Brendan, St.

Brendan, St., of Clonfert, born at Tralee in 484, studied under St Jarlath of Tuam, and was ordained by Bishop Erc. His name is memorable chiefly for his voyages in search of 'the mysterious land far from human ken.' After seven years' fruitless wandering he returned, but once more, in a ship of wood instead of hides, set sail with sixty friends, and at length after many wanderings reached 'that paradise amid the waves of the sea.' Brendan founded a monastery at what is now Clonfert, and died in 577 in the ninety-fourth year of his age. His festival is on the 16th of May. The Navigation of St Brendan was a very popular book in Western Europe as early as the 11th century, but the two voyages were compressed into one, and many other adventures added. In maps before Columbus' day, 'St Brendan's country' is placed to the south of the island of Antilia and west of the Cape Verde Islands. See O'Donoghue's Brendeniana (1894), and Lord Bute in the Scottish Review for 1893.