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St. Brendan’s fame rests on the mythical adventure described
in Brendan’s Voyage, a 10th century romance of Brendan and
a company of monks sailing the Atlantic Ocean to the Promised
Land. One of the stories of the voyage relates that Brendan,
wishing to celebrate Easter Mass, landed on a small island in
the middle of the ocean. After celebrating Mass, Brendan and
his companions built a fire on which to cook a meal and thus
awakened the sleeping whale they had mistakenly identified as
a small island. Terrified, the voyagers rushed to their ship
and fled. Since then, St. Brendan has been associated with whales
and large fish. |