Saint Brendan Fifty years after Saint Patrick's death in 461, another Celtic Saint was born to continue the St. Patrick's mission and converting pagan Ireland to Christianity. Saint Brendan was born around the year 484, in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland. He was born at a time when Ireland was converging on Christianity. Saint Brendan's parents were Finnlug and Cara. The feast of St. Brendan is celebrated on May 16th (Gratten and Hartig). Saint Brendan was baptized under Saint Erk. Subsequently, according to the Irish customs of the time, Saint Brendan was taken from his parents and entrusted to the care and education of Saint Ita "the Bridget of Munster". For five years he was educated under Saint Ita. He then completed his studies under Saint Erk, who ordained him as a priest when he was only 28 years old in the year 512. Between the years 512 and 530, Saint Brendan built monastic cells at Ardfert and Shanakeel. St. Brendan often sailed the seas to spread the Gospel throughout Ireland, as well as Scotland, Wales, and Brittany in northern France (Klein). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayAccording to an old Irish tale, Saint Brendan undertook an epic journey. As the story goes, Saint Barinthus told Saint Brendan that he had just returned from a trip to Paradise. For 40 days St. Brendan fasted and prayed atop a mountain on the Dingle Peninsula, a thin finger of land in the west of Ireland that points directly toward North America. Saint Brendan began a journey to the Island of the Blessed (later known as Saint Brendan's Island). He took with him 14 monks in a boat called a currach, covered with leather and with a square sail. As his ship pounded the waves, St. Brendan saw towering columns of crystal floating in the oceans, sheep the size of oxen, giants pelting the ship with fireballs that smelled like rotten eggs, and talking birds singing psalms. Through a cloud of fog the Irish reached what they called paradise and stayed there for 40 days. An angel appeared and told the men to return home to Ireland (Klein). Soon after word of their journey spread, flocks of pilgrims followed St. Brendan. After establishing the seats of Ardfert, St. Brendan went to Thomond and founded a monastery at Inis-da-drum, about the year 550. He then went to Wales and then to Iona. After a three-year mission in Great Britain he returned to Ireland and did excellent work in various parts of Leinster, especially in Dysart, Killiney and Brandon Hill. He founded the sees of Ardfert and Annaghdown and established churches at Inchiquin, County Galway, and at Inishglora, County Mayo (Bunson). Saint Brendan died in 587 in County Kerry, one of the 12 Irish apostles. the canonization occurred before there were adequate ways to record them. If the date had ever been recorded, it would have been lost. St Brendan was the patron saint of two Irish dioceses, Kerry and Clonfert. He is also the patron saint of boatmen, sailors, travelers, elderly adventurers, and whales, as well as canoe shipping. He is the patron saint of these things because he was a navigator and traveler (Bunson). Some believe that Saint Brendan discovered America, 500 years before the Vikings and 1000 years before Christopher Columbus. When Columbus and other explorers failed to find the legendary island of paradise, a new theory arose that perhaps St. Brendan and his crew had actually crossed the Atlantic and that paradise was, in fact, North America. This theory is not impossible due to the numerous geographical relationships from St. Brendan's journey to modern life (Klein). Own.