Brendan marveled greatly at this, and came to his company, and said to them: “Depart quickly,” said he, “for Ireland, that we may have speech with St. Brigit.”
– Life of Brendan of Clonfert[1]
I have set the LORD always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
– Psalm 116.8, 9
A saint in Brendan’s day?
In hagiographical terms, the anonymous author of The Life of Brendan of Clonfert made a little slip here. Brendan, who was a contemporary of Brigit, would not likely have referred to her as St. Brigit. That title was often used by local or regional folk to honor the blessed memory of people who had meant so much to them in their walk with and work for the Lord, but it did not come into usage until long after the period of these two “saints”. Brigit was a contemporary of Brendan, and by the time his ministry was beginning to wane—after his famous ocean voyages—her star was already high and bright.
Brendan had seen a terrifying sight. Two “sea monsters” were in a tussle just off shore of where Brendan was working at the time in Britain. He observed their struggle until he “heard” the smaller of the beasts, which was trying to fly away, invoke the name of Brigit. At which time, its adversary “left it, and went into the depth of the sea.” Whatever Brendan saw, or thought he saw, or saw in a vision, or dreamed, or just felt—any of these is possible, except perhaps the first—he took it as a summons from God to seek counsel from Brigit, who by then was abbess of the monastery at “Mag Liffe, which is the head of almost all the churches of Ireland and holds the place of honor among all the monasteries of the Irish.”[2]
Yeah, there may be a little exaggeration there. Brigit was as much a saint as any one of the great men of the period of the Celtic Revival (ca. 430-800). But none of them, not even Patrick, was ever that great.
A little rebuke
Brendan, it seems, had become something of a celebrity. His journeys over the sea were well known, and he was coming to be in demand for the kind of things for which Christian superstars are often summoned—here a healing, there an exorcism, and now and then advice to a monastery, in this case, in faraway Britain. Did Brendan sense that he was losing something? Did he feel as though a great monster of distraction was seeking to consume his faith?
Or was he just piqued that the “monster” invoked Brigit’s name and not his?
Even great saints must be on guard against the temptations of ego. Whatever Brendan may have been thinking—and my take is that this was a temporary lapse of trusting the Lord—his encounter with Brigit was revealing. Upon arriving at Mag Liffe, Brendan told the story of the sea beasts and of the small one that invoked her name. Why her name, he wondered, and not his? He insisted that he “never crossed seven furrows” (waves) of the sea without looking to God. Brigit replied: “I confess…since I first set my mind on God, I have never taken it off.” Brendan was giving more of his attention to busyness and running here and there to meet the demands of people so that, Brigit explained, even if he had remembered to look to God “at every third furrow” of the sea, his would still be a mind distracted from the Lord. It’s not that he was doing such a great job at remembering God so intermittently; it was that he was forgetting God, and failing to trust in Him. Brendan’s true life, which longed to fly with God, was being held down and devoured by worldly distractions.
Pretty tough talk to a guy who’s just returned from The Promised Land of the Saints. But Brigit knew one who was faltering in faith when she saw him, and she knew what was necessary to help him get refocused on Jesus.
Just what we should expect from one true saint to another.
For Reflection
1. What does it mean to you to set your mind on God?
2. What benefits do you gain from doing so?
Psalm 16.1, 2, 8, 9, 11
(All to Christ: Jesus Paid It All)
Preserve me, O my God; I refuge seek in You.
You alone are all my good, my LORD and Savior true!
Refrain v. 11
Make me know life’s way! Pleasures fill Your hand.
Fill my life with joy each day! Before Your face I stand.
You are ever with me, LORD; in You I shall not fall.
But rejoicing in Your Word, I abide within Your call.
Refrain
T. M. Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Other columns of interest this week: In our ReVision series on “The Kingdom Economy” we are looking at ways the Law of God applies to our lives. This week our Read Moore podcast continues addressing the question raised by our book, What in Heaven Is Jesus Doing on Earth? Click here to see all the other columns and writers available to you.
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
[1]The Life of Brendan of Clonfert in Charles Plummer, tr. and ed. Lives of Irish Saints Volume II (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1922, 1997).
[2] Cogitosus, The Life of Brigit the Virgin in Oliver Davies and Thomas O’Loughlin, Celtic Spirituality (New York: Paulist, 1999), p.122.
