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A fact from Saint Senara appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 17 May 2012 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that according to Cornish legend, the mermaidSaint Senara fell in love with the chorister of the church in Zennor, and that the church is now dedicated to her?
Having researched this fairly extensively I would say there is no evidence to back this up. I questioned Sue Monk Kidd about her references on Twitter and am awaiting for her to provide the source but her response suggested confusion: "I found 1 legend that before her conversion St Senara was a Celtic princess/mermaid named Asenora". I already have a source that links St Serara to Aesnora (the Princess of Breton legend) which I have added to this page but I think there is confusion (or artistic licence) between the two legends by Sue as I find no link to St Senara or Asenora being a mermaid in any local tradition. I have therefore removed this text and added Sues connection as an adaptation of the legend. Miletbaker (talk) 21:18, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
To make things even worse, according to the ref I've just added there's not even any definite link between this saint and the one of Breton legend. But this is typical of early history where facts are few and legends abound, so it isn't a problem as long as reliable sources are used to describe the different theories. I must add, though, that I can't find any reference to Asenora, or anything like it, in this copy of Bede. —SMALLJIM12:40, 15 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
But the DYK hook "... according to Cornish legend, the mermaid Saint Senara fell in love with .." is still valid? "true" even? Most people agree that Saints at least started off as real people. But are not so sure abour real mermaids... ? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 12:59, 15 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think it's valid, no. Looking back at that version(link fixed) of the article, there's a sudden assumption in the middle of the "Legend" section that the mermaid was the same 'person' as the founder of the church and as far as I can see neither of the cited sources confirms this. It looks as if that important point was overlooked in the DYK discussion. —SMALLJIM13:41, 15 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Um hang on, I thought the mermaid came to this church to listen to her lover singing? Or was that an earlier version of this church? when it was dedicated to some other saint without a tail? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 14:11, 15 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, the mermaid came to the church in Zennor, but the mermaid wasn't Saint Senara, which is what both the previous version of the article ("Local legend has it, however, that Senara was besotted with the voice"), and the DYK stated. As Miletbaker pointed out above, the two legends are completely separate, but here they got conflated - possibly due to Sue Monk Kidd's influence. I also think that unless we can quickly find a reliable source that Senara is known locally as "the mermaid saint" that statement should be removed. (I should have linked to the old version of the article above, not the diff - now fixed.) —SMALLJIM17:02, 15 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Update: an online search throws up no reliable sources for <"mermaid saint" zennor>, and nothing at all prior to 2005 which, significantly, was the year that Kidd's The Mermaid Chair was published. Consequently I've removed the mention of "mermaid saint" from the lead. If it's later picked up by reliable guidebooks etc. we could add it back, maybe under "Modern adaptations". —SMALLJIM16:22, 16 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
It's also said that she prayed to God after a mob of roman soldiers surrounded her by the edge of a cliff she prayed to God and jumped off the cliff into the ragging waters below where legend states she was given the tail of a fish and she swam far far away to safety after finding and converting an entire island she jumped into the ocean again to watch over it from the fathoms below.
with the following request: "could you please aid me in tracking down the legend where it states she became a mermaid".
Sorry, Lord julyan of Srp, you will have to specify a proposed edit text and a source you got the information from, on the talk page of the relevant article. I reiterate my advice on your user talk: work though that tutorial first. You will then understand how to make this edit. Once you have completed some such learning effort, I will be glad to help you with these edits. HLHJ (talk) 01:46, 25 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
