ORE - Verdant x St Monday

Piran set about building a chapel in the sands along the coast from Perranzabuloe. The land brought forth his first disciples in the form of beasts: a badger, a boar, a calf, a doe and a fox. Piran loved nature in all its forms, collecting stones and pebbles which attracted him, to decorate his altar and the hut that he added nearby.

Saint Piran of Cornwall

Sometimes goodness can so upset others that it causes them to resort to evil. The story of Piran’s journey to Cornwall, fanciful as it must be, is rooted in this understanding. It is said that the pagans of Ireland were so afraid of his authority and envious of his influence on their people that they took him to a cliff top in a howling gale, chained him to a millstone, and threw him over into the sea. However, evil is not so easily rewarded. The wind settled to a gentle breeze, the rough sea was becalmed and his enemies saw Piran sat upon the millstone, free of all bindings, serenely floating out to sea. He landed in Cornwall on March 5th, a day that continues to be commemorated as the Feast of St Piran.

Saint Monday

Saint Monday brewery is based in Hackney, London. The term "Saint Monday" was formerly used to describe the tradition of absenteeism on a Monday, in a time before 2-day weekends had been established. People “taking St. Monday” would typically extend Sunday’s revelry for another day or use the time for leisure activities. The practice petered out by the end of the 1870s, linked to the economic demands of industrial capitalism as well as moral and social pressures to conform to a new rational way of working.

In dark times, even the faintest flicker can light the way ahead. On the day of the moon, light was brought by joy and revelry; a statement made and a battle hard won. Across ages, two congregations would echo each other’s song, and honour the light with their mouths and bellies.

St Piran chose a piece of black stone for the hearth in his hut and one night, when the fire was burning brightly, he was amazed to see a trickle of silver-white metal seeping from its core…tin. Although the people of Cornwall had been trading the metal for over two thousand years, news of Piran’s monumentous “rediscovery” of the smelting process travelled far and wide and he soon became the tin miners’ patron saint, in turn rivalling Petroc for the title of Patron Saint of Cornwall.

To bring light there must first be heat - the primordial power of nature and the cauldron of creation.

An intertwined cross of liquid metal binds two saints together, a symbol of unity in thought and strength in togetherness. One man’s toil is another’s salvation.