Buite

Buíte (died or 521), also known as Buíte mac Bronach (Brónaig), and Boetius, was a sixth-century Irish monastic. He was born near Mellifont, Louth; visited Wales and Italy; returned through Germany and Scotland to Antrim, and thence to Louth, where he built Monasterboice, i.e. the Monastery of Buite.

Ancestry Buíte, son of Bronach, was descended from Tadhg, son of Cian, and therefore belonged to the Ciannachta. He was known as the "bishop of the monastery", that is of Monasterboice. The date of his birth is not known, but his death took place in 521, and this date is of special interest as determining that of Columba's birth, which is not given in the Annals of the Four Masters, but is stated in the following lines from Tigernach of Clones to have taken place on the same day:

Early life Born in the neighbourhood of Mellifont, in the south of the county of Louth, his parents, who were Christians, were in much difficulty as to his baptism, no clergyman being within reach. But some missionary priests having touched at an adjoining port, one of them baptised him; a fountain, called Mellifons (Old Irish: "sweet water") having sprung up, as it was supposed, to supply water for his baptism. An incident of his youth indicates his personal character. Sent by his mother to bring home some calves, and not returning in the evening, his parents went in search of him, and found him asleep. When awoke he asked them why they disturbed him, as "the angels were teaching him psalms and ecclesiastical offices, and if he had not been awoke he would have learned the wisdom of God."

After a missionary expedition of one year to Germany, Buíte, with sixty companions, set out for the country of the Picts of Scotland. Here King Nectan, whom he is reported to have raised from the dead, bestowed on him the castrum (Latin: "fort") in which he lived, and the memory of the gift is perpetuated in the name of the place Carbuddo (Cathair-Buiti), near Dun-Nechtain, now Dunnichen, in Forfar.

Crossing over Scotland, he reached the Irish Sea, and embarking arrived at Dalriada, in the north of present-day County Antrim, the territory of the Cruthin, or Picts of Ireland, of the same race as those among whom he had been labouring. Here having raised the king's daughter from the dead, he received a gift of land, on which he built a church, and, leaving a disciple in charge, passed on, and proceeded to visit the nearest settlement of his relatives, the Cianachta ("primum solum Kyanacteorum"). There were two branches of the Cianachta, one situated near Dalriada, in that part of the north of the county of Londonderry now the barony of Keenaght, and who were known as the Cianachta of Glen Geimhin; the other, more to the south, in the present counties of Meath and Lowth, were called the Cianachta Breagh. It was to the former and nearest of these that Buíte now went, but the king, who was a gentilis (Latin: "heathen"), refused to receive him. Afterwards, however, he relented, and admitted him, when "he preached the word of salvation to the whole region, and baptised the king and all his household with many others." Here again he obtained a grant of land and built a monastery. His next journey was to the Cianachta of the south, where his brothers resided; after a brief visit to them he returned again to the north. Here he was admonished by an angel to settle in the "Bregensian land", that is the land of his southern relatives, and leaving Nechtan, the bishop, in charge of the monastery, probably at Dun-Geimhin (Dungiven), where a century and a half afterwards we find another Nechtan, he obeyed the call, and arriving at his destination was honourably received by the king.