St. Brendan the Voyager, abbot of Clonfert (577)
Commemorated on May 16
He was born around 484 at Tralee in Kerry, Ireland. He founded
several monasteries in Ireland, of which the chief was Cluain Ferta Brenaind
(anglicized as Clonfert) in County Galway. His missionary and pastoral travels
took him on voyages to the Scottish islands, and possibly to Wales; thus in his
own time he was known as 'Brendan the Voyager.' He reposed in peace.
Early in the ninth century, a Latin saga, Navigatio
Brendani (The Voyage of Brendan) made him the hero of a Christian
adventure that included voyages to unknown lands far to the west of Ireland. The
account provides strong evidence that Irish voyagers visited America as early as
the 8th century, before the Vikings; but whether St Brendan himself made these
voyages is disputed.