Hey, it's the last battle of the week! How'd that happen? We're not sure. But we do know that today it's Brendan of Clonfert vs. David of Wales. Two saints deeply rooted in the monastic tradition and beloved in their home countries. But only one will advance to face Blandina in the Saintly Sixteen.
Yesterday, Leoba made it past Cuthmann of Steyning 58% to 42% to advance to the Saintly Sixteen.
I know you miss us already but, fear not, we'll be back first thing on Monday morning as Jonathan Daniels faces Rutilio Grande.
Now go cast your final vote of the week!
Brendan of Clonfert
Brendan was born in 481, 482, 484, 486, or 488, in Tralee, County Kerry (that’s for certain). His name can be rendered Brennan or Brennog, Bréanainn or Breandán. He is also known as “the Navigator,” “the Voyager,” “the Anchorite,” or “the Bold.” The immrama (Old Irish sea tales) recount his journeys by sea to the Hebrides and Western Scotland, perhaps to Wales and Brittany, Iceland and the Azores, and maybe, some claim, to the Americas.
Beloved by many of Irish descent, Brendan’s life and its mythic uncertainties might leave some cold. But amidst the signposts of legend are the standing stones of Brendan’s real life: a devoted abbot who founded monastic communities across Ireland, an influential figure in the development of Celtic Christianity, and one of the 12 apostles of Ireland.
Monastic life grew in popularity in the generations after Saint Patrick. Brendan felt the call to monastic life and was ordained to the priesthood in 512. The community at Ardfert was either entrusted to him (or he founded it), and life there was centered in prayer and silence.
After several years at Ardfert, Brendan and a small group of monks set off by boat to find the “Promised Land of the Saints,” the site of the Garden of Eden, traveling for seven years before they reached Paradise. Most ancient maps place Brendan’s destination somewhere around the Canary Islands, but the popularity of Brendan’s story has led some historians to argue that his journey is related to contemporaneous feats of Irish navigation—namely, the evidence of Irish explorers in Greenland and Iceland.
Upon Brendan’s return, Ardfert quickly became a destination for pilgrims and students. New religious houses were built, and the See of Ardfert was established. Brendan continued to roam, founding a monastery at Inis-da-druim in 550, later traveling to Wales and possibly Iona. Brendan established more churches after his return to Ireland, founding the monastery at Clonfert, perhaps around 557. At its height, 3,000 monks called Clonfert home.
In Brendan’s life, we see aspirational characteristics, historically proven: faithfulness, leadership, and courage. Yet his legends can inspire, too. Brendan is a patron of seafarers, and for centuries sailors have prayed to Saint Brendan that they might see the promised land. Even for those who remain on dry land, Brendan is a companion in seeking and—even against all odds—finding God.
Collect for Brendan of Clonfert
O God, by whose grace your servant Brendan, kindled with the flame of your love, became a burning and a shining light in your Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and walk before you as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
David of Wales
David, or Dewi in his native Welsh, was born about 500 to a ruling family near Menevia. Facts about his early life are vague, but he was educated and formed as a Christian as a child and young man. Early in his life, he founded a monastery near his home city to study and relished in the quiet and solitude of such a place.
Inspired by monastic life, David founded several additional monasteries in modern-day Wales to share the joy he found in a life avowed to prayer, study, and silence. David’s monastic rule, however, was not simply one of time in quiet prayer. He demanded monks live deeply austere lives, drinking only water (rather than the usual wine or mead) and eating only bread flavored with a small amount of salt and herbs. Monks were required to pull their own ploughs, and no personal possessions or superfluous words were allowed.
While David certainly would have been content to live out his life as an ascetic, his fellow Christians had other ideas. Around 550, clergy in Wales gathered at the Synod of Brefi, which was called to counter the second invasion of the heresy of Pelagianism. Pelagius was a British monk who purportedly believed individuals could achieve their own salvation by making good life choices, and that original sin was a fallacy. When David spoke out against the Pelagianism heresy, legend has it that people in the back of the crowd struggled to see and hear him, so God caused a tiny hill to sprout under his feet and a white dove to alight on his shoulder. Legend says David was so impressive that the current bishop of the Cambrian Church resigned on the spot, and David was ordained to the position.
David served as an archbishop with the same prayerful asceticism he lived in his monastery. He moved the episcopal seat from Caerleon to Menevia, where his monastery was and still is to this day. During David’s years of service, he guarded the Christian faith in Wales from invaders and heretics, and several well-known Irish saints were his students.
When he died on March 1, 589, the monastery was said to be filled with the light of angels sent by God to accompany David to heaven. David was buried on the grounds of the monastery he founded known today as the Cathedral of St. David. His tomb and subsequent shrine were declared a place of pilgrimage in the twelfth century, and they continue to be a sacred place for Christians from Wales and around the world.
Collect for David of Wales
Almighty God, who called your servant David to be a faithful and wise steward of your mysteries for the people of Wales: Mercifully grant that, following his purity of life and zeal for the Gospel of Christ, we may, with him, praise you both here on earth and also in your everlasting kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Brendan of Clonfert: MrCharco, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
David of Wales: Hchc2009, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
130 comments on “Brendan of Clonfert v. David of Wales”
I voted for Brendan, as I wanted to learn more about him and his supposedly celebrating Easter Mass from a whale's back. See link below for a charm of Saint Brendan from Tiny Saints.
https://www.tinysaints.com/products/saint-brendan
I vote for Brendan because he dared search out Eden, finding it within mortal ability to obtain while living. I vote against David first because his extreme asceticism would certainly lead to pellagra and other nutritional disorders, and I rather like the idea of the heresy of Pelagianism, where good deeds lead to a closer relationship with God, and I have never been comfortable with the concept of Original Sin. I guess that makes me a heretic as well.
Here's to "Toby Purcell, his spurs, and St. David."
Ever since their service together in the Boxer Rebellion, the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Colonel of the Royal Welch Fusiliers have exchanged greetings on St. David's Day.
The ascetic who so impressed the public with his defense of Christianity was appointed bishop and continued to imitate Jesus’s austerity in the desert gets my vote this fasting Friday. If only our Christian leaders could learn as such.
St. Brendan’s work in founding monasteries and churches gets my vote. My ancestry is both Irish and Welsh.
True, but Dewi Sant also founded monasteries.
Aaaarrrghgh!! This one was really hard. Both are impressive saints, but in the end I voted for David of Wales, partly because I have a son named David and partly because he was slightly the under-dog. And I've been to Wales more recently than to Ireland.
As by brother-in-law says, "A poor excuse is better than none."
"Brendan was born in 481, 482, 484, 486, or 488".
It must have been a very difficult birth.
Our 5th Grade class at Bethany School were most impressed by Brendan's image. It probably would have been closer, but that statue is fierce. 😉
Clonfert sounds like a harry potter spell
Dewi Sant. Cymru am byth!
St. David, of course. Go Wales !
Aye, those that heed the call of the sea are a special breed. To cast the bread upon the water and trust the wind to guide the path, whether the destination be found, the journey be taken. Praise to the ones who sail both the shallow and the deep in their search. Aye, Brendan be my navigator.
The way I read it, Dewi demanded monks to live deeply austere lives, not that all believers follow a life of the ascetic. And yet, Dewi also founded a monastery to study and relish in the quiet and solitude of such a place, and started other monasteries to share the joy he found in a life avowed to prayer, study, and silence. Maybe today, this would be the call to "be slient and listen to the still quiet voice of G-d amid the chaotic noise of city life. A INFJ?
Pelagius "purportedly believed individuals could achieve their own salvation by making good life choices, and that original sin was a fallacy" which the institutional church as rejected, so...
Anyway, this spouse of David Guy Evans has to go for Dewi Sant.
"Byddwch lawen a chadwch eich ffyd a'ch credd, a gwnewch y petheu bychain a glywsoch ac y welsoch gennyf i. A mwynhau a gerdaf y fford yd aeth an tadeu idi"
"Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed, and do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. And as for me, I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us."
This INFP agrees.
I had to vote for St. David, having visited the Cathedral in Wales twice on tours with church choirs. The Cathedral was built in a small valley. On one tour, I sprained my ankle badly on the stairs of our BnB but was able to hobble to the Cathedral later that morning. Although I was unable to take the walking tour, one priest invited me to stay in the Chapel where St. David's tomb is located. While resting there, a number of pilgrims who had walked from a sacred spring nearby, came for a special Eucharist.
In terms of the extent that this seems to be Irish vs. Welsh, don't some scholars believe St Patrick was Welsh??
I really enjoyed learning about David of Wales, but I have to go with St. Brendan who has been a hero of mine for decades, ever since reading Tim Severin's book.
This wasn’t a hard choice. I felt David was cruel to the monks by not letting them have anything but bread and water to eat after plowing the fields themselves all day. Also my dad was a sailor so had to bite for Cuthmann. Plus my dad did have some Irish blood in him.
The way I read it Dewi demanded monks live deeply austere lives, not that all believers follow a life of the ascetic. And yet, Dewi also founded a monastery to study and relish in the quiet and solitude of such a place, starting other monasteries to share the joy he found in a life avowed to prayer, study, and silence. Maybe today, this would be the call to "be slient and listen to the word of G-d amid the noise of city life. A INFJ?
Pelagius "purportedly believed individuals could achieve their own salvation by making good life choices, and that original sin was a fallacy." which the institutional church as rejected, sp...
This spouse of David Guy Evans has to go for Dewi Sant.
"Byddwch lawen a chadwch eich ffyd a'ch credd, a gwnewch y petheu bychain a glywsoch ac y welsoch gennyf i. A mwynhau a gerdaf y fford yd aeth an tadeu idi"
"Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed, and do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. And as for me, I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us."
My mother’s mother was a Pritchard, one cousin married a Welsh lady and they live in North Wales, my father’s grandfather came from Ireland over to Glasgow and from there to St Helens (England, near Manchester)—but likely his family went to Ireland from Scotland. And my for my birthday much of the world dresses in green and parades! What to do? I support my favourite Welsh saint, of daffodils and quiet, over the great mariner, but maybe have a chance to support the mariner later.
Oh, this is impossible. Of Welsh heritage, how can I not vote for St. David, the patron saint of Wales? On the other hand, of a devoted friend of the congregation of St Brendan the Navigator in Deer Isle, Maine, how can I not vote for Brendan?
I am swayed to cast my lot on the seas with the voyager, who wrote (it is believed) this moving prayer:
Help me to journey beyond the familiar
and into the unknown.
Give me the faith to leave old ways
and break fresh ground with You.
Christ of the mysteries, I trust You
to be stronger than each storm within me.
I will trust in the darkness and know
that my times, even now, are in Your hand.
Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,
and somehow, make my obedience count for You."
AMEN.
I hope I can vote for The Navigator and still cry Cymru Am Byth!
Oh, this is impossible. Of Welsh heritage, how can I not vote for St. David, the patron saint of Wales? On the other hand, of a devoted friend of the congregation of St Brendan the Navigator in Deer Isle, Maine, how can I not vote for Brendan? His prayer is the prayer of my heart.
I hope I can vote for The Navigator and still cry Cymru Am Byth!
Had to vote for David, since he is the patron saint of my parish, St. David’s in Topeka, Kansas. Several years ago, a fire destroyed our building, and our local Jewish temple lent us their building for worship, as they did not use it on Sunday. We were there for a year as we rebuilt, and a wonderful friendship was built between our congregations.
Our Episcopal church in Deer Isle, Maine is named for St. Brendan the Navigator. It was “planted” about 40 years ago in this island fishing community on the rocky coast of Maine, and is a blessing my family.
Bread and water - nope. The ascetic life, definitely no.
Asceticism, bread and water - that will be a no for Dewi.
I went for Brendan today because asking people to live on bread and water is just weird.
Well, this was a surprise. Having planned all along to vote for David, I instead chose Brendan! I joined the Episcopal church at St Davids, am of Welsh heritage, embrace my Celtic roots and yet the story of Brendan's adventures at sea captured me. The pastoral images of David's Ireland were no match for the wild sea today.
I couldn't vote for the man who made his monks eat only herb infused bread and water
Difficult choice I select Brendan for my godson is named.
As Eva Suarez says, legends can inspire too. The stories that grow up around a person are rooted in who that person was, how people remember them--or the stories would be different. Brendan's stories are of an adventuresome and questing spirit. He has my vote.
So planned to vote for Brendan all along — and did — but David actually gave me pause and pondering before doing so.
The more I read the comments the more I try to decipher my own responses and reactions to their stories and these needfully brief introductions to their faith and character and attempt to whittle down and out my own cultural lenses and modern and theological biases. (Not easy, but I'm learning so much about them AND myself through this!)
That to say, had David not been up against Brendan, I might have been persuaded all the way for him. But I was set on Brendan from the moment the lineup was announced last autumn, recognizing him from one of the sets of prayers in my Celtic Daily Prayers book!