Naomh Bréanainn

Another glorious day! Fresh, sunny and altogether delightful. Absolutely no tidying done, instead I've been in the polytunnel planting peas, broad beans, spinach and salad stuff. Sunflowers and sweet peas similarly potted up. It felt very Springlike and the garden is almost looking under control, mainly thanks to Tony who has been helping out and working away, strimming and hacking.

Bantry was also looking good in the late afternoon sunshine. This fine sculpture is Naomh Breánainn or St Brendan the Navigator. I've just been researching about one of the wells dedicated to him in Kerry. He's very big in Cork and Kerry. Do you know about him? Ah..... He was born in Tralee, Kerry. his holiness spotted from birth and he was educated by St Ita and later ordained as a priest. He  built loads of monasteries but favoured a quiet and spiritual life at the foot of Mount Brandon. This was not to be for he was visited by an angel who told him to search out the Land of Promise or the Isle of the Blessed and spread the word. Having fasted for 40 days he set sail with 16 companions and three non believers who hopped on board at the last moment and they all sailed off in an exceptionally small boat - a sort of currach or coracle. Their adventures are recorded in the 9th Century Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, and they had many. Enroute ( they probably went via the Canaries, Azores, Iceland, Greenland and eventually landing up in Newfoundland) they encountered many marvels including an island with a dog, and Ethiopian devil but no people; an island of grapes (where they stayed for 40 days); a silver pillar wrapped in a net; Judas Iscariot sitting on a small rock in the sea; another island where monks the had magic loaves, never aged and maintained complete silence; and one island where they landed and celebrated Mass, only to find it was in fact a gigantic sea monster, called Jascon! 
The adventures are usually taken to be a religious allegory and no one thought the voyage possible until Tim Severin proved it was when he set sail to trace St Brendan's voyage in an equally tiny boat in 1976. So sorry Vikings, St Brendan probably got to North America first! He is the patron saint of sailors, whales and elderly adventurers - might be a handy man to call upon on our trip to New Zealand! See how fascinating that was!


The Brendan Voyage  Shaun Davey