Cornwall is more Celtic than English in its religious history. Its churches, chapels, and place-names commemorate not only the major saints of Christendom, but also many minor Celtic ones, unique to single churches. This book considers them all.
Cornwall is famous for its saintly place-names: St Austell, St Germans, St Ives, and St Michael's Mount. This book explains why the Cornish honoured so many saints--some famous, some obscure--and how studying saints uncovers the history of the county in medieval times. It provides an account of every saint who was venerated in Cornwall up to the Reformation--the first time this has ever been done for an English county. Every relevant church, chapel, altar, image, and holy well is listed, together with every relevant writing, folk-story and festival, from the earliest times to the present day.
The study tells us a very great deal about the invention of tradition at the parochial level and the universal desire of communities of whatever size, and of whatever historical period, to attach meaning to the salient features of their spiritual and physical environment
