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24-524: Breage Church was established by 1170, giving its name to the village and parish of Breage, Cornwall . 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 contains

48-484: A copperplate engraving with figures of the Roman devices of torture used, and a 2-page explanation of their use. Charles Butler's assertion that "all the notes" were left out of the first edition at the suggestion of Bishop Challoner is exaggerated. There are many useful, and even extended, notes in the first edition, but not to the extent that they appear in the second, and succeeding editions. According to Charles Knight,

72-409: A church at Trenewith or Chynoweth . After her death the church was moved to its present location, and many miracles occurred at her tomb. Other bits of traditions about Breage have also come down. The chronicler William Worcester wrote in 1478 that Breage's feast day was celebrated on 1 May, and that she was said to be buried at the church dedicated to her. An idiom recorded in nearby Germoe in

96-512: A company of seven other Irish saints: Germoe , Senanus ( Sithney ), Mavuanus (perhaps Mawnan ), Elwen , Crowan, Helena, and Tecla . They settled at Revyer on the River Hayle , but some were killed by the local ruler Tewdwr Mawr of Penwith , a tyrant appearing regularly in Cornish hagiographical works. Undeterred, Breage travelled through Cornwall, visiting the hill of Pencaire and establishing

120-463: A figure whose true history had been lost. There was a saint with a similar name active in the area during the Early Middle Ages, Brioc , whose feast day was 1 May, the same day that William Worcester gave for Breage. Brioc was male, but it is not uncommon for the gender of poorly remembered saints to have been switched over the years. In Brittany there was also a Saint Briac, who gave his name to

144-493: A number of places in the region. However, all medieval mentions of Breage regard her as female, complicating an identification with similarly named male saints. Later brief accounts of Breage, mostly adapted from Leland, appear in the works of Alban Butler and Sabine Baring-Gould . Breage Church Breage Parish Church is the Anglican parish church of the parish of Breage , Cornwall , England , United Kingdom . It

168-436: A number of references to local places and gives Breage precedence over other saints of the region. 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

192-555: A remote part of the parish that was later named for her. Her Irish origin is suspect, as in this period in Cornwall it was common to attribute a fabricated Irish connection to obscure saints. In Breage's case it may have been suggested by the similarity between her name and the Campus Breace in the Life of Brigid . As such, the traditions surrounding Breage appear to be later legend attached to

216-418: Is dedicated to Saint Breage or Breaca, said to have been an Irish nun who came to Cornwall in the 5th-century. The church was built of granite in the 15th-century: it has two aisles separated from the nave by granite arcades of standard design. On the north wall are five medieval wall paintings: four saints are portrayed, Ambrose , Christopher , Corentine and Hilary (there are fragmentary ones also), and

240-619: Is mainly known for his Lives of the Saints , the result of thirty years of work. Alban Butler was born in 1710, at Appletree, Aston le Walls , Northamptonshire, the second son of Simon Butler, Esq. His father died when he was young and he was sent to the Lancashire boarding school run by Dame Alice . He went on to a Catholic further education at the English College, Douai , in France. In 1735 Butler

264-635: The Duke of Cumberland , younger son of King George II, for his devotion to the wounded English soldiers during the defeat at the Battle of Fontenoy . Around 1746, Butler served as tutor and guide on the Grand Tour to James and Thomas Talbot , nephews of Gilbert Talbot, 13th Earl of Shrewsbury. Their elder brother, George, succeeded their uncle as 14th Earl of Shrewsbury . Both James and Thomas Talbot later became Catholic bishops. Butler returned to England in 1749 and

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288-748: The Warning to the Sabbath-Breakers , one of the finest examples in the country of a Sunday Christ . Another fine example is to be found a few miles away in St Just. A Roman milestone of the 3rd-century is preserved in the church and in the churchyard there is an unusual Hiberno-Saxon cross head. The inscription on the milestone is: IMP [C] DO NO MARC CASSI: this incomplete text refers to the Emperor (Marcus Cassianus) Postumus , 258-68 AD (Collingwood, RIB no. 2232). The church reopened on feast day , 26 December 1879, following

312-573: The 18th century said that while that village's patron Saint Germoe was a king, "Breage was a midwife". In the 19th century, residents of St Levan held that Breage was the sister of the town's saint Selevan or Salaman. In later times Breage's feast day was celebrated on 4 June, and was evidently once a prominent feast in Cornwall and the Diocese of Exeter in Devon. A Breage Fair is held on the third Monday in June. It

336-534: The English seminary, Butler also served the bishops of Arras, Saint-Omer, Ypres, and Boulogne-Sur-Mer as their Vicar-General. Butler died in Saint-Omer in 1773 and was buried in the parish church of Saint-Denis. See An Account of the Life of A. B. by C. B. , i.e. by his nephew Charles Butler (London, 1799); and Joseph Gillow 's Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics , vol. i. Butler's great work, The Lives of

360-576: The Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints ("Butler's Lives "), the result of thirty years' study, was first published in four volumes in London, 1756–1759. It is a popular and compendious reproduction of the Acta Sanctorum , exhibiting great industry and research, and is in all respects the best compendium of Acta in English. Butler's magnum opus has passed many editions and translations. This edition

384-566: The last two being added to it in 1246 by the Earl. The organ was built by Henry Willis and Sons for Thomas Robins Bolitho. It then moved to Truro Cathedral and was rebuilt in Breage in 1968 by Hele & Co of Plymouth. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register . Alban Butler Alban Butler (13 October 1710 – 15 May 1773)

408-561: The local saints Elwen , Ia , and Gwinear . According to Leland's text, Breage was born in the region of Lagonia and Ultonia in Ireland, an unclear description perhaps referring to Leinster and Ulster . She became a nun at an oratory founded by Saint Brigid of Kildare at Campus Breace (the Plain of Breague; modern Mag Breg in County Meath ). Around 460, she travelled to Cornwall with

432-472: The manor of Binnerton . In the 12th-century the Earl of Gloucester (Lord of the manor of Binnerton) gave the church to the abbey of Tewkesbury but in this he exceeded his legal power and after eighty-six years the Earl of Cornwall intervened and bestowed it on the abbey of Hailes . The parish of Breage had until the 19th-century the unusual feature of dependent parochial chapels at Germoe , Cury and Gunwalloe ,

456-590: The restoration of the chancel which was enlarged and choir stalls provided. The roof was repaired, walls plastered and the floor pointed. The church contains the vault of the Godolphin family . After the Norman Conquest the church of Breage was of interest to three lords: the Bishop of Exeter who held the manor of Methleigh , the Earl of Cornwall who held the manor of Winnianton , and the Earl of Gloucester who held

480-627: Was an English Roman Catholic priest and hagiographer . Born in Northamptonshire , he studied at the English College, in Douai, where he later taught philosophy and theology. He served as guide on the Grand Tour to the nephews of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Upon his return in 1749, Butler was made chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk. He was appointed president of the English seminary at Saint Omer in France. Butler

504-556: Was made chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk , whose nephew and heir, the Hon. Edward Howard, Butler accompanied to Paris as tutor. While he was in Paris, Butler completed his Lives . He laboured for some time as a missionary priest in Staffordshire , and was finally appointed president of the English seminary at Saint Omer in France , where he remained until his death. During his term as President of

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528-400: Was ordained a priest. At Douai, he was appointed professor of philosophy, and later professor of theology. It was at Douai that he began his principal work The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints . He also prepared material for Richard Challoner 's Memoirs of Missionary Priests , a work on the martyrs of the reign of Elizabeth . In 1745, Butler came to the attention of

552-415: Was printed initially in 4 octavo volumes, with no stated publisher or author's name. However they were so thick that they were usually bound in more volumes. There were actually 6 title pages since Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 both have a "part 2" issued thus: vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3, vol. 3 part 2, vol. 4, and vol. 4 part 2. Each "volume" contained three months of the liturgical calendar's Saints' lives. Vol. 1 also had

576-408: Was whilst visiting Breage, on the 8th. of January 1982, that the international film actor Grégoire Aslan died. Since the traditions about Breage that have come down are late, the veracity of the details are doubted. The hagiography is replete with stock elements: her association with other locally venerated saints as companions, her conflict with a heathen tyrant, and her establishment as a hermit in

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