Historical Setting: The Great Skellig in an unknown time
I try to explain.
“I didn’t mean to startle you. The little monk who rescued me from the sea sent me here to return the flask and to thank you for the goats milk… every day… thank you — and for the straw and the oats — all the sustenance for healing.”
“Do you mean, my brother rescued a man, and he told no one, not even me?”
“I’m pretty sure he mentioned my neediness in his prayers. He seems to make a practice of rescuing the broken.”
“Of course, he has always cared for every little needy creature anyone brings to his door. And it isn’t unusual when the birds return here for their nesting season that one or several will go higher on this Skellig to his cell, just for a grateful glimpse, remembering him. Even the seals in the cove know him as a friend for all his kindness. But I hadn’t imagined he would rescue a man.”
“I’m no different then, from the birds and seals and the dog — I am also grateful. My healing has been slow. This is the first I’ve seen of this land. I’m supposing this place where my bones have washed up is a monastery and there are others here.”
“If you go down through the Christ’s saddle and up the climb you will find the others.”
I say, “But here you are, also, on this rocky precipice.”
“It is a Skellig, set apart from shores and lands — just a rock rising from the sea.”
“It seems a rugged place to make a garden.”
“It is where we are. It’s our holy assignment. From our birth together, Tim has the gift of silence, so my gift is simply to voice our faithfulness. If my brother goes to the ends of the earth to be close to God for his careful listening, then I go to the ends of the earth to be the voice for the silent brother. And in his silence, he searches for the farthest edges to be near the creatures and to live in the thin places nearest to God, alone, without the intervention of a priest or any man. That’s why it is so surprising that he would choose to rescue a man. Where did you come from? How did you even get here?”
“It was a shipwreck; I washed ashore here.”
“So, are you a Viking or a merchant?”
(Continues Wednesday, July 1, 2026)
Lazarus Ink 