[1] Several persons noted for their holiness seem to have borne this name, which is variously written Brogan, Broccan, Bracan, and even Bearchan and Bearchanus.
[2] John Colgan (Trias Thaumaturga, p. 518) speaks as if he were inclined to identify both these persons with the author of an early Irish hymn upon Brigid of Kildare.
The glosses upon Aengus and the Martyrology of Gorman, while seemingly treating them as distinct, prove that the matter admits of no certainty.
Broccán of Rosstuirc (of 17 September), on the other hand, is identified with the author of the hymn to Brigid of Kildare, and believed to be the Abbot Brochanus referred to in the Life of St. Abban, preserved in the Codex Salmanticensis.
[4] ("Rosstuirc" is generally assigned to the Diocese of Ossory, and may be Rossmore in County Laois) in the northern portion of the kingdom of Osraige in the Slieve Bloom Mountains.