St. Brendan is a Celtic saint who was born
in what is now County Kerry, Ireland, about 486 A.D., approximately 25 years after the
death of St. Patrick. He was taken from his family at a very young age and raised by St.
Aida of Killeedy under the patronage of Bishop Erc of Kerry. He became a monk, then a
priest and finally an abbot. He had a very strong influence on the Celtic church, which at
the time was poorly organized, and is regarded as one of Ireland's most important saints.
He was responsible for founding a number of abbeys and monasteries, including the one at
Clonfert in Galway, where he died about 578 A.D.
He is known as Brendan the "Voyager" or the "Navigator" because of the
many voyages he made around the British Isles and to the coast of Brittany. Even skeptics
concede that he visited the Holy Isle of Iona on the west coast of Scotland where he met
with St. Columba. However, the voyage for which Brendan is best known is shrouded in the
midst of legend. This is the story of his search for the Land of Promise, far away in the
west.
It seems that Brendan was visited by another Irish monk who told him about this land far
across the ocean. Thoroughly intrigued, Brendan decided to see for himself. He built a
special boat out of oak- bark tanned oxhides stretched over a framework of ash,
provisioned it for a voyage of 40 days, and set off with 17 other monks. He took along
some extra oxhides and grease to dress them in case repairs were needed during the voyage.
Almost immediately they encountered bad weather, stormy seas and high winds. After 15 days
they were blown onto an island where they were met by a dog who led them to a settlement.
There a meal was prepared and waiting for them. They stayed three days, seeing no one but
always finding food prepared for them.
Their next landfall was the Island of Sheep, where in addition to large flocks of sheep
there were streams full of trout and the sea-weary monks could rest for a while. By
contrast, the next island they cane to was devoid of all vegetation, - completely bare.
They pulled their boat up and began making camp, including building a fire. To their
amazement the island began to move, gently at first but then more strongly. The terrified
monks raced back to their boat and pushed off just in time to see the "island"
swim away with their fire still burning on its back. They had made camp on Jaconious, the
biggest whale of all.
They were probably a lot more careful before building a fire on the Paradise of Birds,
which was their next stop. On this island there were birds of every type and sort. They
all joined the monks at their prayers, and one little bird sat on Brendan's shoulder and
told him that the voyage would last not 40 days but 7 years.
For the next three months they made another landfall and were exhausted when they finally
reached an island inhabited by an order of monks. This order lived under a rule of
silence, but the abbot broke the rule long enough to tell Brendan that they had lived
there for 80 years. In all that time they had experienced no illness or mishaps of any
kind. One of the monks with Brendan was so impressed by this order that he asked and
received permission to remain with them.
He was not with Brendan and the others when they reached the very edge of Hell itself.
Giant demons threw great lumps of burning slag at them from huge fiery furnaces, and they
could see rivers of gold fire running down from the furnaces. Another of the monks fell
overboard during the bombardment and was lost forever.
Their adventures continued as they were chased by a bad whale, saved by a good whale, and
buffeted by storms and high winds. Sometimes, though, it would be calm, - so calm that
they could look down through the water and see fish lying in a circle, head to tail. Once,
when Brendan sang, the fish circled the boat to listen to him.
Another time they saw a tall crystal pillar in the sea, so high that they could not see
the top of it and covered with a wide-meshed net. In it was an opening big enough for the
boat so they sailed through it. As they did so, they could see that the pillar extended
even further into the sea than it towered above. It took them three days to sail through
and around it.
Finally after sailing through dense fog they reached their destination. They were met by a
young man who acted as their guide. They explored the fringe of this Promised Land but
were prevented from going further by a great river, too large for them to cross.
They returned to Ireland by much the same route, though probably avoiding Hell. They
even encountered Jasconius the whale once again, and this time he helped by towing the
boat from the Paradise of Birds to the Island of Sheep. Shortly after their return,
Brendan died.
This story was very popular in the Middle Ages, and so many versions of it exist that it
took one American scholar, Carl Selmer, nearly 30 years to trace them. In l959 he
published a comprehensive Latin version of NAVIGATIO SANTI BRENDANI ABBATIS - The Voyage
of St. Brendan the Abbot. For many years it was dismissed as pure fabrication with no
possibility of being true. Various destinations were suggested for Brendan if he in fact
ever made a voyage at all. These were all close to the British Isles, although some did
think he might have reached the Canary Islands.
However, in the l970s Tim Severin became fascinated with the Brendan story. He studied
maps and charts and did extensive research before coming up with his Stepping-Stone Route.
He maintained that, by using prevailing winds and currents, it would be possible for a
small boat to travel from Ireland to North America. He also maintained that the only way
to prove it was to do it.
He had a boat built out of a framework of ash and covered with oxhides. Experimentation
proved that oak bark does make the most seaworthy tanning solution for these hides. He
named the boat the BRENDAN (of course) and, with some like-minded friends, he too set sail
from Galway. As they traveled he realized that many of the landmarks and other events
mentioned in the NAVIGATIO make a lot of sense to someone in a very small boat. The coast
of Iceland, with its many active volcanoes, might well have seemed like the edge of Hell,
and an ice-berg looks exactly like a crystal column. The story of this voyage is told in
Tim Severin's book, THE BRENDAN VOYAGE. It did not take them 40 days, but it didn't take 7
years either. They did leave their boat in port over winter and finished the voyage the
following year. But on June 26th, 1977, after sailing through dense fog for several days,
they reached the coast of Newfoundland!
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