Barvitus was a supposed Scottish saint. David E. Thornton suggests that he is a manifestation of the cult of St Findbarr, from north-east Ulster

Ulster

Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

. Barvitus is said to have been the disciple of St Brandan, and his companion in his wanderings.

Historical records

Thomas Dempster

Thomas Dempster

Thomas Dempster was a Scottish scholar and historian. Born into the aristocracy in Aberdeenshire, which comprises regions of both the Scottish highlands and the Scottish lowlands, he was sent abroad as a youth for his education. The Dempsters were Catholic in an increasingly Protestant country and...

 in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Scotarum stated that he wrote the life of his teacher, and flourished about 658, and that the Scotch church kept 5 January sacred to his memory. Other authorities refer to one Barnitus, not Barvitus, as the saint from whose accounts of his own experience Brandan was tempted to go on his search for the Fortunate Isles

Fortunate Isles

In the Fortunate Isles, also called the Isles of the Blessed , heroes and other favored mortals in Greek mythology and Celtic mythology were received by the gods into a winterless blissful paradise...

, but Barnitus and Barvitus were apparently variants of one name.

A Scottish breviary

Breviary

A breviary is a liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially by bishops, priests, and deacons in the Divine Office...

 says that Barvitus' body, or relics, was worshipped at Dreghorn

Dreghorn

Dreghorn is a village near Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland. This parish comprehends the old parishes of Dreghorn and Pearston, which were united in 1668. The whole of the parish was historically the property of the De Morvilles, who were Constables of Scotland and Lords of Cunninghame...

. The exact connection of the saint with St. Brandan seems uncertain. The only work assigned to Barvitus by Dempster is one entitled ‘De Brandani Rebus.’ Thomas Tanner

Thomas Tanner (bishop)

Thomas Tanner was an English antiquary and prelate.-Life:He was born at Market Lavington in Wiltshire, and was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, taking holy orders in 1694...

 suggested that this might be the old manuscript life of St. Brandan preserved in Lincoln College

Lincoln College, Oxford

Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College...

 library at Oxford. But Henry Octavius Coxe

Henry Octavius Coxe

Henry Octavius Coxe was an English librarian and scholar.The eighth son of Rev. Richard Coxe & Susan Smith, he was educated at Westminster School and Worcester College, Oxford...

assigned the handwriting of this manuscript to the eleventh and twelfth centuries.