Anonymous, Life of Brendan of Clonfert (17^th century, from an earlier ms.)

“Happy, righteous, blessed, and perfect is the man on whom is the fear and dread of the mighty Lord, and who desires greatly to fulfill the command and teaching of God, as it is laid down in the canon of the Old and New Testaments. Now there are many of the patriarchs and of the prophets and apostles of the Lord of the elements of whom this oracle is spoken in the Old and New Testaments, that they were happy, just, and perfect in their desire and longing to fulfil the divine command and teaching, and who had the secret of the fear of the Lord perfectly in their hearts and minds, without thought for anything else but that alone.

“One then of this company of happy and blessed ones in the New Testament is he whose festival and commemoration falls at this season, on the 16^th day of May, to wit, Brendan son of Findlug. This Brendan was the head of the belief and devotion of a great part of the world like faithful Abraham, a per-eminently prophetic psalmist like David the son of Jesse, a distinguished sage like Solomon the son of David, a lawgiver to hundreds like Moses the son of Amram; a prolific translator like Jerome, a wondrous thinker like Augustine; a great and eminently universal student like Origen, a virgin like John, the Lord’s bosom-fosterling, an evangelist like Matthew, a teacher like Paul, a chief apostle, gentle and forgiving, like Peter, an eremite like John the Baptist, a commentator like Gregory of Rome, a prudent and wondrous emissary by sea and land like Noah in the ark…”

Translation, Charles Plummer, Lives of Irish Saints, Vol. II

One of the literary forms common to all periods of the Celtic Revival (ca. 430-900 AD) is hagiography, or, lives of great saints. The earliest of these is Sechnall’s hymn to Patrick, Audite Omnes Amantes, perhaps written while Patrick was still alive. Hagiographers appear in practically every generation after that, but we only know the names of a few of them. Many of their works appear to have been expanded and embellished over the centuries, in order to magnify the virtues or achievements of one saint – and, by association, his spiritual descendants – above others.

Hagiographies are a kind of history, but not. They do not purport to give a full or completely accurate account of the life of any saint. Hagiographers felt free to invent stories or exaggerate achievements in order to make a point about their subject. These would not have been regarded as lies, and they most likely were not received as literally true. Reading these accounts we can almost see the twinkle in the eye of the writer, or the smiling wink of one who was repeating an account for the first time to a young audience. We recall that story-telling was one of the characteristic features and most loved past times of Celtic Christians – a penchant inherited from their pre-Christian ancestors.

One hagiographer of the great saint, Colum Cille (fl. mid-6^th century), Adomnán, seemingly aware that readers would not accept everything they read at face value, over and over insisted that he could document the amazing works of his subject by referring readers to those who had heard them from eyewitnesses and reported them faithfully to him. Even these claims, however, must not be taken to suggest that everything Adomnán reported about Colum was “true.”

Brendan – called “the Navigator” because of his voyages on the sea – was one of the great leaders of the third generation of the Celtic Revival (fl. mid-6^th century). Appointed to his calling by Finnian of Clonard, he left his monastery at Clonfert and undertook missions on the ocean, sailing west and north from Ireland, following the leading of the Spirit as He took him and his company to various places and through many adventures. The account of Brendan’s voyages, the Navigatio Brendani, was one of the most beloved hagiographies of the Middle Ages. More than 125 accounts of Brendan’s journeys have come down to us in three different languages. He seems to have been a true, historical figure, and the accounts of his journeys on the sea also appear to have grounding in history. In the 1970s an Irish adventurer, Tim Severin, undertook to replicate Brendan’s voyages, following information in the Navigatio, and produced an account, The Brendan Voyage, arguing (convincingly, I think) in favor of the historicity of the saint and his achievement.

The selection above introduces the Vita Brendani, the “Life of Brendan.” We note the careful way our anonymous hagiographer establishes the saint’s pedigree. He possessed the kind of character such as was to be found in the great saints of Scripture and Church history. Michael O’Clery, a Franciscan lay brother, passed this manuscript along with a new rendering sometime early in the 17^th century. However, the story appears to be much older. The mention of saints to whom Brendan bore similarity ends in the fifth century (Augustine and Jerome). Many other better known saints had appeared before Michael O’Clery’s day, but we find no mention of them. The account is in middle Irish, again suggesting an origin earlier than O’Clery. Curious by omission is any reference to Patrick in this pedigree, but then Patrick, we recall, was not Irish, but British. The earliest Irish saints associated with Brendan, and mentioned in this Life, were his mentors, Ita and Erc, and an earlier near-contemporary, Brigit.

Brendan was a man who feared the Lord and loved His commandments; thus, he was a truly happy and fruitful servant of God. A man of many gifts, great learning, and much energy, he headed the monastery at Clonfert until he was appointed to go on peregrinatio – a wandering Gospel mission – by leather boat over the Western Sea. His adventures there show us a man of deep piety, holy love, courage, wisdom, and vision; they also reveal a deeply human person, who was perplexed and disappointed at the results of his first voyage and sought the counsel of trusted mentors to help him better prepare for the next.

Brendan’s goal during these voyages, as the Life describes it, was to reach the “Promised Land of the Saints,” which readers would have understood not as a real place but as an earthly paradise, a metaphor, meant to capture the experience of visiting the eternal glory of the new heavens and new earth. This ability to know the “then and there” of the Christian life in the “here and now” of our daily experience is one of the distinctive features of the Celtic Christian period. Brendan’s Life may have been intended as an allegory celebrating the kind of disciplined life that brings one into the presence of the Lord and His glory, there to be transformed increasingly into the image of Jesus Himself (2 Cor. 3:12-18).

The Life of Brendan makes for interesting and challenging reading. It is chocked full of historical referents, details from everyday life, insights to spiritual life and the community of saints, and fun-loving Irish story-telling – history and biography on a wink and a prayer.

For more insight to the legacy of the Celtic Christian period, order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Legacy of Patrick, from our online store.