Celts to the Creche
A Celtic 40 Days of Advent Devotional 2017
An Advent Pilgrimage with Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Saints
Begins November 15, 2017
*A Note to my fellow pilgrims on the journey with the Celts to the Creche:
This Advent Devotional is in the process of being updated to a Celtic 40 Days of Advent Devotional for Advent 2017. Prayers are appreciated as I work on the next eleven Celtic/Anglo-Saxon saints who will join us on this journey to the Creche where Christ is born anew in our lives.
*Newsflash!!! July 2017.And while we are waiting for the 40 Days of the Celtic Advent to begin, two very exciting archaeological discoveries have just been made and announced in early July 2017.
First of all, ancient stone foundations that likely rest on the original wooden church of either St. Aidan or St. Cuthbert on Lindisfarne have been discovered on a rocky promontory. (For further information, see St. Aidan’s Day One post below or St. Cuthbert’s Day Six post below).
Secondly, wood fragments discovered from St. Columba’s cell on Iona in 1957 have been radiocarbon tested and found to be of the same era as St. Columba! (For further information, see St. Columba’s Day Four post below for further info.).
Virgin Mary with Infant Jesus from the Book of Kells. Trinity College, Dublin
- Day One 11/15: St. Aidan of Lindisfarne
- Day Two 11/16: St. Hilda of Whitby
- Day Three 11/17: St. Hereswith
- Day Four 11/18: St. Columba of Iona
- Day Five 11/19: St. Non of Wales
- Day Six 11/20: St. Cuthbert
- Day Seven 11/21: St. Werburga of Chester
- Day Eight 11/22: Theodechilde, Abbess of Jouarre
- Day Nine 11/23: St. Fursey
- Day Ten 11/24 St. Winifred of Wales
- Day Eleven 11/25: St. Columbanus
- Day Twelve 11/26: St. Brigid of Kildare
- Day Thirteen 11/27: St. Ita of Ireland
- Day Fourteen 11/28: A Band of Brothers: Cedd, Chad, Cynibil, Caelin
- Day Fifteen 11/29: Abbess Ethelburga of Barking
- Day Sixteen 12/30: John O’Donohue of Ireland
- Day Seventeen 12/01: Abbess Aebbe of Coldingham
- Day Eighteen 12/02: Pelagius
- Day Nineteen 12/03: St. Bertha of Kent
- Day Twenty 12/04: St. Brendan the Navigator
- Day Twenty-One 12/05: Abbess Burgundofara of Faremoutiers
- Day Twenty-Two 12/06: The Venerable Bede
- Day Twenty-Three 12/07: St. Bathilde of Chelles
- Day Twenty-Four 12/08: Abbesses Beatrice and Anna of Iona Nunnery
- Day Twenty-Five 12/9: St. Deiniol of Wales
- Day Twenty-Six 12/10: St. John of Beverley
- Day Twenty-Seven 12/11: St. Frideswide of Oxford
- Day Twenty-Eight 12/12 St. Bega of Bees
- Day Twenty-Nine 12/13: King Aldwulf of East Anglia
- Day Thirty 12/14
- Day Thirty-One 12/15
- Day Thirty-Two 12/16
- Day Thirty-Three 12/17
- Day Thirty-Four 12/18
- Day Thirty-Five 12/19
- Day Thirty-Six 12/20
- Day Thirty-Seven 12/21
- Day Thirty-Eight 12/22
- Day Thirty-Nine 12/23
- Day Forty 12/24
Let the 2017 Celtic Advent Pilgrimage Begin!
The early Celtic monks would get into their little leather boats called coracles, paddle out to the sea, pull their oars into the boat, and pray, “Spirit, blow me to my place of Resurrection.” Wherever they landed, was to be the place chosen by the Spirit where they would live, share the Gospel, and experience their future Day of Resurrection at the end of their life. In our imagination, let us jump into our little coracle and ask the Spirit to blow us to places we never dreamed or imagined. Blow, Spirit, Blow!
Leather Coracle. photo from boats depot.com
Greetings from the far exurbs of Washington, D.C. I’m also a Brendan scholar and would love to share a piece I wrote titled “St. Brendan’s Influence on American History” Please write back if you’re interested. God bless you and your necessary work!
Yes, please send your work on St. Brendan and American History-sounds very interesting. I will read it.
My interest in St. Brendan began in the 80s. In 1984, I began plotting a sequel, of sorts, to the navigator’s story, with the working title The Legend of Josh Brendan. It remains an unfinished work, among many others, but when I find the right collaborators I do foresee it on the widescreen (in our living rooms, as an epic miniseries) later this decade.
The cinematography begins on the summit of Cnoc Bréanainn, where the saint himself climbed “to see the Americas, before setting sail for them.” Through the mists he sees the promise of a new land, and immediately knows the Lord is calling him there. And then Josh Brendan awakens from his dream. It’s 1986, and he’s all of 13. His father’s side of the family claims a direct link within the saint’s lineage. His mother is skeptical. But Josh is the true descendant. He is a visionary who sees the new land with even greater clarity than his forebear. Stay tuned.
My fascination with Brendan also extends to his influence on American history, beginning with Columbus. Here are five of the most persuasive quotes, from various sources:
“Navigatio Brendani … was well known to Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella when they were planning the 1492 voyage.”
“Columbus used the story as proof for Queen Isabella to finance his journey.”
“Queen Isabella had her transcribers copy the book The Travels of St. Brendan, prior to [Columbus’s] first voyage to the New World.”
“Columbus may well have had the old account of St. Brendan in the back of his mind when he set sail for the West.”
“Fact or fantasy, the Navigatio had incalculable impact on the great European voyages of discovery—including that of Columbus.” [National Geographic].
And so I imagine Christopher Columbus as a child, hearing tales of Brendan, dreaming of his own voyages, perhaps. Navigatio may also have bolstered his growing conviction there was a western route to the far East.
Additionally, Navigatio could easily have contributed to Columbus’s mental image of the (round) world. It contradicted the prevailing superstition of “Ne Plus Ultra” (“there is nothing more beyond [the Atlantic],” a warning to sailors). Columbus’s passionate belief in “Plus Ultra” — which later became (and to this day remains) Spain’s national motto — could have been his conviction from a very early age, sparked by Navigatio.
I therefore believe we have St. Brendan to thank, at least in part, for Plus Ultra, a meme that is nearly synonymous with American history, and which continues to change the world.
So here’s the question I invite you to consider: If Brendan had never been born, how might it have affected American history? Would the last 520 years have been the same had our sixth century patron never ascended the “cnoc” that now bears his name?
Thank you John for this 21st century look at Brendan. Yes, life on planet earth might have looked different if he had not been born and became a navigator.