The Teacher of Irish Saints

Finnian of Clonard was an Irish cleric who built schools, monasteries, and churches to spread Christianity. His schools thrived for centuries after his death.

Born about 470CE in the Kingdom of Leinster, he was placed at an early age under the care of a bishop. He is said to have studied at the monastic center of Martin of Tours. Later, after spending 30 years in Wales, he returned to Ireland.

Around 520, he was led by a vision of an angel to Clonard, where he built a chapel of wattle and daub, and a small hermit's cell for himself. His reputation for learning and piety drew pilgrims wishing to see and scholars wishing to learn. He established a monastery at Clonard, known (based on the Martin of Tours system) for strictness and asceticism. It drew great numbers: at one time supposedly had 300 students in the school.

Finnian's brilliant teaching of Scripture and reputation for asceticism inspired a generation of students, among them a group known as the "Twelve Apostles of Ireland." The Twelve were not designated during his lifetime that we know of; their names were gathered in the 1600s, although this might have been based on earlier unwritten tradition. One was St. Brendan, called the Navigator. The rest were also saints, and many of them were bishops. The list has one fluctuation: Finnian himself is the first of them in some versions; in others, it is St. Ciarán of Saigir.

He is said to have died during the Plague of 549-50. The School lived on, and Clonard grew as a town, becoming the diocesan center of East Meath in the 12th century.

One of the Twelve who went on to become well-known in his own right was St. Columba, who provides us with the earliest sighting of the Loch Ness monster; but that can wait until next time.

St. Brendan

Brendan of Clonfert was born 484CE in County Kerry, southwest Ireland. Fostered by a nun, at the age of six he was sent to St. Jarlath's monastery and tutored by Finnian of Clonard, whose students were so well-received that they include the "Twelve Apostles of Ireland."

Ordained at 26, he embarked on a series of voyages to found monasteries and monastic cells, traveling to the Aran Islands, Argyll, Wales, and Brittany. His most famous voyage is recorded in Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis (Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot), written over 300 years after his death (in 577). In it, he heads into the Atlantic with several followers (numbers vary in different manuscripts).

The voyage takes seven years and visits many odd islands: the Isle of Birds, Isle of Sheep, the Island of Strong Men, an island with silent monks. The first island they come across is uninhabited, but one of his companions dies there (two others will die at different locations).

One interesting stop they make is on an island where everything seems calm and peaceful. When they light a fire, however, the island starts to move; they realize the "island" is actually the back of an enormous fish that has been floating on the surface of the ocean long enough for plants to grow on its back. The narrative calls this monster "Jasconius." It is a common legendary encounter in classical and medieval literature, but by a different name.

Was any of this narrative based on fact? Well, Brendan did voyage to islands to spread Christianity. The Navigatio says that Brendan finally reached the Promised Land for Saints before returning to Ireland. One of the places he found in 512 is referred to as St. Brendan's Isle: a land of thick vegetation where the sun never set, surrounded by a thick mist. He spent 15 days there. This island was put on future maps. The Portuguese prince known as Henry the Navigator (1394 - 1460) claims to have landed there, and later sailors reported seeing it.

A theory arose that St. Brendan's Isle where it was always day may have been Greenland, where the summer months see 24 hours of sunlight. There is a Saint Brendan Society that claims Brendan discovered North America, and at least one writer believes the details of the voyage prove that Brendan discovered Brazil! A man named Tim Severin proved that a boat like the one Brendan used could make the voyage from Ireland to Greenland.

Post-voyage, he continued to found monasteries, as well as a convent in Annaghdown for his sister, Briga. It was during a visit there to see his sister that he died. He was interred in Clonfert Cathedral. The Catholic Church recognizes his sainthood, and celebrates his feast day on 16 May. He is the patron saint of sailors and travelers.

Brendan is remarkable for the account of the legendary voyage ascribed to him many years later. A more remarkable figure in that time was Finnian of Clonard, about whom you'll learn more tomorrow. See you then.

Fastitocalon

Fastitocalon is the name given to a sea creature in an Old English poem called "The Whale."

This time I will with poetic art rehearse, by means of words and wit, a poem about a kind of fish, the great sea-monster which is often unwillingly met, terrible and cruel-hearted to seafarers, yea, to every man; this swimmer of the ocean-streams is known as the asp-turtle.

His appearance is like that of a rough boulder, as if there were tossing by the shore a great ocean-reedbank begirt with sand-dunes, so that seamen imagine they are gazing upon an island, and moor their high-prowed ships with cables to that false land, make fast the ocean-coursers at the sea's end, and, bold of heart, climb up on that island; the vessels stand by the beach, enringed by the flood.

The weary-hearted sailors then encamp, dreaming not of peril.
On the island they start a fire, kindle a mounting flame. The dispirited
heroes, eager for repose, are flushed with joy. Now when the cunning
plotter feels that the seamen are firmly established upon him, and have
settled down to enjoy the weather, the guest of ocean sinks without
warning into the salt wave with his prey (?), and makes for the bottom,
thus whelming ships and men in that abode of death.

Such is the way of demons, the wont of devils:

The poem then shares a moral, comparing the experience of Fastitocalon with the Devil, who entices men with a promise of safety and security before turning and "sinking" them into their own destruction.

The poem continues, explaining another trait of the monster: when it is hungry, it opens its enormous maw, from which a "perfume" emanates that draws a host of fish inside, when it then snaps its jaws shut. This suggests that sailors may have actually seen a whale opening its mouth to feed.

Fastitocalon is the name given to the creature, but that is the Old English version of the original. The poem (and two others) is found in a Bestiary called the Old English Physiologus, part of the Exeter Book. In the Latin version, the creature is called aspidochelone, combining Greek aspis (shield) and chelone (turtle). The Old English version has become more popular (and familiar) thanks to Tolkien writing a poem of that name in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.

Where did the story of this giant sea-creature-as-island originate? There is a Greek Alexander Romance written in the first few centuries CE that contains a whale-island anecdote in a letter from Alexander to Aristotle. The first voyage of Sinbad (composed c.8th-9th centuries CE) tells a similar tale. Pliny the Elder talks about enormous fish as well. The Babylonian Talmud and Inuit of Greenland folklore both contains legends of a fish so large that it resembled an island and inspired sailors to land on its back. There are many more examples from different parts of the world.

Even St. Brendan encountered it, and gave it a name that has since been used by the Magic: The Gathering card game. I'll share more tomorrow.

Ultima Thule

A 1537 rendition of Thule

On New Year's Eve 2018, a NASA probe transmitted pictures of Ultima Thule, an object 4 billion miles from Earth. "Ultima Thule" is not your typical astronomical naming convention.

Ultima Thule, or the "ultimate Thule," was first described about 300BCE by a Greek explorer named Pytheas. It was supposedly about six days north of Britain, a place so far from the natural world that land and sea and air were no longer separate substances, but instead formed a strange mixture in which one could not survive.

A thousand years after Pytheas, Isidore of Seville (mentioned here, also involving astronomy) explained Ultima Thule as being so far north that there was no daylight beyond it, making the sea cold and sluggish.

As stories of explorers (verified or not) appeared, Thule was identified and re-identified with lands farther and farther from mainland Europe. St. Brendan's voyages suggested new lands that historians thought might refer to Thule. The later Middle Ages decided it must refer to Iceland or Greenland. In early modern times, Norway became the candidate to explain early stories of a land that far north.

In the 20th century, the idea of Thule was co-opted by certain German writers and politicians as the legendary origin of the Aryan race. Fortunately, the 21st century has given it a new connotation.