ST BREACA, VIRGIN - 4 JUNE

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 4th of June

                        Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST BREACA, VIRGIN 

Saint Breaca, a virgin in Ireland, took the veil under St Brigid, who built her a separate house of prayer and then a monastery at the place known as the Field of Breaca. 

From there she later went to the province of Cornwall, and sojourned in the district of the parish of Pembro, which she afterwards named St Banka. She died around the middle of the 6th century. 

[St Breaca is also known as St Breque, Branca, or Branka. Stadler's Encyclopedia gives her feast day as February 18].

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, 1858)

PRAYER:

O God, who gladden us each year by the feast of blessed Breaca, graciously grant that, as we rejoice in her merits, we may be inspired by her example. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

INFORMATION ABOUT ST BREACA FROM FR BUTLER'S LIVES OF THE SAINTS

Saint Breaca was born in Ireland, on the borders of Leinster and Ulster, and consecrated herself to God in a religious state under the direction of St Bridget, who built for her a separate oratory, and afterwards a monastery, in a place since called the Field of Breaca. 

She afterwards passed into Cornwall in company with Abbot Sinnin, a disciple of St Patrick, Maruan, a monk, Germoch, or Gemoch, King Elwen, Crewenna, and Helen. 

St Breaca landed at Revyer, otherwise called Theodore’s castle, situated on the eastern bank of the river Hayle, long since, as it seems, swallowed up by the sands on the coast of the northern sea of Cornwall. Tewder, a Welshman, slew part of this holy company. 

St Breaca proceeded to Pencair, a hill in Pembro parish, now commonly called St Banka. She afterwards built two churches, one at Trenewith, the other at Talmeneth, two mansion places in the parish of Pembro, as is related in the life of St Elwin. 

St Germoke's church is three miles from St Michael’s Mount, by east-south-east, a mile from the sea. His tomb is yet seen there, and his chair is shown in the church-yard, and his well a little without the church-yard. St Mawnoun's church stands at the point of the haven, towards Falmouth.