Saint Kenelm facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Saint Kenelm |
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| Born | c. 786 |
| Died | 17 July 821 Clent Hills |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Canonized | Pre-Congregation |
| Major shrine | Winchcombe Abbey |
| Feast | 17 July |
Saint Kenelm (also known as Cynehelm) was an Anglo-Saxon saint who was very popular in medieval England. He is even mentioned in the famous book Canterbury Tales. People traveled from all over England to visit his shrine in Winchcombe on his special day.
According to legend, St Kenelm was a young prince and king of Mercia. He was a martyr, meaning he died for his beliefs. The story says he was murdered by a jealous relative. Even though he had a dream that warned him, he was still killed. His body was hidden, but it was found through a miracle. Monks then took his body to a big shrine at Winchcombe Abbey, where it stayed for hundreds of years.
Two places are especially linked to this legend. The Clent Hills, near Birmingham, England, are believed to be where he was murdered. The small town of Winchcombe in Gloucestershire is where his body was buried. Today, a small church dedicated to St Kenelm stands in the village of Kenelstowe. This village is now part of Romsley in the Clent Hills. For many years, people in the village celebrated St Kenelm's Day on July 17th with a fair.
Contents
The Story of Saint Kenelm
The Legend from Winchcombe Abbey
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The oldest story about St Kenelm comes from a book written in the 1100s at Winchcombe Abbey. It says the story was first told by a monk from Worcester named Wilfin. Here is how that old story goes:
Around the year 819 or 821, Coenwulf of Mercia, the king, died. He left behind two daughters, Quendryda and Burgenhilda, and a seven-year-old son named Kenelm. Young Kenelm was chosen to be the next king.
Quendryda, his sister, was jealous. She wanted to be queen herself. So, she made a plan with her lover, Askobert, who was also Kenelm's teacher. She gave Askobert money and told him, "Kill my brother so I can be queen." The chance came during a hunting trip in the forests of Worcestershire.
The night before the hunt, Kenelm had a dream. He dreamed he climbed a tall tree covered in flowers and lights. From the top, he could see all parts of his kingdom. Three parts bowed to him, but the fourth part started chopping down the tree until it fell. Then, Kenelm turned into a white bird and flew away to safety.
When he woke up, the young king told his dream to his nanny. She was a wise old woman who was good at understanding dreams. She cried because she knew the dream meant the boy was going to die.
On the first day of the hunt, young Kenelm felt tired and hot. He decided to rest under a tree. Askobert started digging a grave nearby, planning to kill him. But Kenelm suddenly woke up. He told Askobert, "You are trying to kill me here for nothing. I will be killed in a different place. As a sign, watch this stick bloom." He pushed his stick into the ground, and it immediately grew roots and began to flower. Years later, it became a huge ash tree known as St Kenelm's Ash.
Askobert was not stopped by this miracle. He took the little king to the Clent Hills. As Kenelm began to sing a prayer called the Te Deum, Askobert cut off his head. He buried Kenelm right where he fell.
Kenelm's soul then rose up as a dove carrying a scroll. The dove flew all the way to Rome and dropped the scroll at the Pope's feet. The message on the scroll said: "Low in a field of cows under a thorn tree, without his head, lies poor Kenelm, born a king."
Because of this message, the Pope wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Archbishop sent a group from Winchcombe to find the body. As they walked, they saw a bright light shining over a thick bush in Worcestershire. Underneath it was Kenelm's body. When they picked up the body, a rushing fountain of water burst from the ground. This water flowed into a stream and was said to heal anyone who drank from it.
The body was then carried carefully towards Winchcombe. But at a river crossing called Pyriford on the River Avon, they met an armed group from Worcester Abbey. This group also claimed they had the right to Kenelm's body. They settled the argument by agreeing that whichever group woke up first the next morning could take the body. The monks from Winchcombe woke up first.
Even though they had an agreement, the Worcester group chased them closely. Tired from their fast walk, the Winchcombe monks stopped just as they saw Winchcombe Abbey. As they pushed their staffs into the ground, another spring burst forth. This refreshed them, and they were able to continue to the Royal Mercian Abbey at Winchcombe. When they arrived, the bells of the abbey rang by themselves, without anyone touching them.
When Quendryda heard the bells, she asked what the ringing meant. She was told that her brother's body was being brought into the abbey in a procession. "If that is true," she said, "may both my eyes fall onto this book." Right then, both her eyes fell out of her head onto the Psalter (a book of psalms) she was reading. Soon after, both she and her lover died terribly. Their bodies were thrown into a ditch. Saint Kenelm's remains were buried with great honor, and he has been respected as a martyr ever since. His feast day is celebrated on July 17th, the day his body was moved to Winchcombe.
The South English Legendary Version
The story of Saint Kenelm is also found in a collection of saints' lives from the Middle Ages called the South English Legendary. This version is similar to the one from Winchcombe Abbey, but it adds an interesting detail.
After Kenelm was murdered and secretly buried in the Clent Hills, a cow came and miraculously sat by his grave. This cow ate nothing all day but returned each night with its udders full of milk. Quendryda had forbidden anyone to speak her murdered brother's name. As people started to forget him, God made this cow sit there so that Kenelm's memory would not completely disappear. Everyone in the area learned about this cow's strange behavior. People watched the animal closely. They saw it sit by a thorn tree, eat nothing all day, but be full of milk in the evening and again in the morning. This went on for many years. The valley became known as Cowbach because of this.
Then one day, a white dove flew into the Pope's chapel in Rome. It carried a message that Saint Kenelm's body lay in a place called Cowbach, in the Clent Hills. The message was sent to Archbishop Wulfred of Canterbury. A group was sent to Worcestershire, where the local people immediately knew where the body was because of the cow. When Kenelm's body was dug up, a spring miraculously appeared where he had lain, just like in the Winchcombe story.
Facts About Kenelm's Life
Like many stories about saints from the Middle Ages, the legend of St Kenelm might not be completely true. We can find some facts about him from other historical records.
When Offa of Mercia died, his son Ecgfrith of Mercia became king. But he only ruled for 20 weeks and was probably killed in battle. A distant cousin, Coenwulf of Mercia, then became king. Coenwulf had a son named Kenelm (Cynehelm), and this is likely the saint.
It seems that Coenwulf prepared Kenelm to be king. A letter from 798, supposedly from Pope Leo III to "King Kenelm," names Kenelm and says he was 12 years old. In 799, Kenelm signed a document giving land to Christ Church, Canterbury. From 803 onwards, his name appears on many official papers. His name disappears from these papers for a while after 811, which made some people think he died then. However, he appears again on his father's last official paper from 821. On this paper, he is called "Kenelmus, son of the king." This tells us he was still alive in 821.
So, while Kenelm might have died in 821 as the legend says, he would have been about 35 years old, not a child of 7. Historical records also show that Kenelm's sister, Cwenthryth (Quendryda), had become a nun by the time her father died. She was the head nun (abbess) of Minster-in-Thanet.
Other Connections to Saint Kenelm
Churches Named After St Kenelm
There are eight Anglican (Church of England) churches named after St Kenelm:
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1. St Kenelm's Church, Clent Hills, Worcestershire
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2. St Kenelm's Church, Sapperton, Gloucestershire (No longer used for regular services)
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3. St Kenelm's Church, Clifton-upon-Teme, Worcestershire
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4. St Kenelm's Church, Enstone, Oxfordshire
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5. St Kenelm's, Church, Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire
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6. St Kenelm's Church, Upton Snodsbury, Worcestershire
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7. St Kenelm's Church, Alderley, Gloucestershire next to Alderley House.
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8. St Kenelm's Church, Hinton Prava & Stanbridge, Dorset (No longer used for regular services)
Also, there are two Roman Catholic churches dedicated to Our Lady and St Kenelm. You can find these in Halesowen (near The Clent Hills) and at Stow-on-the-Wold (near Winchcombe).
In 2023, a church area (called a pastoral area) in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton was named in honor of Kenelm.
St Kenelm in Books and Poems
- St Kenelm is mentioned in Chaucer's famous The Nun's Priest's Tale:
Why in the 'Life' of Saint Kenelm I read
Who was Kenelphus' son, the noble king
Of Mercia, how Kenelm dreamed a thing
A while before he was murdered, so they say,
His own death in a vision saw, one day.
His nurse interpreted, as records tell,
That vision, bidding him to guard him well
From treason; but he was but seven years old,
And therefore 'twas but little he'd been told
Of any dream, so holy was his heart.
By God! I'd rather than retain my shirt
That you had read this legend, as have I.
- His story is told in one of William Shenstone's elegies (a type of poem).
- Francis Brett Young wrote a long poem called The Ballad of St Kenelm, AD 821. This poem was later turned into music by Andrew Downes.
- Geoffrey Hill directly mentions St Kenelm and Romsley, Worcestershire in his long poem, The Triumph of Love.
Walking Trails
There are two long-distance walking paths that remember the life of St Kenelm. Both trails connect Clent and Winchcombe, but they follow different routes. One is called St Kenelm's Trail, and the other is St Kenelm's Way.
