Celtic Spirituality

a fish, every three days. I ate a third of the fish each day and, thanks be to God, never suffered thirst for every Sunday a trickle of water flowed from that rock from which I could drink and fill my flask for the rest of the week.

On the seventh day I saw this island and immediately landed on it, pushing the boat away with my foot, which returned from whence it came. I watched it cut a swift passage through the waves back to its own land. And I remained here. At about three o’clock in the afternoon a sea otter would bring me food from the sea walking on its hind legs, carryi

When it had placed before me the fish and the twigs, it returned to the sea. I lit a fire with flint and iron and prepared a meal from the fish. This continued for thirty years with the otter bringing me

creatures vanished from sight, turning tail in all directions along the many paths of the sea.

When this period was over, the holy father ordered a three-day fast. At the end of the third day an enormous bird flew toward the boat, with a branch from some unknown tree in its beak. At the tip of the branch hung a large bunch of grapes of a wonderful purple color. The bird dropped the branch into the lap of the holy man. St. Brendan called his

On one occasion, when St. Brendan had celebrated the feast of St. Peter the Apostle on board the boat, the sea was so clear that they could see right down into it. In the depths they saw various kinds of creatures lying on the seabed. They seemed close enough to touch, so clear was the sea. They were like flocks at pasture, and there were so many o

Community of St. Ailbe, and there you shall celebrate the Nativity of the Lord.

As they sat at the table, the bird who had spoken to them last year settled on the prow of the boat, extended its wings, and made a noise like the sound of a great organ. The man of God knew that it wanted to tell them something. The bird said: “God has appointed four places for you for each season of the year where you shall stay until the seven y

“Next year you will celebrate Easter Sunday and the Easter period with us. And you will be in the same place you were for Maundy Thursday. Similarly you will celebrate the Easter vigil where you celebrated it before, on the back of Jasconius. After eight months you will find the island which is called the Island of the