Ivo of Ramsey
Saint Ivo (also known as Ives) was a Cornish bishop and hermit, and became the eponymous saint of St Ives, Huntingdonshire. He appears in the historical sources in 1001/2 when a peasant allegedly found his coffin while ploughing at Slepe (later renamed St. Ives).[1] The Abbot of Ramsey, Eadnoth the Younger, founded a monastery there as a daughter-house of Ramsey Abbey, providing Slepe as well as part of Elsworth and Knapworth as endowment.[2] On 24 April 1002, Abbot Eadnoth translated Ivo's body, along with two of his companions, to the mother house at Ramsey.[3]
Saint Ivo of Ramsey | |
|---|---|
| Born | Cornwall |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Major shrine | Ramsey Abbey |
| Feast | April 24 |
| Patronage | St Ives |
Ivo was a Cornish saint.[4] Rumours of a Persian link came about when Withman, Abbot of Ramsey, heard in the Holy Land of a Persian bishop named Ivo; subsequently the link to the Fenland Ivo was written down by Goscelin of St Bertin.[5] The tradition is completely spurious.[6] It is possible that Saint Ivo is a male double of Saint Neot, a suggestion made by historian Cyril Hart on the basis of the strangeness of two Cornish saints so close together far away in eastern England.[4] Saint Neot turned up in Huntingdonshire around 1000 as well.[7]
Notes
- Blair, "Handlist", p. 541
- Hart, "Eadnoth I", pp. 617–18
- Lapidge (ed.), Byrhtferth, pp. 180–81, n. 144
- Hart, "Eadnoth I", p. 622
- Hart, "Eadnoth I", p. 621–22
- Hart, "Eadnoth I", p. 621
- Blair, "Handlist", p. 541
References
- Blair, John (2002), "A Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Saints", in Thacker, Alan; Sharpe, Richard (eds.), Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 495–565, ISBN 0-19-820394-2
- Hart, Cyril (1992) [1964], "Eadnoth I of Ramsey and Dorchester", in Hart, Cyril (ed.), The Danelaw, London: Hambledon Press, pp. 613–23, ISBN 1-85285-044-2, originally published in Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society: 56–675, 1964CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
- Lapidge, Michael, ed. (2009), Byrhtferth of Ramsey: The Lives of St Oswald and St Ecgwine, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 978-0-19-955078-4
Further reading
- Hart, Cyril R. (2003). Learning and Culture in Late Anglo-Saxon England and the Influence of Ramsey Abbey on the Major English Schools (3 volumes). Vol. 1. Lewiston, NY.