SAINT CONSTANTINE is celebrated each year with an annual concert on the Tuesday nearest his Feast day.

Very little, if anything, is known for certain about Saint Constantine, whose name is given to this parish, except that he was one of the few Celtic saints to be a Cornishman. Canon G.H. Doble in his Cornish Saints says that "the name has given rise altogether to one of the most fearful series of muddles in the whole history of hagiography." Most authorities agree that he was a chieftain or prince, or possibly a king, somewhere about the fifth century A.D. The Emperor Constantine the Great. from whom the name probably stemmed. was a Roman born at York, who was converted to Christianity about the year 312 A.D. becoming the first Christian Roman Emperor.

Once Roman Britain had accepted Christianity it became a popular name. Most sources state that our saint was, at first, wild and violent and may even have committed murder, but after his conversion he put away his sword and became a monk and missionary. One legend associates him with St. Petroc and the building of his monastery at Padstow, and a few miles south of Padstow, just inland from Constantine Bay on the north coast, are the ruins, and a holy well, of the only other church in Cornwall to be dedicated to St. Constantine. Most of it has been overwhelmed by sandstorms but the font, of catacleuse stone, was removed to St. Merryn's Church, the parish church nearby.

Similar legends in Wales, Ireland and Scotland remember Constantine as king, monk and martyr. The Feast of St. Constantine is observed on March 9th or the Sunday nearest. The name was known locally as Constenton or Constentan until recent times.

One legend claims that St. Constantine was a nephew of King Arthur to whom he bequeathed his crown when he was mortally wounded. There was a Constantine, King of Dumnonia (a kingdom which comprised Devon and Cornwall) mentioned by some early historians as living around the middle of the sixth century or earlier.

In 1869 the Feast Celebrations had a dark side, and that was the destruction of the Tolmen Stone, the massive egg shaped stone weighing 750 tons, that sat above the quarry at Maen, this stone was a tourist attraction in its own right with people traveling from Falmouth and Penryn to see it. This stone some 33 feet long, 18 feet wide and 14ft 6 high, the size of two double decker buses side by side, was blown from its rest into the quarry beneath, why we don’t know, too dangerous to work the quarry face below it, it had more value in the cut stone it could be used for who knows, but one thing is certain that within a month an act was past in parliament to protect such wonderful natural ancient monuments from wanton destruction, you could say English Heritage started here in Constantine.

St Constantine Feast Celebrations in the past have taken many forms:

THE MOCK MAYOR
At Constantine (pronounced Costenton) a mock mayor was formally elected on Wednesday following the parish feast. The preceding days having been given over the revelry, shortage of money commonly provided the necessary inducement to accept the office, to which a fee of about 7s. 6d. was attached. The mayor was adorned with a hat, and having taken his place in a cart was dragged through the village by other revellers who, like himself, had generally been well plied with liquor. Not infrequently the mayor was accompanied in the cart by a deputy mayor, whose duty it was to steady the chief official on his feet. 'The procession, ' writes Mr James Roberts, of Bradford, who was a 'Costenton boy' some eighty years ago, 'usually started from the Queen s Arms, and halts were made at various places, where the mayor stood up in the cart and delivered a homily in accordance with the promptings of the leading spirits. If there had been any scandal in the village during the year a halt would be made at the house of the chief actor or actors, and advice given as to their future conduct. After a tour of the village, the cart was sometimes drawn down to the river at Ponjeravah, and the worthy mayor toppled in. As the stream was broad and shallow there was no danger of drowning.' The last Mayor of Costenton_was a certain John Roberts, who went by the nickname of 'Jack Darky'. His election, which took place in the feast week of 1857, was witnessed by the Rev. R. F B. Richards, who had been newly appointed vicar of the parish. The affair proved so distasteful to the latter that he used all his influence to prevent its recurrence. In this he succeeded, and from that time forth the mayoral election of Constantine have ceased to be.