BRENDAN

BRENDAN

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laighe, the founder of the Olanna Rudraighe, andis said to have had a similarity in habits and lifeto St. Bartholomew the apostle. (Mart. Doneg. ;Reeves, St. Adamnan , 210; Four Masters byO’Donov. i. 190, n. n ) But Lanigan {Bed. Hist.Ir. ii. 38) prefers calling him son of Luaigene,and criticizes Ussher who calls him sometimes theone, sometimes the other. The monastery overwhich he presided, and from which he receivedhis designation, was called Birr or Bior, “ astream,” and is now represented by Parsonstown,at the south-west extremity of King’s county,in Leinster. Among the scholars attractedto the school of St. Finnian of Clonard, were thetwo Brendans—Brendan son of Finnlogh, andBrendan of Birr “ qui Propheta in scholis illis etetiam Sanctorum Hiberniae habebatur.” He wassometimes called Senior Brendanus, to distinguishhim from St. Brendan of Clonfert. (Colgan,Acta SS. 113, c. 7, 395, c. 19.) It is said that,as a prophet, he foretold the birth of St.Colum-Cille some time before it took place.He was an intimate friend and companion ofSt. Columba, and seems to have aided him atthe Synod of Teltown, near Kells, in Meath,and protested against the attempt to excom-municate him. (Reeves, St. Adamnan , iii. c. 3,and notes; also his Appendix to Pref. Ib. pp.lxxiii-iv.) When St. Columba, in consequenceof the proceedings against him on account of thebattle of Cooldrevny, wished to leave his homein Ireland, and cross the sea into exile, he senta messenger to u Seniorem Brendanum,” abbat ofBirr (“ a man endowed with the spirit of wisdomand counsel in devising and carrying out what-ever would be useful and pleasing to God”), thathe might point out where he should decide toremain in exile. {Vit. Brend. Birr , in Colgan’sTr. Thaum. p. 462, c. 44.) The ascension ofSt.‘Brendan in a chariot into the sky is givenby the Four Masters , in a.d. 553, and in theAnnals of Clonmacnoise in 562. He died onthe eve of Nov. 29, in the 80th year of hisage, a.d. 571, say Ussher and the Four Masters ,but it is more likely to have been in a.d.573. {Four Masters by O’Donovan, i. 206-7;Reeves, Adamn. 210; Ussher, de Bed. Brit.Brim. Dubl. 1639, pp. 882-3, 955, 1064;Lanigan, Bccl. Hist. Ir. ii. 38, 39, 149 sq.;Ware Ir. Writ. 4.) St. Columba got instantnotice of his death in Ireland, by seeing acompany of angels ascending into heaven withhis soul {Adamn. iii. c. 11). His Acts arepreserved in the Cod. Salmant., from whichColgan published the portion relating to St.Columba {Tr. Thaum. 462, c. 44); and inO’Donell’s Life {Quint. Vit. S. Columb. iii. c. 41,in Tr. Thaum. 438), there is mention of how“ encomiasticis versibus S. Brendanus et S. Dal-lanus ejus synchroni et amici cecineruntbutthese were probably only lines in praise of hisvirtues. His body is said to have lain in ODegrave with those of SS. Fursey, Conall, andBerchan, in the cemetery of the church calledTempuil anCheathruir Aluinn, i.e. “The churchof the four beauties,” in Inishmore or the GreatIsland of Arran, in Galway Bay (Colgan, ActaSS. p. 715, c. 7, n. 12 ) f but this at best could onlyhave been relics.

(2) Brendan of Clonfert, A. C.—May 16,A.D. 577. The founder of the church of Cluain-feurta (the Lawn, Meadow, or Bog-island of

the Grave, now Clonfert, in the barony of Long-ford, co. Longford) was son of Finnlogh, of therace of Ciar, descendant of Rudhraighe, and isoften known by the designation Mocnalti, derivedfrom his great-grandfather Alta. His brother■was Domaingen, bishop of Tuaim-Muscraighe(April 29), and his sister Brigh or Briga, abbessof Enach-duin or Annadown (on the east marginof Lough Corrib, in the barony of Clare, countyGalway). He is said to have been like theapostle St. Thomas, in manners and life. {Mart.Doneg. by Todd and Reeves, 9, 35, 113, 129;Reeves, Adamn. 221, n.) Full accounts of hislife and seven years’ voyage are given in theBreviary of Aberdeen , and in two remarkablelives of St. Brendan in the Brussels MS. Lives ofthe Saints , fol. 69, 189. (See Bp. Forbes, Kal.Scott. Saints , 284-6; O’Conor, Her. Hib. Scrip.iv. 125, 141; Kelly, Cal , Ir. SS. 129-30;Colgan, Acta SS. and Tr. Thaum ., in Ind. Hist.;Alb. Butler, Lives of the Saints, v. 266, sq.;Reeves, Adamnan, 55, 220, 223; Ussher, deBrit. Bccl. Prim. Dubl. 1639, c. xvii. ; Lanigan,Bccl. Hist. Ir. ii. 28 sq.; Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad.,viii., 429-30; Journ. Kilk. Arch. Soc. ii. 474.)From these, we gather that he was born aboutA.d. 482 or 484 in Kerry, West Munster, and atan early age was under the charge of Bishop Ere,who placed him under St. Ita, with whom hebecame a special favourite, and whom he everafter regarded as a friend and spiritual mother.(Colgan, Acta SS. 67-71.) By her advice heattached himself to St. Jarlath, and he is alsotraditionally connected with St. Finnian’s schoolat Clonard. But Lanigan questions this relationbetween St. Finnian and St. Brendan, as thelatter was not younger than his reputed master.He was always closely associated with his name-sake of Birr, and, like him, was regarded as oneof the second order of Irish saints, and one of thetwelve apostles of Ireland: like St. Columba, hewas a priest, and had a bishop attached to themonastery for the higher functions of the minis-try. (Reeves, Adamnan, 222.) Like his namesake,too, he must be regarded as a prophet. (Colgan,Acta SS. 309, c. 3 ; 310, nn. J1 , 18 - 21 .) Butler (v.266) and Ussher (p. 955) say he was in Walesunder St. Gildas and in the Abbey of Llancarvenin Glamorganshire, building also the monasteryof Ailech in Britain, and a church in a territorycalled Heth. (Colgan, Acta SS. 190.) Butthat for which the name of St. Brendanis most famous is the seven years’ voyage insearch of the Fortunate Islands (“quaerendoterram repromissionis ”), which Colgan {ActaSS. Ind. Chron.) puts as commencing in a.d.545, and which speaks, at least, of the boldenterprise and Christian zeal so characteristicof those times. (Grub, Bccl. Hist. Scot. i. 55-6 ;Hist. Journ. Arch. iv. 104-6. For the probablereason for his long voyage, see Colgan, Acta SS.74, 619, c. 43, 624, n. 4S , who is ready to dobattle with all who count it fabulous.) Whenhe returned from his voyage and his sojourn inBrittany, he founded the monasteries of Clonfertand Annadown, placing his sister Briga over thelatter. For the monastery at Clonfert andseveral others connected with it he drew up aparticular rule, which was so highly esteemedas to be observed for many centuries by hissuccessors, and was believed to have been writtenat the dictation of an angel. The dates of the