Saint Breandán of Clonfert
The sixteenth of May is the feast day of Saint Breandán of Clonfert, also known as Breandán ‘the Navigator’. One of the great itinerant Celtic Church fathers and a founder of many monasteries, he is noteworthy for his daring feats of seafaring and missionary exploration that earned him a deserved place in mediæval literature and legend.
Breandán [also Brendan, Bréanainn or Brandanus] was born in Tralee, in County Kerry in the firths of the far Irish southwest, in the year 484. His parents, Findlugán and Carae, appear to have been of humble background, but on the night he was born it was said that bright angels hovered over his house. He was nurtured early in his life and tutored in the faith not by a man, but by one of the Church’s holy mothers, Saint Íte of Killeedy; at the age of twenty-seven he was ordained a priest by his friend and mentor Saint Erc of Slane. At some point he may also have studied under Saint Fionnán of Clonard. It was shortly after his ordination, though, that he began making missionary and church-founding voyages by coracle, or hide-covered wicker boat – which he undertook for the next two decades of his life.
His first faring took him into the Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland between Galway and Clare, where he founded a monastery. He then travelled to Hinba, or Eileach an Naoimh, off the coast of Scotland, where he visited the anchoress Eithne ni Mac Naue and her son Saint Colum Cille. Local tradition has it that he helped Eithne to found a full monastery there.
Subsequent voyages of Breandán an Loingseoir took him to Wales and the coast of Brittany, where he founded more churches and pastorally strengthened those which were already there. He founded monasteries near the coasts of his own homeland. Two with which his name is closely associated are Ardfert near his home in County Kerry, and Ballynavenooragh near Dingle. Later voyages he made took him to the Hebrides and the Orkneys, and he is even said to have visited the coast of Iceland, where he is locally known as Brandanus.
The monastery which Breandán is most closely associated with, though, is Clonfert in Galway, which the saint founded in the year 557. At its peak, the monastery founded by Saint Breandán housed three thousand monks, all striving tirelessly for the glory of God. However, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries it was sacked repeatedly by Danish invaders and its glory was significantly diminished; unfortunately, only the cathedral – dedicated to Saint Breandán – remains standing today. The holy saint of God lived to the age of eighty-three, and reposed in the Lord, at peace among his brothers, on the sixteenth of May, 577.
Illustration from Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis
Saint Breandán’s voyages were the subject of a significant piece of mediæval Latin literature, the Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, or Voyages of Saint Brendan the Abbot. Partly a work of travel literature like The Spiritual Meadow, and partly a work of fantasy, the Navigatio was quite popular in Western Europe and was translated into a number of vernacular languages. In the broad strokes, the story goes thus:
While Saint Breandán was still abbot at Ardfert, his monastery was visited by a monk named Barinthus, who in his worldly life had been a nobleman of the Northern Uí Néill. While he stays with Abbot Breandán, the monk begins to speak about his voyages to a great isle in the sea toward the west, the Land of Promise of the Saints. This isle was, in his telling, a paradise – a land which was always lit with daylight, filled with flowers and ripe fruits, where every stone on the ground was a precious gem. Half the isle was open to him, however, the greater and more glorious half was barred to him and all his companions, for they were not deemed worthy to set foot across the river that ran through the isle. Only his abbot Mernoc was allowed to cross, and he would often stay away from them months at a time. Only with great reluctance did Barinthus return to Ireland to bear word of this isle to the monks of Ardfert.
Abbot Breandán then selected fourteen of his monks to prepare for a voyage west. He fasted together with them for forty days, and afterwards Saint Breandán commended the abbey to his prior. He built a coracle, piled provisions for a forty-day journey inside, and pushed off with his fourteen monks from Ardfert into the Atlantic. Just before they left Ardfert, three more monks of his house begged to join him; with some reluctance Breandán allowed them, though he warned two of them that their motives were not pure, and that this voyage would likely be to their deaths.
At sea, the monks in the coracle encountered many strange, wondrous and perilous sights and situations. In one island, a spire of rock reaching the clouds, they found a marvellous treasury of silver in a cave beneath the water-line; but they only borrowed what they needed on which to break bread and eat, and took nothing. On another island, they beheld flocks of sheep which grew to be as heavy and strong as oxen, but which were tamer than lambs. On yet another island, they discovered a pure spring issuing forth the waters of sleep, surrounded by flowers and flocks of many-hued birds—which were actually fallen angels attempting to repent of having followed Lucifer. Another island they landed on turned out to be the back of some mighty sea creature, which moved along with the ship. They encountered a whale which they feared would devour the ship. They also encountered fantastic creatures such as gryphons, and landed on an island which seemed to be made entirely of crystal. At another time they came across an ancient man chained to a rock in the sea, who was buffeted by the waves – it turned out to be Judas Iscariot, who was condemned to remain there until the Last Judgement. Navigatio relates also, however, that the monks spent long stretches of time involuntarily fasting aboard their coracle, rationing food particularly when they were becalmed or when they spent many days at sea between islands.
One of the three monks, who had joined the coracle uninvited, being tempted by a devil of greed, stole a silver bridle-bit from one of the islands they visited. He repented of his sin, and Saint Breandán exorcised him of his devil and administered to him the Gifts. He died repentant. Another of the three monks, however, was carried off by devils and cast into hell through the mouth of an erupting volcano. The third of these monks was sent among a monastic community on the Isle of the Strong Men, there to live the rest of his days in constant repentance.
At last Saint Breandán and his monks made their way to the Island of the Promise which was described by Father Barinthus, and they found everything as he had described it. Everywhere was lit with daylight, even during the night when the sun set. Every tree was full of fruit, every other plant was in full flower, and the ground was covered with precious stones. They were met by a young monk who bade them take as much as they liked of the fruit and gems back to their boat and back to Ardfert Abbey, so that those who met them might see and wonder at God’s works. After spending three days as the guests of the Isle of the Promise, Saint Breandán gave thanks to the Holy Trinity and set back in his coracle to Ireland, where he did all as the young monk told him.
It was thought for some time during the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration that Saint Breandán had reached the shores of America. This tale was later, in a more ‘enlightened’ age, taken to be mere pious fiction. But one Anglo-Indian professor, author and explorer, Tim Severin, was taken with the tale of Saint Breandán. He set out to prove that a voyage to the Americas from Ireland may have been possible, in a coracle like the one described in the Navigatio. He and his team built a coracle with a wooden frame, used ox hides tanned with oak bark to cover it, and smeared the hides with rendered fat to waterproof them. Tim Severin set out in this coracle and used it to make his way from Ireland to the Hebrides, the Færœ Islands, Iceland (where he and his team spent the winter), and even all the way across to Newfoundland. He encountered icebergs, volcanoes and whales, encounters with the likes of which could have produced the descriptions seen in the Navigatio. Severin didn’t set out to prove conclusively that Breandán had landed in Newfoundland, only to show that such a voyage was possible with the technology and knowledge available to him at the time – similarly to how Thor Heyerdahl proved that it was possible for the Polynesians to have had contact with præ-Contact South America in his Kon-Tiki expedition.
It’s possible that Tim Severin’s recreation of Saint Breandán’s voyage was one of the real-life influences on the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode ‘Explorers’, in which Captain Benjamin Sisko and his son Jake board a sub-light space vessel with solar sails and attempt to ride particle currents to the next star system. Tellingly, the original script featured the expedition being led by CPO Miles O’Brien – the Irish station engineer portrayed by Colm Meaney. Holy father Breandán, voyager and founder of many monasteries, pray unto Christ our God for us sinners!
The Divine Likeness has been perfected in thee, O holy Father Breandán,
For taking up the Cross thou hast followed Christ,
And by thy deeds thou hast taught us to disdain the flesh for it passes away,
But to cultivate the soul for it is immortal:
Wherefore, O holy father, thy spirit rejoices with the Angels.
Clonfert Cathedral, Ireland
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