Saint Tetha

Saint Tetha
St Tetha's in St Teath
Princess of Brycheiniog Virgin
Born	5th century
Canonized	Pre-Congregation
Major shrine	St Teath
Feast	Various (lapsed)
Patronage	St Teath

Saint Tetha (Cornish: Tedha; Welsh: Tedda), also known as Saint Teath (/tɛθ/),Saint Tecla, and by a variety of other names, was a 5th-century virgin and saint in Wales and Cornwall. She is associated with the parish church of St Teath in Cornwall. Baring-Gould gives her feast day as 27 October, but this has been called a mistaken conflation with Saint Ia. In 1878, it was held on the movable feast of Whit Tuesday. Other sources place it on 1 May, 6 September, and (mistakenly) 15 January. It is no longer observed by either the Anglican or Catholic church in Wales.

Early Latin records give the companion of Breaca and patron of St Teath the name Tecla, a form of the name borne by the first female martyr in Christianity. The Acts of Paul and Thecla was a common apocryphal work in the early church and the name was formerly relatively common. The editor of the Bollandists' mention of the saint and Bartrum consider the name mistaken or fictitious, but do not account for the early appearance of the name in records at St Teath itself. Accounts of Breaca's journey give her the additional name Etha, which some have considered a corruption of "Itha". This in turn has led to the saint becoming confused and conflated with the Irish saint Íde of Killeedy.