Happy St. Brendan's Day

yak23flora

Today is St. Brendan's Day. I've blogged about this Irish monk so many times that I was unsure what to talk about in honor of this day. So I thought I'd turn to my book, Celtic Wisdom, and share what I wrote there.

St. Brendan of Clonfert
This founder of many monasteries was best known as Brendan the Navigator because of his illustrious journey to the west. He was in pursuit of Tir-na-n-Og, the Land of the Young, a fabled island spoken of since pre-Christian times. In the Middle Ages Brendan the Navigator's story was translated into many languages all over Europe....
One story is that on Easter his monks stepped out on to an island to light a fire while Brendan stayed in the boat to pray. Oddly, there was no grass on the island. As the fire smouldered and then burned, the island began to move and shake. It wasn't a rock in the ocean after all but the back of a whale, and the terrified monks leapt back into the boat. According to the legend, this happened every Easter for seven years. The whale willingly lent himself to the monks for the glory of God.

Well, everyone makes mistakes. Who could blame the man for mistaking the back of a whale for an island? :-/

Sometime ago I discovered (online) a monastic community (Anglican) in Maine dedicated to St. Brendan. They sell some prayer ropes that I've purchased. I've given away some of these to my newsletter readers. (I'm giving one away this month, and it hasn't been claimed yet. If you'd like to enter the contest, read the newsletter here.) You can read about this community, and their retreat center, here.

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Happy St. Brendan's Day! Go seek your own life adventure! :)