Brennan - The Best Adventure and Exploration Stories Ever Told

EDITED BY
STEPHEN BRENNAN

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright 2013 by Stephen Vincent Brennan

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-62087-569-8

Printed in the United States of America

STEPHEN BRENNAN

R emember Brendan, not as a graven saint, he was a man and suffered so; in no ways proud, he sought the will of the Lord God full meekly and contrite of heart. And I have seen his eyes start from his head at some marvel, and I have seen the cold gray oceans break over him for days, and I have seen him spit salt seas and tremble with the cold. But no thing overmanned him, because in every tempest he saw the hand of God, and in every trial be sought the will of God, and trusted so, and was not afraid, and thereby gave us heart and courage. And we brethren took example from him, and thereby saved our souls.

Remember Brendan, later called Saint, born in the land of Munster, hard by the Ioch Lein. A holy man of fierce abstinence, known for his great works and the father of almost three thousand monks, he lived at Clonfert then, where we knew him at the first and last.

Recall the night, just past compline it was, when the holy abbot Barrind, later called Saint, came out of the darkness into our circle to visit Brendan. And each of them was joyful of the other. And when Brendan began to tell Barrind of the many wonders he had seen voyaging in the sea and visiting in diverse lands, Barrind at once began to sigh and anon he threw himslf prostrate upon the ground and prayed hard and then began to weep. Now Brendan comforted him the best he could, and lifting him up said: Brother Abbot, have you not come to be joyful with us, to speak the word of God and to give us heart? Therefore for Gods love, do not be afraid, but tell us what marvels you have seen in the great ocean, that encompasses all the world.

So Barrind began to tell Brendan and all the gathered monks of a great wonder. These were his words:

I have a son, his name is Meroc, who had a great desire to seek about by ship in diverse countries to find a solitary place wherein he might dwell secretly out of the business of the world, in order to better serve God quietly in devotion. I counseled him to sail to an island in the sea, nearby the mountain of stones, which everybody knows. So he made ready and sailed there with his monks. And when he came there, he liked the place full well, and there settled where he and his monks served our Lord devoutly. And then I saw in a vision that this monk Meroc was sailed right far westward into the sea more than three days sailing, and suddenly to those voyagers there came a dark cloud of fog that overcovered them, so that for a great part of the day they saw no light; then as our Lord willed the fog passed away, and they saw a fair island, and thereward they drew. In that island was joy and mirth enough and all the earth of that island shone as brightly as the sun, and there were the fairest trees and herbs that ever any man saw, and here were many precious stones shining bright, and every herb was ripe, and every tree full of fruit; so that it was a glorious sight and a heavenly joy to abide there. Then there came to them a fair young man, and courteously he welcomed them all, and called every monk by his name, and said they were much bound to praise the name of our Lord Jesu, who would out of his grace show them that glorious place, where it is always day and never night, and that this place is called the garden of paradise. But by this island is another island whereon no man may come. And the fair young man said to them, You have been here half a year without meat or drink or sleep. They supposed they had been there only half a day, so merry and joyful they were. The young man told them that this was the place where Adam and Eve lived first, and ever would have lived, if they had not broken the commandment of God. Then the fair young man brought them to their ship again and said they might no longer abide there, and when they were all shipped, suddenly the young man vanished away out of their sight. And then within a short time after, by the purveyance of the Lord Jesu, Meroc and the brothers returned to their own island where I and the other brothers received them goodly, and demanded where they had been so long. And they said that they had been in the Land of the Blest, before the Gates of Paradise. And they asked of us, Cannot you you tell from the sweetness of our clothes that we have been in Paradise? And I and the other brothers said, We do believe you have been in Gods Paradise, but we dont know where this Paradise is.

At hearing this we all lay prostrate and said, The Lord God is just in all his works and merciful and loving to his servants, once again he has nourished our wonder with his holy spirit.

On the day following Barrinds visit, Brendan gathered twelve of the brothers and closed us up in the oratory saying, If it is Gods will, I will seek that holy land of which the brother Abbot spoke. Does this appeal to you? What do you say?

We answered Brendan thus, Not our will but Gods. To know Gods will, we leave our families, give away what we possess, put away the lives we led and follow you, if it is the will of God.

To better know the will of God we fasted forty days, tho not oftener than for three days running as is the rule. And during this time we sought the blessing of the holy father Edna, later called Saint, in his western island. We stayed there three days and three nights only.

Old Ednas blessing got, we took ourselves to a lonely inlet place we called Brendans Butt, for he had known this spot as a boy and there sat many hours, looking away out over the ocean to the west, his seat upon a butt of stone. Here we built a vessel sufficient for a voyage of seven years. With iron tools we ribbed and framed it of ash and oak, the stepping for the mast was oak, and covered it in ox hides, well tanned, stitched together and greased with lard. Therein we put provisions for a forty days journey and many spares of ox hide, and then we got ourselves aboard and here lived devoutly twelve days, afloat but well in sight of land.

On the day set for our departure we received the sacrament and got ourselves aboard, when just as Brendan blessed us all, there came another two of his monks who prayed him that they might come with us. And he said, You may sail with us, but one of you shall die and go to hell ere we return.