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St Neot - A medieval bone-grab

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Edited by Richard Walker, Saturday, 29 June 2024, 17:20

St Neot, d. 877, was was a monk from Glastonbury Abbey who moved to Cornwall to be more isolated (the word monk is from Greek μονος monos = alone). His piety and devotion made him famous and a number of miracle were connected with him. He visited the Pope, and on the latter's bidding found a monastery in Cornwall, where his remains were kept after his death. The relics attracted many pilgrims and an associated flow of income. Here is a rather impressive stained glass window from the church in St Neot's in Cornwall.


About a hundred years on a different monastery was founded in Cambridgeshire, at what was then called Eynesbury (probably after an earlier saint who may have existed called Arnulf) but is now named St Neot's.

Monks from this second abbey seem to have though St Neot's remains would be a useful pull for pilgrims, so they travelled to Cornwall and the saint's remains were (as Wikipedia delicately puts it) "abstracted from Cornwall without permission, and lodged at Eynesbury". In other words monks from Cambridgeshire went to Cornwall, snatched the bones and brought them back home.

Sure enough these relics brought a stead stream of visitors and a healthy revenue flow, but stealing these bones has always seemed to me a rather discreditable and cynical act, and I've often wondered too why the Cornish monks never staged a counter raid. Who knows?

 

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by John Cook, Sunday, 30 June 2024, 15:43)
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