Saint Kea

Saint Kea (Cornish: Ke; French: Ké) was a late 5th-century saint from the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. According to tradition he was chiefly active in Cornwall and in Brittany, and his cult was popular in those regions as well as throughout Wales and the West Country.

Biography and legends

Kea is chiefly known through a French summary of a lost Latin hagiography written by Maurice of Cleder in the 17th century, as well as Beunans Ke, an incomplete 16th-century Cornish language play rediscovered in 2000.^[1] The play is held by the National Library of Wales. According to these, he was the son of King Lleuddun Luyddog of Lothian, and served as bishop in North Britain before moving on to become a hermit. He first went to Wales and then moved south, founding churches at Street, Somerset and Landkey, Devon. He finally settled at Kea in Cornwall, which was subsequently named for him. He was harassed by the Cornish king, Teudar, when he sheltered a deer he was hunting. Having his oxen confiscated, he used the deer to plow the soil instead. He later travelled over the Channel to Cleder in Brittany, where he eventually died.

The works also describes Kea's dealings with King Arthur. According to the summary, Kea was called from Brittany to negotiate a peace between Arthur and his nephew Mordred before the Battle of Camlann.^[1] Kea then criticizes Arthur's wife Guinevere for her adultury with Mordred, leading her to regret her behavior. This passage probably explains the Arthurian section in Beunans Ke, which describes Arthur's conflict with the Roman emperor Lucius Hiberius and Mordred's subsequent treachery.^[1]

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References