Saint Brendan

"In regard to Brendan himself

the point is made that

he could only have gained a knowledge

of foreign animals and plants,

such as are described in the legend,

by visiting the western continent. . . ."

St. Brendan of Ardfert and Clonfert, known also as Brendan the Voyager, was

born in Ciarraighe Luachra, near the present city of Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland,

in 484; he died at Enachduin, now Annaghdown, in 577. He was baptized at

Tubrid, near Ardfert, by Bishop Erc. For five years he was educated under St. Ita,

"the Brigid of Munster", and he completed his studies under St. Erc, who

ordained him priest in 512. Between the years 512 and 530 St. Brendan built

monastic cells at Ardfert, and at Shanakeel or Baalynevinoorach, at the foot of

Brandon Hill. It was from here that he set out on his famous voyage for the Land

of Delight. The old Irish Calendars assigned a special feast for the "Egressio

familiae S. Brendani", on 22 March; and St Aengus the Culdee, in his Litany, at

the close of the eighth century, invokes "the sixty who accompanied St. Brendan

in his quest of the Land of Promise". Naturally, the story of the seven years'

voyage was carried about, and, soon, crowds of pilgrims and students flocked to

Ardfert. Thus, in a few years, many religious houses were formed at Gallerus,

Kilmalchedor, Brandon Hill, and the Blasquet Islands, in order to meet the wants

of those who came for spiritual guidance to St. Brendan.

Having established the See of Ardfert, St. Brendan proceeded to Thomond, and

founded a monastery at Inis-da-druim (now Coney Island, County Clare), in the

present parish of Killadysert, about the year 550. He then journeyed to Wales,

and thence to Iona, and left traces of his apostolic zeal at Kilbrandon (near Oban)

and Kilbrennan Sound. After a three years' mission in Britain he returned to

Ireland, and did much good work in various parts of Leinster, especially at Dysart

(Co. Kilkenny), Killiney (Tubberboe), and Brandon Hill. He founded the Sees of

Ardfert, and of Annaghdown, and established churches at Inchiquin, County

Galway, and at Inishglora, County Mayo. His most celebrated foundation was

Clonfert, in 557, over which he appointed St. Moinenn as Prior and Head Master.

St. Brendan was interred in Clonfert, and his feast is kept on 16 May.

Voyage of St. Brendan

St. Brendan belongs to that glorious period in the history of Ireland when the

island in the first glow of its conversion to Christianity sent forth its earliest

messengers of the Faith to the continent and to the regions of the sea. It is,

therefore, perhaps possible that the legends, current in the ninth and committed

to writing in the eleventh century, have for foundation an actual sea-voyage the

destination of which cannot however be determined. These adventures were

called the "Navigatio Brendani", the Voyage or Wandering of St. Brendan, but

there is no historical proof of this journey. Brendan is said to have sailed in

search of a fabled Paradise with a company of monks, the number of which is

variously stated as from 18 to 150. After a long voyage of seven years they

reached the "Terra Repromissionis", or Paradise, a most beautiful land with

luxuriant vegetation. The narrative offers a wide range for the interpretation of the

geographical position of this land and with it of the scene of the legend of St.

Brendan. On the Catalonian chart (1375) it is placed not very far west of the

southern part of Ireland. On other charts, however, it is identified with the

"Fortunate Isles" of the ancients and is placed towards the south. Thus it is put

among the Canary Islands on the Herford chart of the world (beginning of the

fourteenth century); it is substituted for the island of Madeira on the chart of the

Pizzigani (1367), on the Weimar chart (1424), and on the chart of Beccario

(1435). As the increase in knowledge of this region proved the former belief to be

false the island was pushed further out into the ocean. It is found 60 degrees

west of the first meridian and very near the equator on Martin Behaim's globe.

The inhabitants of Ferro, Gomera, Madeira, and the Azores positively declared to

Columbus that they had often seen the island and continued to make the

assertion up to a far later period. At the end of the sixteenth century the failure to

find the island led the cartographers Apianus and Ortelius to place it once more

in the ocean west of Ireland; finally, in the early part of the nineteenth century

belief in the existence of the island was completely abandoned. But soon a new

theory arose, maintained by thos scholars who claim for the Irish the glory of

discovering America, namely, MacCarthy, Rafn, Beamish, O'Hanlon, Beauvois,

Gafarel, etc. They rest this claim on the account of the Northmen who found a

region south of Vinland and the Chesapeake Bay called "Hvitramamaland" (Land

of the White Men) or "Irland ed mikla" (Greater Ireland), and on the tradition of the

Shawano (Shawnee) Indians that in earlier times Florida was inhabited by a white

tribe which had iron implements. In regard to Brendan himself the point is made

that he could only have gained a knowledge of foreign animals and plants, such

as are described in the legend, by visiting the western continent. On the other

hand, doubt was very early expressed as to the value of the narrative for the

history of discovery. Honorius of Augsburg declared that the island had vanished;

Vincent of Beauvais denied the authenticity of the entire pilgrimage, and the

Bolandists do not recognize it. Among the geographers, Alexander von

Humboldt, Peschel, Ruge, and Kretschmer, place the story among geographical

legends, which are of interest for the history of civilization but which can lay no

claim to serious consideration from the point of view of geography. The oldest

account of the legend is in Latin, "Navigatio Sancti Brendani", and belongs to the

tenth or eleventh century; the first French translation dates from 1125; since the

thirteenth century the legend has appeared in the literatures of the Netherlands,

Germany, and England. A list of the numerous manuscripts is given by Hardy,

"Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and

Ireland" (London, 1862), I, 159 sqq. Editions have been issued by : Jubinal, "La

Legende latine de S. Brandaines avec une traduction inedite en prose et en

poésie romanes" (Paris, 1836); Wright, "St. Brandan, a Medieval Legend of the

Sea, in English Verse, and Prose" (London, 1844); C. Schroder, "Sanct Brandan,

ein latinischer und drei deutsche Texte" (Erlangen, 1871); Brill, "Van Sinte

Brandane" (Gronningen, 1871); Francisque Michel, "Les Voyages merveilleux de

Saint Brandan a la recherche du paradis terrestre" (Paris, 1878); Fr. Novati, "La

Navigatio Sancti Brandani in antico Veneziano" (Bergamo, 1892); E.

Bonebakker, "Van Sente Brandane" (Amsterdam, 1894); Carl Wahland gives a

list of the rich literature on the subject and the old French prose translation of

Brendan's voyage (Upsala, 1900), XXXVI-XC.

Beamish, The Discovery of America (1881), 210-211; O'Hanlon, Lives of the Irish Saints (Dublin,

1875), V, 389; Peschel, Abhandlungen zur Erd- und Volkerkunde (Leipzig, 1877), I, 20-28; Gaffarel,

Les Votages de Saint Brandan et des Pap&oelig; dans l'Atlantique au moyen age in Bulletin de la

Societé de Géographie de Rochefort (1880-1881), II, 5; Ruge, Geschichte des Zeitalters der

Entdeckungen (Leipzig, 1881); Schirmer, Zur Brendanus Legende (Leipzig, 1888); Zimmer,

Keltische Beiträge in Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Litteratur (1888-89), 33; Idem,

Die frühesten Berührungen der Iren mit den Nordgermanen in Berichte der Akademie der

Wissenschaft (Berlin, 1891); Kretschmer, Die Entdeckung Amerikas (Berlin, 1892, Calmund, 1902),

186-195; Brittain, The History of North America (Philadelphia, 1907), I, 10; Rafn, Ant. Amer.,

XXXVII, and 447-450; Avezac, Les Iles fantastiques de l'océan occidental in Nouv. An. des

voyages et de science geogr., (1845), I, 293; MacCarthy, The voyage of St. Brendan, in Dublin

University Magazine (Jan. 1848), 89 sqq.

W. H. Gratian Flood

Otto Hartig

Transcribed by Kieran O'Shea

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume II

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.org

To be posted: A translation of the NAVIGATIO BRENDANI, "The Voyage of Saint Brendan".