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Brendan
Category : Poems
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A.D. 545.
(We are informed that Brendan, hearing of the previous voyage of his cousin, Barinthus, in the western ocean, and
obtaining an account from him of the happy isles he had landed on in the far west, determined, under the strong desire
of winning heathen souls to Christ, to undertake a voyage of discovery himself. And aware that all along the western
coast of Ireland there were many traditions respecting the existence of a western land, he proceeded to the islands of
Arran, and there remained for some time, holding communication with the venerable St. Enda, and obtaining from him
much information relating to his voyage. Having prosecuted his inquiries with diligence, Brendan returned to his native
Kerry; and from a bay sheltered by the lofty mountain that is now known by his name, he set sail for the Atlantic land;
and, directing his course towards the south-west, in order to meet the summer solstice, or what we should call the
tropic, after a long and rough voyage, his little bark being well provisioned, he came to summer seas, where he was
carried along, without the aid of sail or oar, for many a long day. This, which it is to be presumed was the great gulf-
stream, brought his vessel to shore somewhere about the Virginian capes, or where the American coast tends eastward,
and forms the New England States. Here landing, he and his companions marched steadily into the interior for fifteen
days, and then came to a large river, flowing from east to west: this, evidently, was the river Ohio. And this the holy
adventurer was about to cross, when he was accosted by a person of noble presence--but whether a real or visionary
man does not appear--who told him he had gone far enough; that further discoveries were reserved for other men, who
would, in due time, come and Christianise all that pleasant land. It is said he remained seven years away, and returned
to set up a college of three thousand monks, at Clonfert.--"Caesar Otway's Sketches in Erris and Tyrawley," note, pp.
98, 99.)
THE VOCATION.
(When St. Brendan was an infant, says Colgan, he was placed under the care of St. Ita, and remained with her five
years, after which period he was led away by Bishop Ercus in order to receive from him the more solid instruction
necessary for his advancing years. Brendan always retained the greatest respect and affection for his foster-mother, and
he is represented, after his seven years' voyage, amusing St. Ita with an account of his adventures in the ocean.)
THE VOYAGE.
(The peasants who live near the mouth of the Shannon point to a part of the river within the headlands over which the
tides rush with extraordinary rapidity and violence. They say it is the site of a lost city, long buried beneath the waves.--
See Hall's "Ireland," vol. iii. p. 436.)
And thus she knew not, when the youth would look
Upon some pictured chronicle of eld,
In every blazoned letter of the book
One fairest face was all that he beheld:
And where the limner, with consummate art,
Drew flowing lines and quaint devices rare,
The wildered youth, by looking from the heart,
Saw nought but lustrous eyes and waving hair.
"Post resurrectionis diem dominicae navigabitis ad altam insulam ad occidentalem plagam, quae vocatur PARADISUS
AVIUM."--"Life of St. Brendan," in Capgrave, fol. 45.
(The earlier stanzas of this description of Paradise are principally founded upon the Anglo-Saxon version of the poem
"De Phenice," ascribed to Lactantius, and which is at least as old as the earlier part of the eleventh century.)
FOOTNOTES:
53. So called from the number of holy men and women formerly inhabiting it.
55. Ardfert.
56. The puffin (Anas leucopsis), called in Irish 'girrinna.' It was the popular belief that these birds grew out of
driftwood.
59. These stanzas are a paraphrase of the hymn "Ave Maris Stella."
60. An angel was said to have presented her with three precious stones, which, he explained, were emblematic of the
Blessed Trinity, by whom she would be always visited and protected.
67. Peacocks.
73. The grosbeak or red bird, sometimes called the Virginia nightingale.
75. See the "Lyfe of Saynt Brandon" in the Golden Legend, published by Wynkyn de Worde, 1483; fol. 357.
76. "Nonne cognoscitis in odore vestimentorum nostrorum quod in Paradiso Domini fuimus."--Colgan.
(The end)
Denis Florence MacCarthy's poem: Voyage Of St. Brendan