B
The basics
Quick facts
Intro
Irish saint
Gender:
Female
Places:
Is:
Work field:
Birth:
1 January 600
Death:
1 January 600
The details
Biography
Saint Buriana (or Berriona, Beriana or Beryan) was a 6th-century Irish saint, a hermit in St Buryan, near Penzance, Cornwall. Baring-Gould identifies her with the Irish Saint Bruinsech.
She is said to have been the daughter of an Irish king and travelled to Cornwall from Ireland as a missionary to convert the local people to Christianity. According to the Exeter Calendar of Martyrology Buriana was the daughter of a Munster chieftain. One legend tells how she cured the paralysed son of King Geraint of Dumnonia. Buriana ministered from a chapel on the site of the parish church at St Buryan.
Buriana's feast day is 1 May.