Saint Nectan of Hartland

Saint Nectan, sometimes styled Saint Nectan of Hartland, was a 5th-century holy man who lived in Stoke, Hartland, in the nowadays English, and at the time Brythonic-speaking, county of Devon, where the prominent St Nectan's Church, Hartland is dedicated to him. A "Life of Nectan", along with an account of the finding of his body and a collection of miracle stories, can be found in a 14th-century manuscript now in Gotha. The "Life" has been dated to the end of the 12th century. Its account holds that Nectan was born in Ireland but moved to Wales when he was young in 423 AD, the eldest of the 24 children of King Brychan of Brycheiniog (now Brecknock in Wales). Nectan heard of the great hermit of the Egyptian desert, Saint Anthony, and was inspired to imitate his way of life. Seeking greater solitude, Nectan and his companions left Wales, intending to settle wherever their boat happened to land. Nectan and his companions wound up on the northern coast of Devon at Hartland, where they lived for several years in a dense forest. The saint's family would visit him there on the last day of the year. Later, he relocated to a remote valley with a spring. At Hartland, Nectan lived in the solitude of a remote valley where he helped a swineherd recover his lost pigs and in turn was given a gift of two cows. Nectan's cows were stolen and after finding them he attempted to convert the robbers to the Christian faith. In return, he was attacked by robbers who cut off his head. The same authority says that he picked his head up and walked back to his well before collapsing and dying. Seeing this, the man who killed St Nectan went out of his mind, but the other thief buried him. From that time, miracles began to take place at St Nectan's tomb. Local tradition says that wherever the blood from Nectan's beheaded head fell, foxgloves grew.