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Bricín

Irish abbot and saint

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ4966072 ↗
Source-derived summary

Saint Bricín (c. 590–650; also known as Bricin, Briccine, DaBreccoc, Da-Breccocus) was an Irish abbot of Tuaim Dreccon in Breifne (modern Tomregan, County Cavan), a monastery that flourished in the 7th century.

Túaim Dreccon

The history of Bricín centres on the abbey of Túaim Dreccon in the Bréifne territory. The Gaelic place name meant "tumulus (burial mound) of Dreacon", referring to a pre-Christian chieftain who ruled the district around the Woodford river.

In early Christian times, Tuaim Dreccon was the site of a monastic school. Investigations by the Breffni Antiquarian and Historical Society show that the present townland of Mullynagolman (located about two miles southeast of Ballyconnell) corresponds to the original site. All traces of the building have disappeared, as have any remnants of the mound of Dreacon.

Bricín and Cenn Fáelad

In the early years of the 7th century, Bricin was attached to this scholarly establishment, distinguishing himself as a scholar and surgeon.

His most distinguished surgical achievement relates to his care of a serious skull wound on an Ulster noble of royal blood named Cenn Fáelad mac Aillila. Following the Battle of Magh Rath fought near Moira, County Down in 636 AD, the wounded Cenn Fáelad was rushed to Bricín at Tomregan for treatment.

Editorial summary

“Bricín” enters the record as irish abbot and saint. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bricín, Irish and abbot can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 206-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 0595. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Bricín, Irish and abbot.
Editorial analysis

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“Bricín” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Bricín, Irish and abbot provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4966072. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

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The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Bricín” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.