broichan

Broichan is the name of a wizard who lived in 6th century Pictland and served King Bridei I. Adomnán of Iona wrote about him and his relation to St. Columba during the saint's travels in Pictland.

The wizard is mentioned by Adomnán as being close to the king and that he also possessed an Irish slave-girl who had possibly been a war captive. In Adomnán's account, when Columba met Broichan and Bridei at the king's fortress near the River Ness, Columba demanded that the girl be released but the wizard refused. Columba then went down to the river and told his companions that an angel at that moment had struck Broichan, and his cup had fallen from his hand and he was deathly ill. Moments later two messengers from King Bridei came to inform Columba of these events as they happened, and Columba gave his own messengers a pebble from the River Ness and told them that if Broichan agreed to release the slave-girl, then they were instructed to place the pebble in a cup of water and make him drink …more