Historical Setting: The Great Skellig in an unknown time
The little monk’s sister asks me if I am a merchant or a Viking.
“Doesn’t anyone else travel the sea?”
“Of course, but you don’t have the glow of a saint, so I assumed you weren’t among the blessed.”
“Indeed, I wasn’t glowing of sainthood when the brother dragged my broken body up this cliff. He told no one I was here until I found healing. Today he gave me this walking stick and he sent me here to return the flask.”
“He probably doesn’t want the abbot involved. If my brother could have his way, he would choose to live across on the Little Skellig with no people at all. He only wants the company of God, and the creatures of the skies and sea. So” she asks again, “what are you? Why do you travel the seas?”
“I’m no Viking, nor am I a merchant, though I was sailing with a merchant. And maybe that was the cause that my saintly glow is dimmed.”
She laughs.
I explain, “We were on a journey in a currach, only made for river travel, bound for Iona, when our craft was devoured by the sea in a storm. I held the empty chest and floated on the sea for a moment, but the merchant held the chest of coins and sunk down straight away. It was only by God’s grace that I was delivered here.”
“At sea in a currach, adrift on a journey to Iona — how like Saint Brendan you must have seemed to the angels.”
“So, who is Saint Brendan?”
“You don’t even know?”
“I don’t know anything about this time or place.”
“He isn’t of this time. Saint Brendan is a known throughout all the world — an abbot in his little currach filled with monks. They were seeking Paradise.” [Footnote]
“And they found it?”
“Of course. He’s a saint.”
“So where is Paradise?”
“It is said to be far to the north on the easterly side of the wind.”
“Really, I hadn’t heard of that.”
“I am oh so busy today, with the weather so fair. So, if you expect me to tell you the truths of the whole realm of God you will have to follow me on my chores.”
“Fair enough.”
And so, the little monk’s sister goes back inside her hovel and is back in an instant with weed picks for both of us, and a harvester’s bag.
Footnote: Brendan of Clonfert (c. AD 484 – c. 577) is one of the early Irish monastic saints and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_the_Navigator
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 