Breage

Saint Breage or Breaca (with many variant spellings) is a saint venerated in Cornwall and southwestern Britain. According to her late hagiography, she was an Irish nun of the 5th or 6th century who founded a church in Cornwall. The village and civil parish of Breage in Cornwall are named after her, and the local Breage Parish Church is dedicated to her.

Traditions

Breage Church was established by 1170, giving its name to the village and parish of Breage. However, little else is known of Saint Breage or her early cultus. She was the subject of a medieval hagiography, probably written in the 14th or 15th century. The work is lost, but the English antiquarian John Leland recorded some extracts in his Itinerary around 1540. The surviving text suggests an initial composition at or for Breage Church, as it gives Breage precedence over other saints of the region and contains a number of references to local places. The narrative is late and replete with stock elements and borrowings from other works, and as such is not considered historical. However, the author was certainly well versed in the hagiographical tradition, drawing from a Life of Brigid of Kildare, and evidently borrowing from Breton traditions of Saint Sithney and Lives of the local saints Elwen, Ia, and Gwinear.