...also called "the Navigator"
May 16th
For the Legend
BRENDAN is reputed to have been a disciple of Saint Finian of Ireland, and later of Saint Gildas of Brittany. And he himself had for one of his disciples that holy man who is known in England as Machutus, and in France as Malo. Blessed Brendan founded several schools and monasteries, and wrote a monastic Rule which was remarkable for its austerity. He was known in olden times as Brendan the Voyager because of a voyage which he is said to have made to the Land of Promise beyond the setting of the sun in the Wetern Seas; which legend (celebrated by the minstrels of olden times in all the European languages as one of the greatest adventures of all ages) is interpreted by some to mean that he planted a colony of monks in the Americas. This story doubtless encouraged Christopher Columbus and others in their efforts at discoveries in the new world, most of the earliest of which had, among less noble purposes, the making over the seas of a way for Christ's Gospel. Brendan died at the age of ninety-four, about the year 580, and is recerenced as one of the most distinguished monks and missionaries of Ireland.
(For a III Noct., Lessons from Common 10, series I)
2 comments:
"Obscure"? "English"?
St Brendan?
Ah, carissima, how could you?
There is a tiny, little Church of Ireland cathedral dedicated to St Brendan in Clonfert, County Galway. It's a beautiful little treasure; you can find some small pictures of it here:
http://www.moytura.com/clonfert.htm
Is misé le meas,
-John-
Yes yes I know. But he was the only one that week that was even remotely connected to the B. Isles. I am surprised I haven't had the Anglo/Irish boys on the list screeching at me for calling one of the great Irish saints "English."
Ya can't please everyone. So you might just as well please yourself and tell everyone to go jump.
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