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Saint Brendan - 02 The Voyage of Saint Brendan
Identifier
015504
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
all symbolic
A description of the experience
The Voyage of Saint Brendan – A Journey to the Promised Land translated from the Latin by John J O’Meara
VISIT TO SAINT ENDA
SAINT BRENDAN and his companions, therefore, decided to fast for forty days - but for no more than three days at a time - and then to set out. When the forty days were over he said good-bye to the brothers, commended all to the man put in charge of his monastery, who was afterwards his successor there, and set out westwards with fourteen brothers to the island of a holy father, named Enda. There he stayed three days and three nights.
THE BUILDING OF THE BOAT
Having received the blessing of the holy father and of all the monks that were with him, he set out for a distant part of his native region where his parents were living. But he did not wish to see them. He pitched his tent at the edge of a mountain stretching far out into the ocean, in a place called Brendan's Seat, at a point where there was entry for one boat. Saint Brendan and those with him got iron tools and constructed a light boat ribbed with wood and with a wooden frame, as is usual in those parts. They covered it with ox-hides tanned with the bark of oak and smeared all the joints of the hides on the outside with fat. They carried into the boat hides for the makings of two other boats, supplies for forty days, fat for pre-paring hides to cover the boat and other things needed for human life. They also placed a mast in the middle of the boat and a sail and the other requirements for steering a boat. Then Saint Brendan ordered his brothers in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to enter the boat.
The source of the experience
Saint BrendanConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Spiritual pathSymbols
BoatCardinal directions
Fat.
Four seasons and the hours
Iron
Mast
Mountain
Oak
Ocean and sea
Ox
Rib
Rudder
Sails
Stars
Tent
Wood