CORNISH DEDICATIONS. 485 



S. BuRiENA, Virgin Abbess. 



S. Buriena was one of the Irish Colony that came over 

 about 520. Leland in his Itinerary (iii, 18,) says, "S. Buriana, 

 an Holy Woman of Ireland, sumtyme dwellid in this place 

 and there made an oratory. King Ethelstane going hence, as it 

 is said, unto Sylley and returning, made ex voto a College where 

 the oratorio was." She has been identified by Mr. Adams with 

 ' Bruinech the Slender' of the Martyrology of Donegal, "who" 

 says the scholiast on the martyrology, "is venerated in a town 

 bearing her name, in England, on the 29th May." But this is 

 inaccurate, the feast of S. Buryan being the nearest Sunday to 

 May 12. 



Leland calls her Bruinet, and says she was a king's 

 daughter, who came into Cornwall with S. Piran. The forms 

 Bruinet and Bruinech are mere variations in spelling, that occur 

 repeatedly as Gobnat and Gobnach, Rignat and Eignach, Dervet 

 and Dervech. The ech, or at, or et, is a diminutive for female 

 names, like the oc for male names. So Brig becomes Bridget. 



Bruinech was of illustrious birth. She was the daughter 

 of Crimthan a chieftain in Munster, grandson of that Oengus 

 MacNadfraich who had been baptized by S. Patrick. She was 

 a kinswoman of S. Kieran. 



The story of Buriena is found in the life of S. Kieran 

 (Piran), of Saighir. It has been paraphrased by Mr. Adams, 

 from Colgan (Journal E. Inst, of Cornwall, vol. iv. p. 141). But 

 it will be preferable to give it from the original text in the 

 Salamanca Codex: — She was, as already stated, daughter of a 

 chieftain in Munster, and she embraced the religious life under 

 Liadhain the mother of S. Kieran, one of the first abbesses in 

 Ireland. Liadhain had a religious house at Killyon in King's 

 County. The damsel was slim in form, and so went by the name 

 of Bruinech or Brunsech Caol, the " Slender;" she was also 

 very beautiful. 



Dimma, of the Hy Fiachai District in West Meath, fell in 

 love with her and carried her off against her will, with the 

 assistance of his clansmen. 



The wrath of S. Kieran was kindled, and he sped after 

 the ravisher, to demand her back again. Dimma refused to 



