Every year on 31 July, St Neots marks the feast day of the saint who gave the town its name. It’s a good moment to look back at the unlikely story of how a Cornish hermit came to be remembered on the banks of the Great Ouse.

Who was Neot?

Neot was born in Wessex in the early 9th century and trained as a monk at Glastonbury Abbey, where he became known for his scholarship and humility. Uneasy with the attention his reputation brought him, he left Glastonbury and travelled to a remote spot in Cornwall, in what is now the village of St Neot, near Bodmin Moor. There he lived as a hermit for seven years before a visit to the Pope in Rome, who encouraged him to found a monastery on the site and continue his ministry rather than withdraw further from the world.

Neot became known for his care of the poor and his devotion to prayer. King Alfred the Great is said to have visited him at Cornwall on several occasions, and Neot was not shy of admonishing the king over his conduct. A number of miracles were later attributed to him, including one in which he refused to break a promise made to him by an angel about three fish in a holy well, a story still depicted in the medieval stained glass of St Neot’s parish church in Cornwall today.

Neot died on 31 July 877, which is why his feast day falls on that date. His body was buried at the monastery he had founded.

From Cornwall to Eynesbury

Around a century after his death, a nobleman named Leofric founded a new priory at Eynesbury, on the banks of the Great Ouse, and wanted a notable saint’s relics to give the foundation prestige and draw pilgrims. Neot’s remains were taken from Cornwall, reportedly without permission, and brought here. Despite the objections of the Cornish, who pursued the theft and even took the matter to the king, the relics stayed at Eynesbury.

A chapel and monastery were built to house them, and the settlement that grew up around the priory took on a new name in the saint’s honour: St Neots.

A legacy that lasts

The priory itself was destroyed at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, and no trace of Neot’s remains survives today. But his name endures in the town, and his image, taken from the Alfred Jewel, appears in the mosaic set into the paving of the Market Square.

More than a thousand years on, St Neots Day is a chance to celebrate that history and the values of care and community that the saint was remembered for.