St. Brendan the Navigator

St. Brendan the Navigator

“Fear not, brothers, for our God will be unto us a helper, a mariner, and a pilot; take in the oars and helm, keep the sails set, and may God do unto us, His servants and His little vessel, as He willeth.” St. Brendan The Navigatio

The Roman World (which was the whole world in AD 500) had fallen apart. Christians throughout Europe, who were just trying to survive the collapse of the governing system all around them, began turning in on themselves instead of continuing the aggressive evangelistic missions of an earlier age. Many people were afraid that they must be living at the end of all things. If Rome could fall, what could possibly be safe?

During this socio-political upheaval, there was a man whose life inspired Prince Madok, Columbus[1], Captain John Smith and many other explorers, the Sons of Liberty, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison (Grant). There was a man that looked into the face of the unknown horizon and saw a place to which the paradise of the gospel needed to go. That man was Brendan, son of Finnlug Ua Alta, of the race of Eoghan. He was born in Tralee Ireland around the year 489 (O’Meara ix) and lived a long life dedicated to the service of God. He was the child of Christian parents who gave him over to the local monastery, for the service of the kingdom at age one. He grew to love learning, community, and Christ. Brendan spent his early years studying and planting monastic communities in Kerry, Galaway, and on the islands of the river Shannon (O’Meara ix), but when, already past 70 years old (Morison 15), he learned that there were lands with people beyond the horizon, he and fourteen companions built a boat and set sail for a trip across the Atlantic Ocean. On his voyage he met sea monsters, isolated island monks, giant icebergs, whales the size of small islands, and fog too thick to navigate through. After the many adventures he returned home to die among his people.

Brendan was not alone in his voyage. The Christian Celts of Brendan’s day were travellers. Brendan lived in the age of Peregrinatio Pro Christo, the pilgrimage for Christ. Christians would leave their world behind and journey as far as they could to serve Christ in the remotest areas of the world. And with them they brought the gospel of the resurrection and kingship of Christ. We know that Christian Celts made it as far as the Ohio Valley, but it is hard to imagine that missionaries who evangelized so broadly and so manfully did not make it further. As the spirit of the age waned throughout Europe, the spirited Christianity of these missionaries etched these words in the mountains of West Virginia in the Celtic language

At the Time of Sunrise, a ray grazes the notch on the left side, tis Christmas Day, a feast day of the Church, the first season of the Christian year, the season of the blessed advent of the Savior, Lord Christ. Salvatoris Domini Christi, behold he is born of Mary, a woman. Hallelujah. (Quoted in Grant)

Though the oldest know version of the story of Brendan’s voyage is from the seventh century (O’Meara x), perhaps less than 100 years after the voyage, many moderns doubted the historicity of Brendan and the Celts claims. No one believed that any band sailing in a curragh, the ancient Celtic boat of leather stretched across a wooden frame, described in accurate detail (Morison 16) in The Navigatio, could make the Atlantic trek. No one believed until Tim Severin and his crew built a curragh by the specifications laid out by The Navigatio, and sailed Brendan’s route. He even recounts tales of sea creatures that make The Navigatio’s tales look probable (Severin 140-148). There is a fair amount of circumstantial evidence that the Celts had accomplished what they claimed to accomplish. There is enough evidence of a presence of Celts in America for some to postulate substantial Celtic civilizations existing in America. “Gloria Farley, an ardent archeologist and explorer, has found countless examples of what seem to be Keltic ogamic inscriptions along the Cimarron River in Arkansas and more in Kentucky, leading her to believe Kelts were exploring the Mississippi River valley and leaving their inscriptions along the way 1,000 years and more ago” (Angel). Though giant celtic civilizations might be pressing the imagination, the archeological evidence of an early Celtic presence in America, Iceland, and Greenland cries out for explanation. The archeology alone is inconclusive but there are also many accounts of Irish monks spread throughout the Northern Island of the new world. “Three centuries after Brendan’s death, the raiding Vikings found Irish Monks in Iceland, the Faroes, the Shetlands, and the Orkneys” (Morison 25).

Whether St. Brendan and the Celts were the first Europeans to come to America or not, they looked at the world around them and saw a world owned by Christ, a world that needed to know its Lord. As the story of Brendan’s voyage, The Navigatio, puts it, as Brendan and his crew of monks entered their boat, “all the birds sung in concert: Hear us, O God Our Saviour, the hope of all the ends of the earth, and in the sea afar off” (Navigatio). These Christians would travel the globe and when they found a tribe or kingdom, they would go straight to the king to inform him of the King of kings. They feared no sea, no monster, and no man because “our God is the Lord Jesus Christ, who can bring to nought all living things” (Navigatio). We need men like Brendan to come along side us in our modern malaise and misanthropy the way he came along side the crew of his. “Soldiers of Christ, be strong in faith unfeigned and in the armor of the Spirit, for we are now on the confines of hell; watch, therefore, and act manfully” (Navigatio). We sit, much like Brendan did, on the edge of a fallen world which is being consumed by the death, destruction and the despair that always follows idolatrous statism. Oh, that the Lord would grant us the courage and faith of Brendan that sees the horizon as an opportunity to carry the Kingdom of Christ into the unknown.

While the rest of the church retreats into defeatists ghettos and evangelical and fundamentalist bunkers, we need to advance with the faith that says ‘if God be for us, then who can be against us.’ In one of the greatest scenes in The Navigatio, Brendan is celebrating the festival of St. Peter on the ship and large fish and sea monsters begin to circle the boat. “The brethren entreated the man of God to say Mass in a low voice, lest those monsters of the deep, hearing the strange voice, may be stirred up to attack them.” But Brendan responded, “I wonder much at your folly. Why do you dread those monsters? . . . For our God is the Lord Jesus Christ . . .’ Having thus spoken, he proceeded to sing the Mass in a louder voice.” As long as the church fears the wrath of man, we sit paralyzed like the men in Brendan’s Boat asking him to please sing the Mass a little quieter. But God calls us to fulfill Brendan’s desire for his men, to be soldiers of Christ who, though they be on the confines of hell, act manfully.

Bibliography

Angel, Paul Tudor. "Who Built New England’s Megalithic Monuments?" The Barnes Review November 1997. 15 March 2006

Grant, Dr. George. "St. Brendan." Saints and Scoundrels: Canon Press Annual History Conference, Moscow, 2001.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages AD 500-1600. New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.

Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis. Trans. Denis O’Donoghue 1893. Celtic Christianity e-library. 29 March. 2006 <>.

Severin, Tim. The Brendan Voyage. New York: Mcgraw-Hill Book Company, 1978.

The Voyage of St. Brendan: Journey to the Promised Land. Trans. And Intro. John J. O’Meara. New York: Ittegaps, 1999.

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[1] Columbus references Brendan the Navigator in the Journal of his first voyage.