She is said to have been the daughter of an Irish king and travelled to Cornwall from Ireland in a coracle as a missionary to convert the local people to Christianity.

According to the Exeter Calendar of Martyrology, Buriana was the daughter of a Munster chieftain.

[2] One legend tells how she cured the paralysed son of King Geraint of Dumnonia.

Buriana ministered from a chapel on the site of the parish church at St Buryan.

Despite her official feast being on 1 May (recorded in the Exeter Martyrology), the parish church of St Buryan celebrates her feast on the Sunday nearest 13 May, in accordance with the old May Day of the Julian calendar.