St. Pachomius Library: St. Brendan

St. Brendan (mac Findlug) the Navigator, Abbot of Clonfert and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland

(Irish BRÉNAINN)
V/VI Centuries
St. Brendan the Navigator, whose voyages excited the imaginations of mediæval readers and auditors, was born c. 486, probably near Tralee, and he seems to have been dedicated to the church from the beginning of his life. St. Ita raised him, and Sts. Jarlath of Tuam and Erc of Kerry educated him. Active in western Ireland, Brendan founded several monasteries, the most famous of which is Clonfert, which was for centuries a missionary center. He is said to have visited St. Columba at Hinba (Argyll) and to have undertaken with sixty monks a voyage in search of the Isles of the Blessed. The monks kept monastic rule aboard their ships and met with many adventures and supernatural creatures in their travels. Brendan died c. 575 at Amaghdown, where he was visiting his sister, Briga.
St. Brendan is thought by some to have sailed as far as America. The voyages are described (but differently) in his vita and in the Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, a text of uncertain but pre-Schism date; the latter was a best-seller (in increasingly modified form) throughout the Middle Ages and read by Columbus.
Karen Rae Keck and Norman Hugh Redington

ABOUT:
- Guido of Ivrea and others: Hymnography to St. Brendan: An XI Century hymn and fragments of a XIV Century mass. Keck translation, 1994. --- SPL
- Interview with Jeff Johnson: A musician whose works have been heavily influenced by the Navigatio. --- Ark Music
- Johnny Driftwood: Saint Brendan's Faire Isle: Lyrics of a XX Century Irish popular song, perhaps owing more to the immrama tall-tale tradition than to the Navigatio! --- Bedlam Bards
- Martin Wallace: "St. Brendan", from A Little Book of Irish Saints: --- Ireland's Eye
- Terry Mattingly: Celebrating the Feast of St. Brendan: --- Gospelcom
- Relics:
  - My Place Among the Stones: About Clonfert and the Cathedral of St. Brendan, now Church of Ireland, which contains his relics. --- Moytura Graphic Design
- The Navigatio and related works:
  - The Occitan Brendan: A post-Schism Western edition of the Navigatio, with translation by Robert Sanderson, 1997. --- O-R-G
- Modern attempts to retrace Brendan's voyage:
  - Irish Monks and the Voyage of St. Brendan: --- Newfoundland Heritage
  - St. Brendan's Isle: --- Castle Town
  - Robert Sullivan: In St. Brendan's Wake: --- Irish Cultural Society of Villanova
ICONS:

St. Brendan the Navigator ---Orthodox England
St. Brendan ---St. George's Antiochian Church, Boston, Massachusetts
Various icons of St. Brendan ---All-Mericiful Savior Orthodox Mission

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