Books: The Hermits

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And they learned from that man that the sheep grew there so big
because they were never milked, nor pinched with winter, but they
fed in those pastures all the year round. Moreover, he told them
that they must keep Easter in an isle hard by, opposite a shore to
the west, which some called the Paradise of Birds.

So to the nearest island they sailed. It had no harbour, nor sandy
shore, and there was no turf on it, and very little wood. Now the
Saint knew what manner of isle it was, but he would not tell the
brethren, lest they should be terrified. So he bade them make the
boat fast stem and stern, and when morning came he bade those who
were priests to celebrate each a mass, and then to take the lamb's
fleece on shore and cook it in the caldron with salt, while St.
Brendan remained in the boat.

But when the fire blazed up, and the pot began to boil, that island
began to move like water. Then the brethren ran to the boat
imploring St. Brendan's aid; and he helped them each in by the hand,
and cast off. After which the island sank in the ocean. And when
they could see their fire burning more than two miles off, St.
Brendan told them how that God had revealed to him that night the
mystery; that this was no isle, but the biggest of all fishes which
swam in the ocean, always it tries to make its head and its tail
meet, but cannot, by reason of its length; and its name is
Jasconius.

Then, across a narrow strait, they saw another isle, very grassy and
wooded, and full of flowers. And they found a little stream, and
towed the boat up it (for the stream was of the same width as the
boat), with St. Brendan sitting on board, till they came to the
fountain thereof. Then said the holy father, "See, brethren, the
Lord has given us a place wherein to celebrate his holy
Resurrection. And if we had nought else, this fountain, I think,
would serve for food as well as drink." For the fountain was too
admirable. Over it was a huge tree of wonderful breadth, but no
great height, covered with snow-white birds, so that its leaves and
boughs could scarce be seen.

And when the man of God saw that, he was so desirous to know the
cause of that assemblage of birds, that he besought God upon his
knees, with tears, saying, "God, who knowest the unknown, and
revealest the hidden, thou knowest the anxiety of my heart. . . .
Deign of thy great mercy to reveal to me thy secret. . . . But not
for the merit of my own dignity, but regarding thy clemency, do I
presume to ask."

Then one of those birds flew from off the tree, and his wings
sounded like bells over the boat. And he sat on the prow, and
spread his wings joyfully, and looked quietly on St. Brendan. And
when the man of God questioned that bird, it told how they were of
the spirits which fell in the great ruin of the old enemy; not by
sin or by consent, but predestined by the piety of God to fall with
those with whom they were created. But they suffered no punishment;
only they could not, in part, behold the presence of God. They
wandered about this world, like other spirits of the air, and
firmament, and earth. But on holy days they took those shapes of
birds, and praised their Creator in that place.

Then the bird told him, how he and his monks had wandered one year
already, and should wander for six more; and every year should
celebrate their Easter in that place, and after find the Land of
Promise; and so flew back to its tree.

And when the eventide was come, the birds began all with one voice
to sing, and clap their wings, crying, "Thou, O God, art praised in
Zion, and unto Thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem." And
always they repeated that verse for an hour, and their melody and
the clapping of their wings was like music which drew tears by its
sweetness.

And when the man of God wakened his monks at the third watch of the
night with the verse, "Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord," all the
birds answered, "Praise the Lord, all his angels; praise him, all
his virtues." And when the dawn shone, they sang again, "The
splendour of the Lord God is over us;" and at the third hour, "Sing
psalms to our God, sing; sing to our King, sing with wisdom." And
at the sixth, "The Lord hath lifted up the light of his countenance
upon us, and had mercy on us." And at the ninth, "Behold how good
and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell in unity." So day and
night those birds gave praise to God. St. Brendan, therefore,
seeing these things, gave thanks to God for all his marvels, and the
brethren were refreshed with that spiritual food till the octave of
Easter.

After which, St. Brendan advised to take of the water of the
fountain; for till then they had only used it to wash their feet and
hands. But there came to him the same man who had been with them
three days before Easter, and with his boat full of meat and drink,
and said, "My brothers, here you have enough to last till Pentecost:
but do not drink of that fountain. For its nature is, that
whosoever drinks will sleep for four-and-twenty hours." So they
stayed till Pentecost, and rejoiced in the song of the birds. And
after mass at Pentecost, the man brought them food again, and bade
them take of the water of the fountain and depart. Then the birds
came again, and sat upon the prow, and told them how they must,
every year, celebrate Easter in the Isle of Birds, and Easter Eve
upon the back of the fish Jasconius; and how, after eight months,
they should come to the isle called Ailbey, and keep their Christmas
there.

After which they were on the ocean for eight months, out of sight of
land, and only eating after every two or three days, till they came
to an island, along which they sailed for forty days, and found no
harbour. Then they wept and prayed, for they were almost worn out
with weariness; and after they had fasted and prayed for three days,
they saw a narrow harbour, and two fountains, one foul, one clear.
But when the brethren hurried to draw water, St. Brendan (as he had
done once before) forbade them, saying that they must take nought
without leave from the elders who were in that isle.

And of the wonders which they saw in that isle it were too long to
tell: how there met them an exceeding old man, with snow-white
hair, who fell at St. Brendan's feet three times, and led him in
silence up to a monastery of four-and-twenty silent monks, who
washed their feet, and fed them with bread and water, and roots of
wonderful sweetness; and then at last, opening his mouth, told them
how that bread was sent them perpetually, they knew not from whence;
and how they had been there eighty years, since the times of St.
Patrick, and how their father Ailbey and Christ had nourished them;
and how they grew no older, nor ever fell sick, nor were overcome by
cold or heat; and how brother never spoke to brother, but all things
were done by signs; and how he led them to a square chapel, with
three candles before the mid-altar, and two before each of the side
altars; and how they, and the chalices and patens, and all the other
vessels, were of crystal; and how the candles were lighted always by
a fiery arrow, which came in through the window, and returned; and
how St. Brendan kept his Christmas there, and then sailed away till
Lent, and came to a fruitful island where he found fish; and how
when certain brethren drank too much of the charmed water they
slept, some three days, and some one; and how they sailed north, and
then east, till they came back to the Isle of Sheep at Easter, and
found on the shore their caldron, which they had lost on Jasconius's
back; and how, sailing away, they were chased by a mighty fish which
spouted foam, but was slain by another fish which spouted fire; and
how they took enough of its flesh to last them three months; and how
they came to an island flat as the sea, without trees, or aught that
waved in the wind; and how on that island were three troops of monks
(as the holy man had foretold), standing a stone's throw from each
other: the first of boys, robed in snow-white; the second of young
men, dressed in hyacinthine; the third of old men, in purple
dalmatics, singing alternately their psalms, all day and night: and
how when they stopped singing, a cloud of wondrous brightness
overshadowed the isle; and how two of the young men, ere they sailed
away, brought baskets of grapes, and asked that one of the monks (as
had been prophesied) should remain with them, in the Isle of Strong
Men; and how St. Brendan let him go, saying, "In a good hour did thy
mother conceive thee, because thou hast merited to dwell with such a
congregation;" and how those grapes were so big, that a pound of
juice ran out of each of them, and an ounce thereof fed each brother
for a whole day, and was as sweet as honey; and how a magnificent
bird dropped into the ship the bough of an unknown tree, with a
bunch of grapes thereon; and how they came to a land where the trees
were all bowed down with vines, and their odour as the odour of a
house full of pomegranates; and how they fed forty days on those
grapes, and strange herbs and roots; and how they saw flying against
them the bird which is called gryphon; and how that bird who had
brought the bough tore out the gryphon's eyes, and slew him; and how
they looked down into the clear sea, and saw all the fishes sailing
round and round, head to tail, innumerable as flocks in the
pastures, and were terrified, and would have had the man of God
celebrate mass in silence, lest the fish should hear, and attack
them; and how the man of God laughed at their folly; and how they
came to a column of clear crystal in the sea, with a canopy round it
of the colour of silver, harder than marble, and sailed in through
an opening, and found it all light within; {269} and how they found
in that hall a chalice of the same stuff as the canopy, and a paten
of that of the column, and took them, that they might make many
believe; and how they sailed out again, and past a treeless island,
covered with slag and forges; and how a great hairy man, fiery and
smutty, came down and shouted after them; and how when they made the
sign of the Cross and sailed away, he and his fellows brought down
huge lumps of burning slag in tongs, and hurled them after the ship;
and how they went back, and blew their forges up, till the whole
island flared, and the sea boiled, and the howling and stench
followed them, even when they were out of sight of that evil isle;
and how St. Brendan bade them strengthen themselves in faith and
spiritual arms, for they were now on the confines of hell, therefore
they must watch, and play the man. All this must needs be hastened
over, that we may come to the famous legend of Judas Iscariot.

They saw a great and high mountain toward the north, with smoke
about its peak. And the wind blew them close under the cliffs,
which were of immense height, so that they could hardly see their
top, upright as walls, and black as coal. {270} Then he who
remained of the three brethren who had followed St. Brendan sprang
out of the ship, and waded to the cliff foot, groaning, and crying,
"Woe to me, father, for I am carried away from you; and cannot turn
back." Then the brethren backed the ship, and cried to the Lord for
mercy. But the blessed Father Brendan saw how that wretch was
carried off by a multitude of devils, and all on fire among them.
Then a fair wind blew them away southward; and when they looked back
they saw the peak of the isle uncovered, and flame spouting from it
up to heaven, and sinking back again, till the whole mountain seemed
one burning pile.

After that terrible vision they sailed seven days to the south, till
Father Brendan saw a dense cloud; when they neared it, a form as of
a man sitting, and before him a veil, as big as a sack, hanging
between two iron tongs, and rocking on the waves like a boat in a
whirlwind. Which when the brethren saw some thought was a bird, and
some a boat; but the man of God bade them give over arguing, and row
thither. And when they got near, the waves were still, as if they
had been frozen; and they found a man sitting on a rough and
shapeless rock, and the waves beating over his head; and when they
fell back, the bare rock appeared on which that wretch was sitting.
And the cloth which hung before him the wind moved, and beat him
with it on the eyes and brow. But when the blessed man asked him
who he was, and how he had earned that doom, he said, "I am that
most wretched Judas, who made the worst of all bargains. But I hold
not this place for any merit of my own, but for the ineffable mercy
of Christ. I expect no place of repentance: but for the indulgence
and mercy of the Redeemer of the world, and for the honour of His
holy resurrection, I have this refreshment; for it is the Lord's-day
now, and as I sit here I seem to myself in a paradise of delight, by
reason of the pains which will be mine this evening; for when I am
in my pains I burn day and night like lead melted in a pot. But in
the midst of that mountain which you saw, is Leviathan with his
satellites, and I was there when he swallowed your brother; and
therefore the king of hell rejoiced, and sent forth huge flames, as
he doth always when he devours the souls of the impious." Then he
told them how he had his refreshings there every Lord's-day from
even to even, and from Christmas to Epiphany, and from Easter to
Pentecost, and from the Purification of the Blessed Virgin to her
Assumption: but the rest of his time he was tormented with Herod
and Pilate, Annas and Caiaphas; and so adjured them to intercede for
him with the Lord that he might be there at least till sunrise in
the morn. To whom the man of God said, "The will of the Lord be
done. Thou shalt not be carried off by the daemons till to-morrow."
Then he asked him of that clothing, and he told how he had given it
to a leper when he was the Lord's chamberlain; "but because it was
no more mine than it was the Lord's and the other brethren's,
therefore it is of no comfort to me, but rather a hurt. And these
forks I gave to the priests to hang their caldrons on. And this
stone on which I always sit I took off the road, and threw it into a
ditch for a stepping-stone, before I was a disciple of the Lord."
{272}

But when the evening hour had covered the face of Thetis," behold a
multitude of daemons shouting in a ring, and bidding the man of God
depart, for else they could not approach; and they dared not behold
their prince's face unless they brought back their prey. But the
man of God bade them depart. And in the morning an infinite
multitude of devils covered the face of the abyss, and cursed the
man of God for coming thither; for their prince had scourged them
cruelly that night for not bringing back the captive. But the man
of God returned their curses on their own heads, saying that "cursed
was he whom they blest, and blessed he whom they cursed;" and when
they threatened Judas with double torments because he had not come
back, the man of God rebuked them.

"Art thou, then, Lord of all," they asked, "that we should obey
thee?" "I am the servant," said he, "of the Lord of all; and
whatsoever I command in his name is done; and I have no ministry
save what he concedes to me."

So they blasphemed him till he left Judas, and then returned, and
carried off that wretched soul with great rushing and howling.

After which they saw a little isle; and the holy man told them that
now seven years were nigh past; and that in that isle they should
soon see a hermit, named Paul the Spiritual, who had lived for sixty
years without any corporeal food, but for thirty years before that
he had received food from a certain beast.

The isle was very small, about a furlong round; a bare rock, so
steep that they could find no landing-place. But at last they found
a creek, into which they thrust the boat's bow, and then discovered
a very difficult ascent. Up that the man of God climbed, bidding
them wait for him, for they must not enter the isle without the
hermit's leave; and when he came to the top he saw two caves, with
their mouths opposite each other, and a very small round well before
the cave mouth, whose waters, as fast as they ran out, were sucked
in again by the rock. {274} As he went to one entrance, the old man
came out of the other, saying, "Behold how good and pleasant it is,
brethren, to dwell together in unity," and bade him call up the
brethren from the boat; and when they came, he kissed them, and
called them each by his name. Whereat they marvelled, not only at
his spirit of prophecy, but also at his attire; for he was all
covered with his locks and beard, and with the other hair of his
body, down to his feet. His hair was white as snow for age, and
none other covering had he. When St. Brendan saw that, he sighed
again and again, and said within himself, "Woe is me, sinner that I
am, who wear a monk's habit, and have many monks under me, when I
see a man of angelic dignity sitting in a cell, still in the flesh,
and unhurt by the vices of the flesh." To whom the man of God
answered, "Venerable father, what great and many wonders God hath
showed thee, which he hath manifested to none of the fathers, and
thou sayest in thy heart that thou art not worthy to wear a monk's
habit. I tell thee, father, that thou art greater than a monk; for
a monk is fed and clothed by the work of his own hands: but God has
fed and clothed thee and thy family for seven years with his secret
things, while wretched I sit here on this rock like a bird, naked
save the hair of my body."

Then St. Brendan asked him how and whence he came thither; and he
told how he was nourished in St. Patrick's monastery for fifty
years, and took care of the cemetery; and how when the dean had
bidden him dig a grave, an old man, whom he knew not, appeared to
him, and forbade him, for that grave was another man's. And how he
revealed to him that he was St. Patrick, his own abbot, who had died
the day before, and bade him bury that brother elsewhere, and go
down to the sea and find a boat, which would take him to the place
where he should wait for the day of his death; and how he landed on
that rock, and thrust the boat off with his foot, and it went
swiftly back to its own land; and how, on the very first day, a
beast came to him, walking on its hind paws, and between its fore
paws a fish, and grass to make a fire, and laid them at his feet;
and so every third day for twenty years; and every Lord's day a
little water came out of the rock, so that he could drink and wash
his hands; and how after thirty years he had found these caves and
that fountain, and had fed for the last sixty years on nought but
the water thereof. For all the years of his life were 150, and
henceforth he awaited the day of his judgment in that his flesh.

Then they took of that water, and received his blessing, and kissed
each other in the peace of Christ, and sailed southward: but their
food was the water from the isle of the man of God. Then (as Paul
the Hermit had foretold) they came back on Easter Eve to the Isle of
Sheep, and to him who used to give them victuals; and then went on
to the fish Jasconius, and sang praises on his back all night, and
mass at morn. After which the fish carried them on his back to the
Paradise of Birds, and there they stayed till Pentecost. Then the
man who always tended them, bade them fill their skins from the
fountain, and he would lead them to the land promised to the saints.
And all the birds wished them a prosperous voyage in God's name; and
they sailed away, with forty days' provision, the man being their
guide, till after forty days they came at evening to a great
darkness which lay round the Promised Land. But after they had
sailed through it for an hour, a great light shone round them, and
the boat stopped at a shore. And when they landed they saw a
spacious land, full of trees bearing fruit as in autumn time. And
they walked about that land for forty days, eating of the fruit and
drinking of the fountains, and found no end thereof. And there was
no night there, but the light shone like the light of the sun. At
last they came to a great river, which they could not cross, so that
they could not find out the extent of that land. And as they were
pondering over this, a youth, with shining face and fair to look
upon, met them, and kissed them with great joy, calling them each by
his name, and said, "Brethren, peace be with you, and with all that
follow the peace of Christ." And after that, "Blessed are they who
dwell in thy house, O Lord; they shall be for ever praising thee."

Then he told St. Brendan that that was the land which he had been
seeking for seven years, and that he must now return to his own
country, taking of the fruits of that land, and of its precious
gems, as much as his ship could carry; for the days of his departure
were at hand, when he should sleep in peace with his holy brethren.
But after many days that land should be revealed to his successors,
and should be a refuge for Christians in persecution. As for the
river that they saw, it parted that island; and the light shone
there for ever, because Christ was the light thereof.

Then St. Brendan asked if that land would ever be revealed to men:
and the youth answered, that when the most high Creator should have
put all nations under his feet, then that land should be manifested
to all his elect.

After which St. Brendan, when the youth had blessed him, took of the
fruits and of the gems, and sailed back through the darkness, and
returned to his monastery; whom when the brethren saw, they
glorified God for the miracles which he had heard and seen. After
which he ended his life in peace. Amen.

Here ends (says the French version) concerning St. Brendan, and the
marvels which he found in the sea of Ireland.

ST. MALO

Intermingled, fantastically and inconsistently, with the story of
St. Brendan, is that of St. Maclovius or Machutus, who has given his
name to the seaport of St. Malo, in Brittany. His life, written by
Sigebert, a monk of Gembloux, about the year 1100, tells us how he
was a Breton, who sailed with St. Brendan in search of the fairest
of all islands, in which the citizens of heaven were said to dwell.
With St. Brendan St. Malo celebrated Easter on the whale's back, and
with St. Brendan he returned. But another old hagiographer,
Johannes a Bosco, tells a different story, making St. Malo an
Irishman brought up by St. Brendan, and preserved by his prayers
from a wave of the sea. He gives, moreover, to the Isle of Paradise
the name of Inga, and says that St. Brendan and his companions never
reached it after all, but came home after sailing round the Orkneys
and other Northern isles. The fact is, that the same saints
reappear so often on both sides of the British and the Irish
Channels, that we must take the existence of many of them as mere
legend, which has been carried from land to land by monks in their
migrations, and taken root upon each fresh soil which it has
reached. One incident in St. Malo's voyage is so fantastic, and so
grand likewise, that it must not be omitted. The monks come to an
island whereon they find the barrow of some giant of old time. St.
Malo, seized with pity for the lost soul of the heathen, opens the
mound and raises the dead to life. Then follows a strange
conversation between the giant and the saint. He was slain, he
says, by his kinsmen, and ever since has been tormented in the other
world. In that nether pit they know (he says) of the Holy Trinity:
but that knowledge is rather harm than gain to them, because they
did not choose to know it when alive on earth. Therefore he begs to
be baptized, and so delivered from his pain. He is therefore
instructed, catechised, and in due time baptized, and admitted to
the Holy Communion. For fifteen days more he remains alive: and
then, dying once more, is again placed in his sepulchre, and left in
peace.

From fragmentary recollections of such tales as these (it may be
observed in passing) may have sprung the strange fancy of the modern
Cornishmen, which identifies these very Celtic saints of their own
race with the giants who, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth,
inhabited the land before Brutus and his Trojans founded the
Arthuric dynasty. St. Just, for instance, who is one of the
guardian saints of the Land's End, and St. Kevern, one of the
guardian saints of the Lizard, are both giants; and Cornishmen a few
years since would tell how St. Just came from his hermitage by Cape
Cornwall to visit St. Kevern in his cave on the east side of
Goonhilly Downs; and how they took the Holy Communion together; and
how St. Just, tempted by the beauty of St. Kevern's paten and
chalice, arose in the night and fled away with the holy vessels,
wading first the Looe Pool, and then Mount's Bay itself; and how St.
Kevern pursued him, and hurled after him three great boulders of
porphyry, two of which lie on the slates and granites to this day;
till St. Just, terrified at the might of his saintly brother, tossed
the stolen vessels ashore opposite St. Michael's Mount, and, fleeing
back to his own hermitage, never appeared again in the neighbourhood
of St. Kevern.

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