Feast day of St Keyne

St Keyne spent her life performing good deeds in the West Country, where she is remembered by the sacred well bearing her name, near Liskeard, Cornwall.

Keyne liked to reside in a wood at the place now known as Keynsham. The chief of the country warned her of the venomous snakes that were prevalent in that forest, but St Keyne answered that she would pray and thus rid the country of serpents. Indeed, they were turned into the coils of stone that we know today as the ammonite fossils that are frequently found in the lias rock of that district.

Folklore records a quaint tradition associated with St Keyne’s Well. Legend has it that the first spouse to drink from its waters will have the upper hand in the marriage ...

Tagged: cornwall, uk, folklore, history, saint, saints, sacred+wells, sacred+springs