in the Hayle estuary on the north coast. They were well received by King Theodore. Breaca built several churches. Cornish legend says she was a midwife, and the sister of St. Levin. He was a hermit at Bodellen, in Cornwall. He need to catch one fish every day for his own food. One evening, when he went fishing, he caught two bream on his hook. He took them both off, and threw them back into the sea; the same two came again a second and a third time; he supposed there was some reason for this double supply, and carried them both home; there he found that his sister St. Breaca had come to visit him with her two children, who had had a long walk, and were very hungry. The fish were cooked for supper. The children ate their portions eagerly, without waiting to pick out the bones, and both were choked. From that day the bream has been called by the Cornish fishermen, chak-cheel (choke-child); some people say it was the chad, but the bream has very dangerous bones, and is more likely to have been the fatal food. Nothing is known with any certainty about St. Levin, and some of the stories give him, instead of Breaca, a sister Manaccan. AA. SS. British Piety. A. Forster, English Dedications. Rev. S. Baring-Gould, Book of the West. Forbes. Hunt, Popular Romances of the West of England… Traditions of Old Cornwall. Smith and Wace.
Breenada, July 3, V. 7th century. Irish. Commemorated with Tirechan, a disciple of Ultan. Boll., AA. SS., Præter.
St. Breeyith, Brigid (2).
St. Brega, Bega.
St. Breock, Breaca.
St. Brettiva, Jan. 11 (Brictiva, Brittifa, Broteva, Brykke). Supposed to be Irish, but worshipped chiefly in Norway and Iceland. From the 11th century her name appears there in the catalogues of saints’ days to be kept holy. Broteva is still found as a name in Iceland, and popularly understood to mean the guilty Eve. In the Norwegian calendars a horse is the sign for St Brettiva’s day. The word brette means to turn violently, to double up. A farmer drove out for hay on that day. Being warned that it was Brette Messe, he obstinately and profanely made a pun on her name, by answering, “Turn me this way, turn me that, I’ll turn me home a load of hay.” But his horse fell and broke its leg. The pictured horse, therefore, stands in the calendar as a warning. The festival is also called Brykke Messa and Brokkis Messa, from the custom of the remnants of the Yule fare being stewed and eaten on that day. Report xx. Antiquarian Society of Cambridge.
St. Brewo, Winifred.
St. Bricheza, a mistake for St. Richeza.
St. Brictiva, Brettiva.
St. Bride, Brigid (2).
St. Bridget, Brigid.
St. Brie, Brigid (2).
St. Brig, Breaca.
St. Briga, or Brigh. Briga is one of the names of St. Brigid, besides which there are several Brigas, called also Brigh. (1) A pious matron, daughter of Feargna, who assisted St. Patrick in his labours; (2) Brigh of Coirpre, Jan. 7, who is possibly the same as Briga (1). Smith and Wace. O’Hanlon.
St. Briga (3), or Brigh, Feb. 1. End of 5th or beginning of 6th century. An abbess in Leinster, contemporary and friend of St. Brigid (2). At one of her frequent visits to St. Briga’s convent, when the nuns had washed the feet of their beloved guest, one of them, who had long lost the use of hers from gout, put them into the same water. Before she had time to dry them, they were perfectly well. When Brigid, Briga, and the nuns were at dinner, they noticed that Brigid kept her eyes fixed on one spot. They asked her the reason. She said she saw the devil sitting there amongst them. At Briga’s request she made the sign of the cross on her eyes, and so enabled her to see him too. He had an immense head, a black face, fiery eyes, flaming breath, thick knees and ankles. Brigid asked him why he and his companions bore so fierce a hatred towards the human race. He answered, “Because we do not wish any one to
