Choir and transepts of St Ive Parish Church in St Ive, Cornwall.
The church was constructed c. 1338 and was modernized in the 19th century. The
church is probably dedicated to St Ive (also called St Ivo), a
supposedly Persian bishop whose body was found in St Ives, Huntingdonshire. See Nicholas
Orme: The Saints of Cornwall, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-820765-4, p.
148–149. Original description by Phil Williams: A view looking west to the
church at St.Ive Church End.
Ivo of Huntingdonshire, Hermit B (AC)
(also known as Ivia, Yvo)
Date unknown. According to medieval legend, Saint Ivo was a Persian bishop who
enjoyed great honor and luxury in his own land but he yearned for a more disciplined
and arduous life. Together with three companions he went to England. They
settled as a hermits in the remote, wild fenlands in Huntingdonshire. There
they died (in the 7th century according to the legend), and would have been
forgotten.
However, about 1001, this
story was attached to some bones with a bishop's insignia found in Slepe (near
Ramsey abbey). Saint Ivo may have had no historical existence, though Saint
Ives in Huntingdonshire is named for him. Goselin ("Vita S. Yvonis"
in Patrologia Latina, ed. J. P. Migne, civ. 84 ff), who died about 1107, says
that Ivo's cultus had been extant for a century. Following a peasant's dream,
these episcopal bones were unhesitatingly identified as those of Ivo.
The four bodies, including
those presumed to be Ivo, were translated to Ramsey Abbey, where a holy well
sprung up, at which many miracles were performed as recorded by Ramsey's third
abbot, Whitman. About a century later, light appeared at night reaching from
Ramsey to Slepe, which was interpreted as meaning that the bones of Ivo's
companions should be translated back to Slepe, where a new foundation from
Ramsey could enjoy this subsidiary shrine.
The Saint Ives, formerly
Porth Ia, in west Cornwall, however, is named for Saint Ia (Attwater, Benedictines,
Bentley, Farmer, Husenbeth).
In art, Saint Ivo is
portrayed as a Persian hermit with the attributes of a bishop. He is venerated
at Huntingdonshire (Saint Ives, Ramsey) (Roeder).
Also known as
- Ivo of Ramsey
- Ive of….
- Ives of….
- Ivia of….
- Yves of….
- Yvo of….
Profile
Bishop.
Hermit
at Huntingdonshire, England.
The city of Saint Ives (formerly Slepe), Huntingdonshire (modern
Cambridgeshire), England
is named for him. His gravesite was lost for years, but in 1001
four bodies were uncovered in an unmarked grave; one bore a bishop‘s
insignia. A local layman
had a vision that this was the body of Ivo, and all four were translated to the
Ramsey Abbey.
A spring soon appeared near the site of their interment, its waters known for
healing miracles.
A later vision convinced the brothers at Ramsey to keep the relics with
the bishop‘s
seal, and return the bodies of the three companions to Slepe.
- Huntingdonshire, England
of natural causes
Article
He was a Persian bishop,
who preached the faith in England about the same time with Saint Austin, in the
seventh century; and having for some time prepared himself for his last
passage, by solitude, watching, prayer, and fasting, at Slepe, now Saint Ive’s,
in Huntingdonshire, he there died and was buried. His body was found by a
ploughman, in a pontifical habit and entire, in 1001, on the 24th of April. By
the fame of miracles performed at his relics, many resorted to the place, and a
Benedictin priory was there built, though the saint’s body was soon after
translated to the great abbey of Ramsey. Whitman, the third abbot at Ramsey,
wrote a book of the miracles wrought at his tomb, which was afterwards
augmented by Goscelin, a monk of Canterbury, about the year 1096. Pope
Alexander V granted a license to build a church to his honour, in Cornwall,
where his name was famous, and is given to a parliamentary borough.
MLA Citation
- Father Alban Butler.
“Saint Ivia, or Ivo, Bishop”. Lives of the
Fathers, Martyrs, and Principal Saints, 1866. CatholicSaints.Info. 24 April 2013. Web. 10
December 2020.
<https://catholicsaints.info/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-ivia-or-ivo-bishop/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/butlers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-ivia-or-ivo-bishop/
Sant' Ivo Vescovo in Inghilterra
Persia,
VI sec. – Sleve (Inghilterra), VII secolo
Il nome
Ivo è molto diffuso in Europa, prendendo secondo i luoghi delle varianti, così
in Italia è Ivo o Ivone, in Spagna Ivo o Ivano, Yves in Inghilterra e Francia.
Proviene quasi certamente dal celtico ‘ivos’ che vuol dire ‘legno di tasso’; il
tasso, infatti, per i Celti era un’albero sacro, con cui venivano fabbricate
sia le armi sia le abitazioni.
Ebbe un particolare sviluppo in Francia, soprattutto in Bretagna, nell’VIII
secolo, diffondendosi poi in tutta Europa. Con questo nome, oltre al santo che
menzioniamo in questa scheda, abbiamo due celebri santi, ambedue francesi, che
furono vanto e onore del loro tempo: s. Yves vescovo di Chartres (1040-1116),
che si celebra il 23 dicembre e s. Yves Hélory de Kermartin (1235-1303),
sacerdote e avvocato, che si celebra il 19 maggio.
S. Ivo, denominato vescovo in Inghilterra, era nato nel secolo VI, originario
della Persia, appartenne ad una nobile famiglia e divenuto vescovo, si dedicò
ad una predicazione itinerante, sul modello di s. Paolo apostolo, prima
nell’Asia Minore e nell’Illiria (regione storica della Penisola Balcanica fra
l’Istria ed i Monti Certuni, divenuta nel 228 provincia romana).
Poi nel suo viaggiare, passò per Roma e da lì giunse in Francia dove ebbe un
grande successo, onorato dal re, dai nobili e dal popolo; forse da lui il nome
Ivo cominciò ad affermarsi maggiormente in Francia.
Ma il vescovo volendo rifiutare tutti gli onori che gli venivano tributati per
la sua evidente santità, passò con tre compagni in Inghilterra, dove lavorò
fruttuosamente per parecchi anni nella Mercia (uno dei sette regni,
“eptarchia”, fondati dagli anglosassoni nella seconda metà del V secolo), fissando
infine la sua residenza nella città di Sleve (St-Yves) a tre miglia da
Huntendun, dove dopo svariati anni di apostolato fra quelle popolazioni, morì
agli inizi del VII secolo.
Le sue reliquie furono prodigiosamente scoperte nel 1001 e trasferite nell’abbazia
benedettina di Ramsey (Huntingdonshire); la sua ‘Vita’ da cui sono scaturite le
biografie successive, fu scritta dal monaco Goscelino di Westminster nel 1091
per incarico dell’abate Ereberto.
La sua celebrazione è al 24 aprile e al 10 giugno.
Autore: Antonio
Borrelli
