Barvitus facts for kids

Barvitus was a Scottish saint who lived around 545 AD. Some historians believe he might be connected to another saint called St. Findbarr from a region called Ulster. Barvitus is known for being a close follower, or disciple, of St Brandan and traveled with him on his journeys.

Who Was Barvitus?

Historians have found different ideas about Barvitus. One writer, Thomas Dempster, mentioned Barvitus in his book, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Scotarum. Dempster wrote that Barvitus created a book about his own teacher. He also said that the Scottish church honored Barvitus on January 5th each year.

Barvitus and St. Brandan

Some old stories suggest that Barvitus, or sometimes called Barnitus, was the person whose exciting adventures inspired St. Brandan to go on his famous search for the Fortunate Isles. These islands were believed to be a paradise on Earth. It seems that "Barnitus" and "Barvitus" were just different ways of saying the same name.

Where Was Barvitus Honored?

An old Scottish prayer book, known as a Scottish breviary, says that Barvitus's body, or special items connected to him called relics, were kept and honored in a place called Dreghorn. The exact details of how Barvitus was connected to St. Brandan are not fully clear, but they were definitely linked in many old tales.

The only book that Dempster said Barvitus wrote was called 'De Brandani Rebus', which means 'About Brandan's Deeds'. Another scholar, Thomas Tanner, thought this might be a very old handwritten book about St. Brandan that is now kept in the library at Lincoln College in Oxford. However, a different expert, Henry Octavius Coxe, looked at the handwriting of that book and believed it was written much later, around the 11th or 12th centuries.