Editing Saint Piran (section)

==Life==
Piran is the most famous of all the [[saint]]s said to have come to Cornwall from Ireland.<ref name=STANTON/><ref name=BUTLER/><ref name=SCHAFF/><ref name=HASLAM/> [[Gilbert Hunter Doble|G. H. Doble]] thought that Piran was a [[Welsh people|Welshman]] from [[Glamorgan]], citing the lost chapel once dedicated to him in [[Cardiff]].

From medieval times, since [[Brittonic languages]] and [[Goidelic languages]] regularly [[Celtic_languages#Continental/Insular_Celtic_and_P/Q-Celtic_hypotheses |alternate p and k sounds]], he had become erroneously identified with the Irish saint [[Ciarán of Saigir]] who founded the [[monastery]] at [[Saighir|Seir-Kieran]] in [[County Offaly]].{{sfn|Farmer|2003|pp=107,434-435}}{{sfn|Loth|1930}}[[Joseph Loth]] has argued, on detailed [[philology|philological]] grounds, that the names Piran and Ciarán could not possibly refer to the same person.{{sfn|Loth|1930}}

The fourteenth-century ''Life of Saint Piran'', probably written at [[Exeter Cathedral]], is a complete copy of an earlier [[Middle Irish]] life of Ciarán of Saighir, with different parentage and a different ending that takes into account Piran's works in Cornwall, and especially details of his death and the movements of his Cornish [[shrine]]; thus "excising the passages which speak of his burial at Saighir" ([[Doble, G. H.|Doble]]).

Professor [[Nicholas Orme]] writes in his ''Churches of Medieval Exeter'', that "it may well be that Piran was the inspiration for the Kerrian dedication (in [[Exeter]]), albeit believed (as Piran usually was) to be identical with [[Ciarán of Saigir|Ciarán]]."<ref name=ORME>Orme, Nicholas. "St Kerrian. ''The Churches of Medieval Exeter''. Impress Books, 2014. {{ISBN|9781907605529}}.</ref> Also, the saint of the church in Exeter was ''Keranus'' or ''Kyeranus'' [Queranus] in Latin documents, with ''Kerrian'' being the local vernacular pronunciation.<ref name=ORME/><ref>''"Devon has a legacy of Celtic Saints."'' [[Western Morning News]] ([[Plymouth]]). Tuesday, 2 May 2006. Page 3.</ref>

The St Piran Trust has undertaken research which suggests that Piran was either Ciarán of Saighir or a disciple, as indicated by James Brennan of Kilkenny and T. F. G. Dexter, whose thesis is held in the [[Royal Cornwall Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stpiran.org/ |title=St Piran Trust |website=Stpiran.org |access-date=5 March 2017 |archive-date=23 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200223132212/http://www.stpiran.org/ |url-status=usurped }}</ref> 

The Celtic Scholar [[Charles Plummer (historian)|Charles Plummer]] suggested that Piran might, instead, be identified with [[Ciarán of Clonmacnoise]], who founded the monastery of [[Clonmacnoise]] also in [[County Offaly]], but this is doubtful since this saint is believed to have died of [[yellow fever]] at the age of thirty-two and was buried at Clonmacnoise. His father is, however, sometimes said to have been a [[Cornish people|Cornishman]]. David Nash Ford accepts the Ciarán of Clonmacnoise identification, whilst further suggesting that Piran's father in the Exeter life, Domuel, be identified with [[Dywel fab Erbin]], a fifth-century prince of [[Dumnonia]] ([[Devon]] and Cornwall).

5 March is the traditional feast day of both Saint Ciarán of Saighir and Saint Piran.{{#tag:ref|"5 March.- St. Piran's day is a miners' holiday. St. Piran is the patron saint of "tinners," and is popularly supposed to have died drunk. (However, this appears to conflate Piran with St. Pyr of Caldey.)"As drunk as a Piraner" is a Cornish proverb."<ref>M. A. Courtney. "Cornish Feasts and "Feasten" Customs. [Continued]." ''The Folk-Lore Journal,'' Vol. 4, No. 3 (1886), p. 221.</ref>|group=note}} However the [[Calendar of saints|Calendar]] of [[Launceston, Cornwall|Launceston]] Church records an alternative date of 18 November for the latter.<ref name="Launceston">F. Wormald. "THE CALENDAR OF THE AUGUSTINIAN PRIORY OF LAUNCESTON IN CORNWALL." ''The Journal of Theological Studies,'' Vol. 39, No. 153 (JANUARY 1938), p. 4.</ref> In Perranzabuloe parish Perran Feast is traditionally celebrated on the last Monday in October. On the previous Sunday there are services at the site of [[Perranzabuloe|St Piran's Oratory]] and in the parish church of St Piran.