Barvitus ( fl. 545) was a supposed Scottish saint. David E. Thornton suggests that he is a manifestation of the cult of St Findbarr, from north-east

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

. Barvitus is said to have been the disciple of St Brandan, and his companion in his wanderings.

Historical records

Thomas Dempster Thomas Dempster (23 August 1579 – 6 September 1625) was a Scottish scholar and historian. Born into the aristocracy in Aberdeenshire, which comprises regions of both the Scottish highlands and the Scottish lowlands, he was sent abroad as a yo ...

in his ''Historia ecclesiastica gentis Scotarum'' stated that he wrote the life of his teacher, and flourished about 658, and that the Scotch church kept 5 January sacred to his memory. Other authorities refer to one Barnitus, not Barvitus, as the saint from whose accounts of his own experience Brandan was tempted to go on his search for the

Fortunate Isles The Fortunate Isles or Isles of the Blessed ( grc, μακάρων νῆσοι, ''makárōn nêsoi'') were semi-legendary islands in the Atlantic Ocean, variously treated as a simple geographical location and as a winterless earthly paradise inhabit ...

, but Barnitus and Barvitus were apparently variants of one name. A Scottish breviary says that Barvitus' body, or relics, was worshipped at

Dreghorn Dreghorn is a village in North Ayrshire, Scotland, east of Irvine town centre, on the old main road from Irvine to Kilmarnock. It is sited on a ridge between two rivers. As archaeological excavations near the village centre have found a signifi ...

. The exact connection of the saint with St. Brandan seems uncertain. The only work assigned to Barvitus by Dempster is one entitled 'De Brandani Rebus.' Thomas Tanner suggested that this might be the old manuscript life of St. Brandan preserved in Lincoln College library at Oxford. But

Henry Octavius Coxe Henry Octavius Coxe (20 September 1811 in Bucklebury, Berkshire, England – 8 July 1881 in Oxford) was an English librarian and scholar. The eighth son of Rev. Richard Coxe and Susan Smith, he was educated at Westminster School and Worcester ...

assigned the handwriting of this manuscript to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

References

* ;Attribution Year of birth missing Year of death missing 6th-century Scottish people Medieval Scottish saints Scottish biographers 6th-century Christian saints {{saint-stub