CHRONICLES OF CORNISH SAINTS. VI.—S. BURIAN. 143 
It lies about a mile south-east of the Parish Church which ‘bears 
her name, beside a rivulet on the farm of Bosliven, and the spot 
is called the “Sentry” or Sanctuary. The crumbling remains of 
an ancient structure still remain there, and traces of extensive. 
foundations have been found adjoining them. If not the actual ruins, 
they probably occupy the site of the oratory in which Athelstan, 
after vanquishing the last Cornish king, knelt at the shrine of the 
Saint, and made his memorable vow, that, if God would crown his 
expedition to the Scilly Islands with success, he would on his return 
build and endow there a Church and College in token of his 
gratitude, and in memory of his victories.* It was on that wild 
headland, about four miles from Land’s End, that S. Burian took 
up her abode; and a group of Saints from Ireland, who were 
probably her friends and companions, and who seem to have landed 
on our shores at the same time, occupied contiguous parts of the 
same district. There she watched and prayed with such devotion 
that the fame of her goodness found its way back to her native 
land ; and thenceforward Bruinsecha the beautiful, by which 
designation she had been known there, was enrolled in the cata- 
logue of Irish Saints; but her Christian zeal was spent in the 
Cornish Parish which perpetuates her name. 
+* “S. Buriana, an Holy Woman of Ireland, sumtyme dwellid in this 
place, and there made an oratory. King Hthelstane goying hens, as it is said, 
onto Sylley and returning made ex voto a College wher the oratorie was.” 
Leland Itin., iii, fol. 5. 
