Saint Senara

According to scholar Nicholas Orme, a Saint Sinar of Zennor was first recorded in 1170 as a male saint ("Sanctus Sinar"), but from 1235 onwards as a female one ("Sancta Sinara"). Orme states that unless she can be identified with Azenor, the mother of Saint Budoc in Breton legends, nothing else is recorded about her. He also points out the similarity to Saint Senan, commemorated at nearby Sennen.[1]

Senara was reputedly a Breton princess of Brest originally named Asenora,[2] a woman described as having a "rather dubious reputation" before her conversion.[3] She was married to a Breton king who wrongly accused her of adultery and threw her into the sea in a barrel while pregnant.[4] She was visited by an angel, whilst floating in the sea off the westernmost end of Cornwall, and gave birth to a son in the waves, who later became Saint Budoc or an Irish bishop. She was washed up on the Cornish coast, and some believe she founded Zennor and gave her name to the eponymous village (and subsequently Zennor Head, Zennor Quoit and Porthzennor Cove), before continuing to Ireland.[5][6]

Due to the striking similarity, the legend's origins possibly lie in Greek mythology and the story of Danaë who was also cast to sea with her son Perseus in a wooden box. one legend saids she was a christian princess from a far off land and when barabains chased her to a cliff she prayed to god for safety and she jumped but rather than being crushed by the fierce waves or impaled by rocks god gave her the tail of a fish and she swam to safety through the worst storm he created since the flood. After she converted the town that bears her name it is also said she jumped back into the waters to keep an eye on her village from the fathoms below[4]

The "mermaid chair" in Zennor church

Senara was highly venerated by local fishermen and is said to represent the dual nature of Christ (human and divine).[7] Medieval folk regarded her as a symbol of lust and a warning against the sins of the flesh due to her story of purported adultery and subsequent conversion. She gives her name to St Senara's Church in Zennor and it contains the Mermaid Chair, an ancient chair with carvings of fish on the seat and a pew end with a depiction of the mermaid admiring herself in a mirror, which is believed to be at least 600 years old.[7][8][9] A statue of St Senara lies in an enclosed garden next to the church.

Senara is the subject of a book and linked to the Mermaid of Zennor by Sue Monk Kidd, The Mermaid Chair,[10] which was adapted into a movie in 2006.[11]