St Just Chapel, Gorran Haven, Cornwall
In this tiny chapel perched on the cliffside in the centre of the village Christian worship has been carried out for 1400 years. It goes right back to the original Celtic Christians who evangelised Cornwall in the 600sAD. The chapel is located with an amazing view out to sea. The view is expansive and exactly the kind of 'edge of the world' place which Celtic Christians chose for their prayer hermitages believing them to be 'thin places' where it is easier to encounter God as Heaven touches earth. I tend to agree.
I enter the chapel knowing a little about the origins of Gorran Haven.
ST GORON (Gorun, Guron) is associated with both Gorran Haven and Langurthowe (holy place of Goron: in Fowey)
He first established a hermitage cell at Bodmin in central Cornwall. The holy well and well house in the grounds of St Petroc's church in Bodmin are still dedicated to St Guron. However, when St Petroc arrived he passed that hermitage on and moved south. It is thought he went to the south coast to Fowey. He had a hermitage in the valley by the stream above Fowey church. It was a sheltered inlet on the hills. He disappeared when Fimbarus arrived. Langurthowe was a town predating Fowey. Perhaps this is when he relocated to the more isolated place of Gorran Haven and Gorran. He established his first prayer cell inland at Polgorran.
On entering the small chapel I move to the front pew to pray but immediately start worshipping extemporaneously in the Spirit and can't stop for well over twenty minutes. It takes me into a very deep place in the Spirit where the worship pours out of my spirit to Jesus. There is a stillness of depth and peace in the chapel of holiness, with walls saturated in prayer.
After a while, I sense myself outside of time and begin to 'see' in the Spirit a man dressed in ancient humble homespun garments, sitting on a rock looking out to sea on this spot. He is a devout Celtic Christian who is praying. I watch as he stands, his white robe bright and he is holding a small wooden cross in front of him. He is declaring the truth of Jesus to people who I can't see. I watch as a thick rope is flung around his neck and he is pushed over the cliff, being decapitated in the process. And whilst what I see is unpleasant (I am not traumatised), I realise he was martyred for his faith on this site and his blood cries out from beneath the throne of God.
I am led to pray for forgiveness to be released on the land for his murder, that it would be completely cleansed. I'm reminded of Revelation 6:9-11 'And they cried with a loud voice, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' I petition God that this man's prayers for the people he came to preach salvation to would be heard and released today, that there would be a harvest of souls even in our present age as a result of his martyrdom.
The scene shifts and I now see a devout fisherwoman praying in this chapel. She lived many centuries after the first man and her prayers are also before the throne of God rising as incense. She is praying for the generations following after her. Some of those prayers are to be answered today, especially for the youth. So I joined my prayers with hers, that the overflow would be released in our generation.
Then I hear the word 'sanctuary'. This is Gorran Haven, Goron’s haven. His name lives on. Yet this chapel is dedicated to St Just. It is not known which St Just this refers to. He was certainly one of the Celtic missionaries who brought Christianity to Cornwall and there are two other churches and a parish dedicated to him in Cornwall. But Just was a common name, like John. It is possible this St Just came across from Wales with Goron.
Goron himself established his first hermitage at Polgorran near Gorran Churchtown which is slightly inland. We visited the church there too. You can see what happened in a separate write up.
As I left there was an invitation to pray by choosing a pebble and dropping it into a bowl of water. Immediately an intercession burden for all the Ukranians who live with us came over me with weeping and crying out for this awful war to end with Russia.