At S. Stephen's in Brannel, Cornwall, is a holy well, or ancient baptistery, called S. Bernard's Well. That it was dedicated to the abbot of Clairvaux is improbable. It is possible that originally it was called after S. Bernac or Brynach, and may show what was the original dedication of the church, before it was placed under the patronage of S. Stephen. For the determination of the date of S. Brynach we have not much to go upon. Maelgwn Gwynedd died of the Yellow Plague in 547; and the death of the Saint must have taken place some ten or fifteen years later, possibly even as late as 570. His symbol is a wild white sow with young pigs, as he is said to have founded the church at Nevern where he discovered a sow with her litter. Also stags are said to have drawn timber for him from the forest. Both are represented in Braunton Church on the bench ends and on the roof. Mr. Anscombe 1 identifies Brynach with the "Eurbre gwydel o iwe[r]don" of Jesus College MS. 20, reading Gur Bre[nach] for Brynach, in which case he was grandfather or great-grandfather to Brychan. But it would be simply impossible to identify this man with the Brynach of Welsh hagiology. There is, however, a Brynach Wyddel, also under the forms Eurnach and Urnach, connected by legend with the Snowdon mountains, in whom we may detect the Gwrnach, Awarnach, and Diwrnach Wyddel, with his magic cauldron, of the Tale of Culhwch and Olwen. There are some details of him, hopelessly jumbled, to be found in the Iolo MSS., where Brynach Wyddel, king of Gwynedd, is said to have been converted and baptized by S. Rhidian of Gower and Rheged, and to have "founded the first churches in Gwynedd." He was killed at his stronghold, Dinas Ffaraon, now Dinas Emrys, near Beddgelert, in single combat with Owain Finddu, son of Maxen Wledig, the one killing the other. Eurnach or Urnach, we are also told, was the father of Serigi Wyddel and Daronwy, "and headed 20,000 Irish to Gwynedd, where they and their descendants remained for 129 years."2 A Brynach Wyddel is also mentioned in a mythical Triad.3 1 Archiv f. Celtische Lexikographie, i, p. 524; ii, p. 185. 2 Iolo MSS., pp. 81-2, 84-5. 3 Myv. Arch., pp. 390, 412. S. BUAN, Confessor BUAN was the son of Ysgwn (Esgwn or Ysgwyn), the son of Llywarch Hên.1 His grandfather was the celebrated sixth century warrior-bard and Brythonic prince in the north. Not being able to hold back the invading Angles, Llywarch lost his patrimony and fled to Wales, where he found, for a time, an asylum with Cynddylan, prince of part of Powys. There was no profession open to such of his sons as escaped the sword but the religious life. Buan is said to be the patron of Bodvean, Carnarvonshire, which means the "Dwelling or Abode of Buan," a somewhat uncommon combination for a church-name. The old form was Boduan, i.e. Bod Fuan. His festival used to be observed there on August 4.2 S. BUDDWAL, or BUDDWALAN, Confessor S. BUDGUAL or Budgualan, hodie Buddwal or Buddwalan, is mentioned in the Book of Llan Dâv in a grant to that Church of Lann Budgualan (or Budgual) in Erging. It is represented to-day by the church of Ballingham, some 8 miles S.E. of Hereford, and dedicated to S. Dyfrig. Budgual must have been one of those very early Saints, before the sixth century, of whom no records have been preserved. S. BUDMAIL, Confessor. BUDMAILE is invoked in the Celtic Litany of S. Vougay, of the tenth century. Budmail is probably, almost certainly, Bothmael, the disciple of S. Maudetus or Mawes, along with S. Tudy. These disciples attended Maudetus when he retired to the island now called l'Isle Modez, off the north coast of Brittany in the Bréhat archipelago.5 Once, when 1 Peniarth MSS. 16 (early thirteenth century), 45 (late thirteenth), and 12 (early fourteenth); Hafod MS. 16; Myv. Arch., p. 418; Iolo MSS., p. 128; Cambro-British Saints, p. 266. 2 Willis, Bangor, p. 275; Rees, Welsh Saints, p. 280. In the Cambrian Register, iii, p. 225, the 9th is given. 3 Pp. 164, 171, 275. 4 Alb. le Grand, Vies des SS. de Bretagne, new edition, 1901, pp. 226-7. 5 " 'Duos discipulos, scilicet Bothmaelum et Tudium secum habuit fideles consortes in spe perhennis gaudii, labore et divino officio." Vita ima S. Maudeti, ed. De la Borderie, p. 8. their master was absent, a demon which the Britons call a Tuthe appeared before them in the form of a marine monster. They told Maudetus, and one day shortly after, seeing the creature in the waves, he threw a stone at it, knocked it over, and the Tuthe never again appeared.1 On a certain day the fire in the island went out, and Maudetus sent his disciple Bothmael at low tide to the mainland to bring him some live coals. Bothmael crossed, and asked a woman who was boiling milk to furnish him with what he required. She replied that she would do so on condition that he carried back the glowing charcoal in the lap of his habit. This condition he accepted, and he was on his way back when the tide turned and he was in peril of his life, but managed to reach the island, through the interposition of Providence, at the prayer of S. Maudetus. Nothing further is known of Bothmael. All we learn concerning him is from the Vita Sti. Maudeti, of which two editions exist, that have been published by De la Borderie in the Mémoires de la Société d'Emulation des Côtes du Nord, Rennes, 1891. Maudetus is said to have been an Irishman; he must have been for a while in Cornwall, as both he and Tudy have left their impress there, but whether Bothmael were an Irish or British disciple is not related. S. BUDOC, Abbot, Confessor THERE were four or five of this name. 1. An abbot in the Isles of Bréhat. Ard-Budoc, or "Budoc the exalted one," or " the Chief Budoc," was his title. He was the teacher of S. Winwaloe from about 467 to about 480; and we may suppose that he died about 500. 2. Budoc, son of Azenor, born, according to the legend, in Ireland, almost certainly the Budoc of Devon and Cornwall. 3. Budoc, bishop of Dol, after S. Maglorius, circ. 586-600. 4. Budoc, bishop of Vannes, circ. 600, the successor of Regalis, and predecessor of Hinguetien. 5. Budoc, disciple of Gildas, and martyr, circ. 560. The first and the second may be, and probably are the same; for 1 "Dæmon quem Britones Tuthe appellant coram eis apparuit in specie marinæ belluæ," Vita ima S. Maudeti, ed. De la Borderie, p. 9. 2 Ibid., p. II. Budoc, son of Azenor, is said to have been a son of the Count or Chieftain of Goëlo, which is the tract between the river Leff and the sea, and to it pertained the Bréhat archipelago, in one island of which Budoc" the Exalted One " had his monastic school. It is at Châtelaudren on the Leff that Budoc and Azenor are culted, and the isles of Bréhat are in the estuary of the Leff and Trieux. In the Life of S. Winwaloe we learn that his father, Fragan, committed him to the Abbot Budoc, who lived in the Island of Lavrea in the Bréhat cluster.1 The remains of Budoc's settlement, a small rectangular church and a row of bee-hive huts, are extant ; and one of these huts is fairly intact. The pattern is precisely that of the Irish ecclesiastical settlements.2 The name of Budoc still survives in Pembrokeshire and in Devon and in Cornwall. In Pembrokeshire a chapel, now destroyed, in Hubbeston, was called S. Buttock's; the name has recently been altered to S. Botolph's. In Devon and Cornwall are S. Budeaux, near Plymouth; the parish churches of S. Budock, by Falmouth, and a ruined chapel, Budock Vean, or Little S. Budoc, in the parish of S. Constantine, near Falmouth. According to the Exeter Martyrology, his Festival in the diocese was held on December 8. At S. Budock it is kept on the Sunday before Advent; so as not to interfere with that penitential season. At Dol the feast is transferred to December 9, because December 8 is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. Leland, speaking of S. Budoc, says: "This Budocus was an Irishman, that came into Cornewalle and ther dwellid."3 The legend of S. Budoc is found in the Chronicon Briocense, that dates only from the fifteenth century, and has not been printed. But there are extracts, relative to S. Budoc, in an article by A. de Barthelmy, in the Bulletin de la Société d'Emulation des Côtes du Nord, tome iii. (1863), p. 235. The legend was further contained in the Breviaries of Dol and Léon, and from them Albert le Grand derived the material for his wonderful romance.4 Albert, however, omitted certain incidents that occur in the narrative in the Chronicon Briocense. 1 "Post septem dies, una cum infantulo-quendam angelicum audit magistrum nomine Budocum, cognomine Arduum, scientia praeditum, justitia aequitate egregium, quem velut quoddam fidei fundamentum columnamque ecclesiae firmissimam cuncti pariter tunc temporis credebant," Vita Sti. Winwaloei, ed. Plaine, p. 13. 2 De la Borderie, Hist. de Bretagne, i, pp. 295-9. A plan of the island and its remains are in the same volume. 3 Leland, Itin., Oxf., 1744, 333, P. 14. 4 Vies des Saints de Bretagne, 1636, ed. 1891, pp. 739-60. The legend is as follows: There was a king of Brest who had, once upon a time, a daughter named Azenor. She was filled with every virtue. One day, when the king was out hunting, a monstrous serpent struck at him, and wound itself about his arm, and could not be detached thence. A wise man of the Court declared that nothing would relieve the king save the counter-attraction of a fair woman's breast washed with ewe's milk and olive oil. Azenor at once volunteered. She presented her bosom, duly smeared, to the monster, which immediately relaxed hold of her father's arm and attached itself to her breast. Thereupon, with a razor she cut off her bosom and threw it, along with the serpent adhering to it, into a fire. Heaven, to reward her filial piety, restored her breast whole.1 At this time there lived a Count of Goëlo, that portion of the modern department of Côtes du Nord which forms the Cantons of Paimpol, Plouha, and Lanvollon, off the coast of the northern portion of which is the Bréhat archipelago. This Count married Azenor. About a year subsequently, Azenor's mother died, and the King of Brest married again. The new Queen was now anxious to clear her step-daughter out of the way, as she was heiress of Léon. To this end she poisoned the minds of the father and the husband of Azenor with suspicions as to her fidelity. The Count of Goëlo had his wife tried by the Council of his estates, and she was condemned to be put into a barrel and cast into the sea. The sentence was executed, and Azenor floated in the cider-cask for five months, tossed up and down by the waves.2 During all this time. she was supplied with victuals by an angel, who must have thrust them. in to her through the bung-hole, and, marvellous to relate, the barrel always maintained its balance. Whilst thus drifting, Azenor became a mother, and was assisted by S. Brigid, who acted as midwife. Budoc was born in the barrel.1 1 Chron. Brioc. Albert le Grand omits this incident. 3 "" 2 Hoc parato judicio Mari mansit devia. Brev. of Léon. 'Et Angeli, beatæ (ut asserunt) Virginis Brigittae, cui devote inserviebat, ministerio cibata et consolata— " Ubi, cum luce splendida Ministrans Sancta Brigitta Dabat necessaria.' Ibid. Ast ubi, quinque mensium spatio toto, marinis fluctibus Britannicis primum, deinde Britannicis et Hiberniensibus littoribus agitatur dolium, tanquam regiâ |