05/19/2026
“O Christ, will you help me over the wild waves?” - Brendan the Navigator
Brendan was born in County Kerry, Ireland and tutored as child by one of Ireland’s earliest monastic saints, Finnian of Clonard. Monasteries were central to Celtic Christianity’s life, ministry, and culture and once Brendan was ordained a priest, he established monasteries in the Aran islands and in Ardfert, both in far-Western Ireland on the shores of the expansive North Atlantic.
In Ardfert, Brendan met a monk who told him of a far-away “Isle of the Blessed” that lay across the sea. This land, the monk said, was perhaps the original Garden of Eden. Brendan was so compelled by these stories that he recruited a group of 16 monks to join him on a treacherous voyage across the sea to find this fabled land. For seven years, Brendan and his companions traveled in their small boat encountering adventures, spiritual trials, and danger in distant lands that they gave names like ”The Island of Strong Men,” “The Island of Birds,” and “The Island of Sheep.” Some details of Brendan’s voyages bear remarkable resemblance to the actual ocean currents, wind patterns, and geography of the North Atlantic and the coasts of Iceland, Greenland, and North America. Some have posited that Brendan and his monks may have journeyed down the North American coast, exploring lands as far south as the Caribbean, thus making them the earliest European explorers of the New World. After seven years at sea, Brendan returned to Ireland, where he devoted the remainder to missionary work in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Prayer of St. Brendan
Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach, a record of my final prayer in my native land?
Shall I then suffer every kind of wound that the sea can inflict?
Shall I take my tiny boat across the wide sparkling ocean?
O King of the Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea?
O Christ, will you help me on the wild waves?
Art & history by Ben Lansing, ourchurchspeaks.com
