Saints

Bishop and martyr. Boniface was born around 680AD to a Saxon farming family near Crediton in Devon. He was baptised as Wynfrith. Educated in monastery schools in the West Country, he became a monk, first at Exeter, then at Nursling, near Southampton. During this time he compiled the first Latin grammar written in English. In 718, he left his homeland, never to return, to take the Gospel to the p... Read More

Abbot. Cornwall's most famous saint and early hunt saboteur. Petroc is said to have been the son of a Welsh chieftain. He studied in Ireland before settling in Cornwall in the 4th century. Petroc founded a monastery at what is now called Padstow (Petroc's Stow). About 30 years later he established another monastery at Little Petherick, where he built a mill and a chapel. In his last years, Petro... Read More

Bishop and founder. Born into an aristocratic family near Cleves in Germany, in around 1080 Norbert embarked on a comfortable career holding several posts at the wealthy courts of Archbishop Frederick I and Emperor Henry V. When he was about 35, he had a riding accident, narrowly escaping death, and underwent a sudden conversion which made him give up his life at court to become a priest. Soon a... Read More