Tírechán, in his Collection, describes how *Bruscus (priest of Mag Réin, S02784), who had been ordained by Patrick, after his death appeared in another man's dream and asked that his body be moved to a more frequented church. Written in Latin in Ireland, probably shortly after c. 668.
E07407
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Literary - Hagiographical - Monastic collections (apophthegmata, etc.)
Literary - Hagiographical - Other saint-related texts
Tírechán, Collection (BHL 6496) (E06131)
16.
[...] (8) Et uenit in campum Rein et ordinauit Bruscum praespiterum et aeclessiam illi fundauit; qui dixit mirabile post mortem eius altero sancto, qui fuit in insola generis Cotirbi: (9) "bene est tibi dum filium tuum habes; ego autem, tedebit me mors mea, quia solus sum in aeclessia in diserto, in aeclessia relicta ac uacua, et non offerent iuxta me sacerdotes". (10) In noctibus <tribus> somnium factus est: tertio die surrexit sanctus et arripuit anulum et trullam ferrumque et sepulcri fossam fodiuit et portauit ossa Brusci sancti secum ad insolam in qua sunt, et resticuit.
'... (8) And he [Patrick] came to Mag Réin and ordained Bruscus a priest and founded a church for him; Bruscus said something extraordinary after his death to another holy man, who was in the monastery of the family of Cothirbe: (9) 'All is well with you because you have a son; I loathe my death because I am alone in a solitary church, a church deserted and empty, and no priests offer beside me.' (10) For three nights (the holy man) had this dream; on the third day he got up, took a ring and an iron shovel and dug up the moat of the grave and took the bones of holy Bruscus with him to the monastery where they (now) are, and (Bruscus) spoke no more.'
Text and translation: Bieler 1979, 136-7, lightly modified.
Cult building - independent (church)
Cult building - monastic
MiraclesMiracle after death
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Saint aiding or preventing the translation of relics
RelicsBodily relic - bones and teeth
Transfer, translation and deposition of relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Source
Tírechán’s now-untitled account of Patrick’s life (Collectanea is a modern editor’s invention) survives in only one ninth-century Irish manuscript, the Book of Armagh (Trinity College Dublin Ms 52), where it almost immediately follows Muirchú’s Life of the same saint (E06132). The text as we have it is probably incomplete or unfinished, and its division into two books may not be Tírechán’s own. We are told that Tírechán was a bishop, although not where he held his see. His naming of Ultán of Connor (bishop of Ardbraccan, ob. c. 655) as both his source and mentor would seem to date the work to the second half of the seventh century, while his reference to a recent plague (ch. 25) suggests a terminus post quem of 664-8, although there were further outbreaks in 680 and 700. Bieler suggested in his edition of 1979 that there was no clear indication as to whether Tírechán wrote before or after Muirchú, but ‘there is now a general agreement’ (Sharpe, 1991) that the Collectanea is the earlier work, probably composed not long after the devastations of the 664-8 epidemic.For an overview of Tírechán's Collection, see E06131.
Discussion
This passage appears to be a rare, early Irish description of an inventio (Thacker, 2002, 35-6).Bibliography
Edition and translationTírechán, in The Patrician Texts of the Book of Armagh, ed. and trans. L. Bieler (Dublin, 1979), 122-67.
Further reading
J.B. Bury, ‘Tírechán’s Memoir of St Patrick,’ English Historical Review, 17 (1902), pp. 235-67.
E. MacNeill, ‘The Earliest Lives of St Patrick,’ Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 58 (1928), pp. 1-21.
R. Sharpe, ‘St Patrick and the See of Armagh,’ Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 4 (1982), pp. 33-59.
R. Sharpe, Medieval Irish Saints’ Lives: an Introduction to Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae (Oxford, 1991)
C. Swift, ‘Tírechán’s Motives in Compiling the “Collectanea”: An Alternative Interpretation,’ Ériu, 45 (1994), pp. 53-82.
A. Thacker, 'Loca sanctorum: the Significance of Place in the Study of the Saints,' in A. Thacker and R. Sharpe, eds., Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West (Oxford, 2002), 1-44.
Benjamin Savill
20/02/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S02784 | Bruscus, priest of Mag Réin (Ireland) | Bruscus | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Benjamin Savill, Cult of Saints, E07407 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07407