:Tetha
{{Short description|Welsh and Cornish saint}}
{{Redirect|Saint Teath|the Cornish parish and village|St Teath}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox saint
|name=Saint Tetha
|birth_date=5th century
|death_date=
|feast_day= Various (lapsed)
|venerated_in=
|image= Parish church of St. Tetha, St Teath - geograph.org.uk - 681562.jpg
|imagesize= 300px
|caption= St Tetha's in St Teath
|birth_place=
|death_place=
|titles= Princess of Brycheiniog
Virgin
|canonized_date=Pre-Congregation
|attributes=
|patronage= St Teath
|major_shrine= St Teath
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
}}
Tetha ({{langx|kw|Tedha}}; {{langx|cy|Tedda}}), also known as Teath ({{IPAc-en|t|ɛ|θ}}),St Teath Village Website. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20141205212325/http://stteath.co.uk/facts/ "Facts"]}}. 2014. Accessed 30 Nov 2014.Bartrum, [http://www.llgc.org.uk/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/casgliadau/Drych_Digidol/Deunydd_print/Welsh_Classical_Dictionary/10_S-T.pdf p. 687: "St Teath"]. Tecla, and by a variety of other names, was a 5th-century virgin and saint in Wales and Cornwall. She is associated with the parish church of St Teath in Cornwall. Baring-Gould gives her feast day as 27 October, but this has been called a mistaken conflation with Saint Ia.Bartrum, [http://www.llgc.org.uk/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/casgliadau/Drych_Digidol/Deunydd_print/Welsh_Classical_Dictionary/10_S-T.pdf p. 687: "St. Tecla"]. In 1878, it was held on the movable feast of Whit Tuesday. Other sources place it on 1 May,Roscarrock, Nicholas. Lives of the English Saints. {{circa|lk=no|1625}}. 6 September,Challoner, Richard. [https://books.google.com/books?id=U3BbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA126 A Memorial of Ancient British Piety: Or, a British Martyrology, p. 126]. W. Needham (London), 1761. and (mistakenly) 15 January. It is no longer observed by either the AnglicanThe Church in Wales. "[http://cinw.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/english.pdf The Book of Common Prayer for Use in the Church in Wales: The New Calendar and the Collects]". 2003. Accessed 18 Nov 2014. or Catholic church in Wales.The Catholic Church in England and Wales. "[http://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar/2015/Nov.shtml Liturgy Office: November 2015]". Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, 2014. Accessed 18 Nov 2014.
Name and identity
Early Latin records give the companion of Breaca and patron of St Teath the name Tecla, a form of the name Thecla borne by the first female martyr in Christianity. The Acts of Paul and Thecla was a common apocryphal work in the early church and the name was formerly relatively common.Baring-Gould, Sabine & al. [https://archive.org/stream/livesofbritishsa04bariuoft#page/218/mode/2up The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales and Cornwall and Such Irish Saints as Have Dedications in Britain, Vol. IV, pp. 219 ff]. Chas. Clark (London), 1908. Hosted at Archive.org. Accessed 25 Nov 2014. The editor of the Bollandists' mention of the saint{{refn|[https://archive.org/stream/actasanctorum60unse#page/n329/mode/2up Acta Sanctorum, Vol. LX, Octobris, Vol. XII, "De SS. Ia et Breaca Virginibus Eorumque Comitibus Uni, Sinino, Elwino, Maruano, Germocho,Crewenna, Helena, Thecla seu Etha, Gwithian et Gwinnear seu Wymero, in Cornubia Britannica", pp. 293 ff]. Imprimerie Polleunis, Ceuterick, & Lefébure (Brussels), 1886. {{in lang|la}} Cited in Bartrum.}} and Bartrum consider the name mistaken or fictitious, but do not account for the early appearance of the name in records at St Teath itself. Accounts of Breaca's journey give her the additional name Etha,Bartrum, [http://www.llgc.org.uk/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/casgliadau/Drych_Digidol/Deunydd_print/Welsh_Classical_Dictionary/10_S-T.pdf p. 698: "St. Tetha"]. which some have considered a corruption of "Itha".Chope, R. Pearse (ed.). The Devonian Year Book for the Year 1916, pp. 90 f. London Devonian Assoc. (London), 1916. This in turn has led to the saint becoming confused and conflated with the Irish saint Íde of Killeedy.
Meanwhile, other accounts credit St Teath to a daughter of Brychan of Brycheiniog named Tedda,Doble, G.H. (trans.). The Life of Saint Nectan. 1941, reprinted at Bideford, 1964.Bartrum, Peter C. [http://www.llgc.org.uk/fileadmin/fileadmin/docs_gwefan/casgliadau/Drych_Digidol/Deunydd_print/Welsh_Classical_Dictionary/10_S-T.pdf A Welsh Classical Dictionary: People in History and Legend up to about A.D. 1000, p. 687: "St. Tedda"]. National Library of Wales, 1993. Tethe,Hunt, Robert. [http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/prwe/prwe128.htm Popular Romances of the West of England: The Drolls, Traditions, and Superstitions of Old Cornwall, 3d ed.: "Saint Keyne"]. Chatto & Windus (London), 1903. Accessed 18 Nov 2014. &c.
Life
In Cornish sources, Tetha was listed among the daughters of Brychan, king of Brycheiniog in Wales,Orme, Nicholas. [https://books.google.com/books?id=yON3x64MR34C&pg=PA119 English Church Dedications: With a Survey of Cornwall and Devon, p. 119]. University of Exeter Press (Exeter), 1996. making her the sister of numerous other saints in Wales and Cornwall. She is listed among Saint Breaca's companions, who missionized Cornwall from Ireland around AD 460, by Leland and William of Worcester. Unlike some of her companions, she does not seem to have been martyred by Tewdwr Mawr, the hostile king of Penwith. (Note, however, that Borlase was of the opinion that the saint's name had been inserted in the list of Breaca's companions by mistake.Borlase, William Copeland. [https://books.google.com/books?id=d9w4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA41 "The President's Address" in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, Vol. VI, No. XX, p. 41]. 31 May 1878, reprinted Lake & Lake (Truro), 1881.)
Legacy
A church of 'St Tecla' is attested in St Teath as early as 1201. The present Church of St TethaSt Teath Village Website. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20141205212324/http://old.stteath.co.uk/organisations/church/church.php "Parish Church"]}}. 2012. largely consists of 15th-century improvements to a Norman original. It is listed as a Grade I protected building.English Heritage. [http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1327712 "Church of St Tetha"]. 2014. Accessed 30 Nov 2014.
See also
{{Portal|Cornwall|Saints}}
{{Commons category|St Tetha's church, St Teath}}
- Saint Tegla, a Welsh saint with whom she is sometimes conflated
- Thecla, the first female Christian martyr