Saint Brendan, the voyager, was born in the south west of Ireland in 484. There is little information about his life but he had a very strong influence on the Celtic Church. He founded a number of abbies and monasteries, including the one at Clonfert in Galway (Ireland) where he died in 578. Saint Brendan is known for his legendary quest to the "Isle of the Blessed". The saint was a wanderer. He left his home as a sign of his spiritual quest. He decided to sail from the Hebrides off the edge of the known world into the west. Although there is no historical proof of his voyage, Brendan is said to have sailed in search of a Paradise with a company of sixty monks. After a long voyage ( 7 years), they reached the Paradise, an island covered with vegetation.
Many medieval manuscripts of the "Voyage of Saint Brendan" still exist and there are versions in Middle English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and other languages. This story was popular in the Middle Ages.
Maps of Columbus´s time often included an island called St Brendan´s Island that was placed in the Western Atlantic Ocean. Map markers of the time had no idea of its exact position but they believed it existed somewhere west of Europe. It was mentioned in a Latin text (Navigatio Santi
Brendan Abatis), dating from the 9th century. It described the voyage as having taken place in the 6th century. Several copies of the text have survived in monasteries throughout Europe. Since the 13th century the legend has appeared in the literatures of the Netherlands, Germany and England.
The narrative in "Navigatio Brendan" offers a wide range for the interpretation of the geographical position of the Paradise´Island: far west of the southern part of Ireland, the Fortunate Isles in the south,....
Soon a new theory arose, maintained for those scholars who claimed for the Irish monk the glory of discovering America because he could only have the knowledge of foreign animals and plants described in the legend by visiting the western continent. Did Saint Brendan travel to America before Columbus? He possibly reached America in the 6th century!!!
Now Saint Brendan is known as the Patron Saint of sailors and travellers. His feast is kept on the 16 May, the day of his death. It is celebrated by Catholics, Anglicans and Eastern Orthodox Christians.
