fttrsbeerwench
New Member
St. Brendan is a Celtic saint who was born in what is now County Kerry, Ireland, about 486 A.D., approximately 25 years after the death of St. Patrick. He was taken from his family at a very young age and raised by St. Aida of Killeedy under the patronage of Bishop Erc of Kerry. He became a monk, then a priest and finally an abbot. He had a very strong influence on the Celtic church, which at the time was poorly organized, and is regarded as one of Ireland's most important saints. He was responsible for founding a number of abbies and monastaries, including the one at Clonfert in Galway, where he died about 578 A.D.
He is known as Brendan the "Voyager" or the "Navigator" because of the many voyages he made around the British Isles and to the coast of Brittany. Even skeptics concede that he visited the Holy Isle of Iona on the west coast of Scotland where he met with St. Columba. However, the voyage for which Brendan is best known is schrouded in the midst of legend. His search for the Land of Promise, far away in the west..
In the l970s Tim Severin became fascinated with the Brendan story. He studied maps and charts and did extensive research before coming up with his Stepping-Stone Route. He maintained that, byt using prevailing winds and currents, it would be possible for a small boat to travel from Ireland to North America. He also maintained that the only way to prove it was to do it.
He had a boat built out of a framework of ash and covered with oxhides. Experimentation proved that oak bark does make the most seaworthy tanning solution for these hides. He named the boat the BRENDAN (of course) and, with some like-minded friends, he too set sail from Galway. As they traveled he realized that many of the landmarks and other events mentioned in the NAVIGATIO make a lot of sense to someone in a very small boat. The coast of Iceland, with its many active volcanoes, might well have seemed like the edge of Hell, and an ice-berg looks exactly like a crystal column. The story of this voyage is told in Tim Severin's book, THE BRENDAN VOYAGE. It did not take them 40 days, but it didn't take 7 years either. They did leave their boat in port over winter and finished the voyage the following year. But on June 26th, 1977, after sailing through dense fog for several days, they reached the coast of Newfoundland!
To read the whole story..
http://home.gci.net/~mboesser/voyager.html
He is known as Brendan the "Voyager" or the "Navigator" because of the many voyages he made around the British Isles and to the coast of Brittany. Even skeptics concede that he visited the Holy Isle of Iona on the west coast of Scotland where he met with St. Columba. However, the voyage for which Brendan is best known is schrouded in the midst of legend. His search for the Land of Promise, far away in the west..
In the l970s Tim Severin became fascinated with the Brendan story. He studied maps and charts and did extensive research before coming up with his Stepping-Stone Route. He maintained that, byt using prevailing winds and currents, it would be possible for a small boat to travel from Ireland to North America. He also maintained that the only way to prove it was to do it.
He had a boat built out of a framework of ash and covered with oxhides. Experimentation proved that oak bark does make the most seaworthy tanning solution for these hides. He named the boat the BRENDAN (of course) and, with some like-minded friends, he too set sail from Galway. As they traveled he realized that many of the landmarks and other events mentioned in the NAVIGATIO make a lot of sense to someone in a very small boat. The coast of Iceland, with its many active volcanoes, might well have seemed like the edge of Hell, and an ice-berg looks exactly like a crystal column. The story of this voyage is told in Tim Severin's book, THE BRENDAN VOYAGE. It did not take them 40 days, but it didn't take 7 years either. They did leave their boat in port over winter and finished the voyage the following year. But on June 26th, 1977, after sailing through dense fog for several days, they reached the coast of Newfoundland!
To read the whole story..
http://home.gci.net/~mboesser/voyager.html