall. London: Great Western Railway (Great Britain), 1922. 4 unnumbered pages.
• Joseph Loth (1930) "Quelques victimes de l'hagio-onomastique en Cornwall: saint Péran, saint Keverne, saint Achebran". Rennes (In: Mémoires de la Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Bretagne.)

• St Piran's holiday. BBC News. 2 March 2006, 12:19 GMT.
• . An Daras: The Cornish Folk Arts Project.
• St. Piran's celebrations. BBC Home.
• St. Piran's Day in Truro. BBC Home.
• St. Piran's Oratory – Morley B Collins, 1910
• The Orthodox Church of Archangel Michael and Holy Piran. Laity Moor, Nr Ponsanooth, Cornwall. TR3 7HR.
• The medieval life of St Piran - Latin text and English translation.