Her petition was
apparently granted, for the girl enjoyed some improvement of health and
spirit. Whereupon she became fired with a notable thought, and determined
to seek her patron saint where still she suspected his power held sway: at
the little brook which tinkles along beside the ruins of St. Madron's
chapel in a fair coomb below the Cornish moorlands. The precious water, as
Joan remembered, had brought strength and health to her when a baby; and
now the girl longed to try its virtues again, and a great conviction grew
upon her that the ancient saint never forgot his own little ones.
Opportunity presently offered, and through the first misty gray of a
morning in early April, she set out upon her long tramp from Newlyn through
Madron to the ruined baptistery.
St. Madron, or Padern, lived in the sixth century, somewhat earlier than
Augustine. A Breton by birth, he labored chiefly in Wales, established a
monastery on Brito-Celtic lines in Cardiganshire, and became its bishop
when a see was established in that district. He traveled far, visited
Mount's Bay and established the church of Madron, still sacred to his name,
while doubtless the brook and chapel hard by were associated with him from
the same period. In Scawen's time folk were wont to take their hurts
thither on Corpus Christi evening, drink of the water, deposit an offering,
and repose upon the chapel floor till dawn.
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