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[[File:St Eigon, Llanigon - geograph.org.uk - 714248.jpg|thumb|200px|The parish church of Saint Eigon (aka Saint Eigen) in Llanigon]])]] |
[[File:St Eigon, Llanigon - geograph.org.uk - 714248.jpg|thumb|200px|The parish church of Saint Eigon (aka Saint Eigen) in Llanigon]])]] |
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'''Saint Eigen''', '''Eigon''', '''Eurgen''', '''Eurgain''' or '''Eurgan''' was the legendary, and possibly historical first female [[Christian]] [[saint]]. She is only found in manuscripts from the collection of [[Iolo Morganwg]] making historical evidence of her existence dubious and limited.<ref name="Asaph)Tysilio1811">{{cite book|author1=Geoffrey (of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph)|author2=Saint Tysilio|author3=Gildas|title=The Chronicle of the Kings of Britain|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=eYrTAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA294|accessdate=10 August 2012|year=1811|publisher=E. Williams|pages=294–}}</ref><ref name="Baring-GouldFisher2005">{{cite book|author1=S. Baring-Gould|author2=John Fisher|title=The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales, Cornwall and Irish Saints|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=uE3pXSdZd5gC&pg=PA416|accessdate=10 August 2012|date=30 June 2005|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|isbn=978-0-7661-8765-8|pages=416–}}</ref> |
'''Saint Eigen''', '''Eigon''', '''Eurgen''', '''Eurgain''' or '''Eurgan''' was the legendary, and possibly historical first female [[Christian]] [[saint]]. She is only found in manuscripts from the collection of [[Iolo Morganwg]] making historical evidence of her existence dubious and limited.<ref name="Asaph)Tysilio1811">{{cite book|author1=Geoffrey (of Monmouth, Bishop of St. Asaph)|author2=Saint Tysilio|author3=Gildas|title=The Chronicle of the Kings of Britain|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=eYrTAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA294|accessdate=10 August 2012|year=1811|publisher=E. Williams|pages=294–}}</ref><ref name="Baring-GouldFisher2005">{{cite book|author1=S. Baring-Gould|author2=John Fisher|title=The Lives of the British Saints: The Saints of Wales, Cornwall and Irish Saints|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=uE3pXSdZd5gC&pg=PA416|accessdate=10 August 2012|date=30 June 2005|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|isbn=978-0-7661-8765-8|pages=416–}}</ref> |
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Saint Eigen, Eigon, Eurgen, EurgainorEurgan was the legendary, and possibly historical first female Christian saint. She is only found in manuscripts from the collection of Iolo Morganwg making historical evidence of her existence dubious and limited.[1][2]
Eigen is noted as the first female saint and daughter of Caratacus in the History of Dunraven Manuscript, a manuscript giving the geneaologyofTaliesin from the collection of Thomas Hopkin of Coychurch, one from the Havod Uchtryd collection and in an extract he claimed to have copied from the Long Book of Thomas Truman.[3][4] This reference can also be found in the family records of Iestyn ab Gwrgant, where it is said of her; "She lived in the close of the first century, and was married to Sarllog, who was a lord of Caer Sarllog, or the present Old Sarum".[5] In this manuscript, Eigen is said to have returned from Rome with Caratacus with Saint Cyllin and Saint Ilid and formed a religious college of twelve named Cor Eurgain (the choir of Eurgain), suggesting the early entry of Christianity into Britain; "the Cymry embraced the faith in Christ through the teaching of the saints of Cor-Eurgain".[6] Attempts have also been made to identify Eigen with the Claudia mentioned by Saint Paul in the Second Epistle to Timothy, however evidence for this is largely co-incidental. Some authors also claim she was called Gladys on the suggestion that this was a Welsh word for princess. [7]
Eigen is also discussed as the first female saint in the works of Rice Rees, Jane Williams, Sabine Baring-Gould and John Williams (Ab Ithel).[8][2][9]
In the annals of Tacitus, a daughter of Caratacus is mentioned appearing in front of the Roman Senate and Emperor Claudius in approximately 53 CE. Caratacus' daughter is never named in the record of Tacitus and she is not mentioned with her mother, father and uncles as having been given a pardon from the brutality of a Roman execution by the emperor.[10][11]
Eigen features in a cantatabyEdward Elgar in 1897-8 devoted to the defeat and capture of the king by the Romans. It was first performed at the Leeds choral festival in 1898. Her name in the Cantana has variously been claimed to be both historical and derived from a neighbour of Elgar's in Malvern called Eigen Stone.[12][13] Eigen (renamed Eigon) is also the subject of a modern, time-slip fiction novelbyBarbara Erskine called The Warrior's Princess, pub. 2008.[14]
There is a parish church dedicated to Saint Eigon in Llanigon, Wales.[2]
Another suggested first Christian church in Wales was credited to another Saint Eurgain, claimed to have been the daughter of Prince Maelgwn Gwynedd and niece of St. Asaph. She is said to have lived in the 6th century CE in Flintshire and has a feast day on 30 June. The church of St Eurgain and St Peter is evidenced to have existed since the 6th century in Northop (Welsh: Llaneurgain).[15][16]