At Nones, Psalm cxxx, De profundis. Psalm cxxxiii, Ecce quam bonum, and Psalm cxlvii, 12, Lauda Jerusalem.

At Vespers, Psalm lxv, Te decet hymnus, Psalm ciii, Benedic, anima mea, and Psalm cxiii, Laudate pueri.

Then seated, they chanted the Gradual Psalms cxx-cxxxiv. This was sung as darkness closed in.

Then for Prime, Psalm cxlviii, Laudate Dominum, and the two that follow, and these were followed by the twelve psalms to succeed in the order of the psalter as far as Dixit insipiens," Psalm xiv. At dawn for Mattins, Psalm li, Miserere mei, Deus, Psalm xc, Domine refugium, and Psalm lxiii, Deus, Deus meus.

At Terce, Psalm xlvii, Omnes gentes, plaudite, Psalm liv, Deus, in Nomine, and Psalm cxvi, Dilexi, quoniam, followed by Alleluia. Then they offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Immaculate Lamb, and all received the Holy Communion with the words, "This Sacred Body of the Lord, and the Blood of our Saviour, receive unto Life everlasting." 1

On leaving the island, the travellers were given a basket full of purple fruit (scalthi), probably grapes or whortleberries 2 of a remarkable size, which grew on the island, where moreover were white flowers and marigolds.

The island may have been Belle Ile, formerly called Guedel, where there is a Bangor, and where the monastic colony was swept away by the Northmen at the close of the ninth century, when all the inhabitants of the island were massacred or migrated to the mainland. Bangor was never rebuilt.3

The Navigatio does not mention the visit to Ruys. It was in winter when Brendan arrived, and we can hardly suppose him engaged in

1 "Hoc sacrum corpus Domini et Salvatoris nostri sanguinem sumite vobis in vitam eternam." The formula in the Book of Deer is, "Corpus cum sanguine Domini nostri J. C. sanitas sit tibi in vitam perpetuam et salutem." In the Book of Mulling, Corpus et sanguis Domini nostri J. C. filii Dei vivi conservat animam tuam in vitam perpetuam." In the Irish S. Gall Missal, Hoc sacrum corpus Domini et Salvatoris sanguinem, alleluia, sumite vobis in vitam." In the Bangor Antiphonary, Hoc sacrum corpus Domini et Salvatoris sanguinem sumite vobis in vitam perennam. Alleluia." This is almost word for word the form employed in the isle visited by S. Brendan. The form in the Stowe Missal is, "Hoc sacrum corpus Domini Salvatoris sanguinem, alleluia, sumite vobis in vitam eternam. Alleluia," which is nearer still. Warren (F. E.), Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, Oxford, 1881.

Sgeallag is used of kernels and berries.

"

3 Le Mené, Paroisses de Vannes, Vannes, 1891, sub nom. Le Palais, and Bangor. Bellam habebat insulam, nomine britannico Guedel appellatam, quam olim Normannorum rabies devastaverat et ejus colonos inde exulaverat.”

tulary of Quimperlé (1029), Paris, 1896, p. 94.

Car

4 "

Tunc yems erat." Vit., ed. Moran, p. 13.

lengthy voyage during the storms of that season, or during the equinoctial gales, on that dangerous coast. He must have arrived at Ruys from some island near, such as is Belle Ile. Ruys is situated on the spit of land that, along with the other peninsula of Locmariaquer enclose the Morbihan. The side towards the Atlantic is precipitous, but that towards the inland sea shelves gently down into shallow water. Brendan must have passed through the channel with the sweep of the rising tide, between the points of Arzon and that of Locmariaquer, when he found himself in still water in a broad inland sea studded with sandy islets, on one of which, Gavr Inis, rose the great mound that encloses the marvellous sculptured sepulchral chamber which is one of the wonders of the district. The sloping shore of the Sarzeau arm of land was well timbered.

When the party landed, the weather was inclement; snow was falling and the land was white with the flakes; moreover, the hour was late.1 Nothing doubting of a hospitable reception, they made their way up the rising ground over a bleak moor, to the monastery of Ruys, over which presided the learned but churlish Gildas.

It was surrounded by a high bank and palisade, and they found the gate shut and barred. Brendan and his party stood without and knocked, but the porter refused to open. Probably it was against rule to admit strangers after sunset, and Gildas was not the man to set aside a regulation because bidden to do so by the principles of Christian charity. If we may trust the account in the Life in the Salamanca Codex, the poor shivering monks were constrained to pass the night in the snow outside.

But in the morning, cold, and hungry and angry, Brendan would endure this treatment no longer, and he ordered Talmach, a lusty young disciple, to burst open the gate, and this he did with a hearty good will. Talmach had been a pupil of Mancen at Ty Gwyn, where he had seduced Drustic, a female fellow pupil. It was possibly in consequence of this escapade that he had to leave, and attach himself to S. Brendan.

Marianus O'Gorman styles him "a humble and devoted virgin saint," which shows that the martyrologist was either imperfectly acquainted with Talmach's history, or else that he employed his epithets with lavish charity.

Then Brendan went on with his party to the church, and found that locked as well, and here again he forced the doors. As he desired to

1

Minxit illa nocte ingruenter," Cod. Sal., col. 768. "Nix tunc pluit cooperiens terram," Acta, ed. Moran, p. 13.

say Mass, he called for a liturgy, and was given one used by Gildas himself, written in Greek characters; however, Brendan had been well instructed by S. Jarlath and he read from it with ease.1

But the

Gildas consented to receive Communion from his hands. relations between the two Saints were strained, and Brendan would not remain with Gildas more than three nights and days. During that time the brethren amused themselves with a wolf-hunt.

The Life of S. Brendan in the so-called Kilkenny Book says that the two Saints parted on good terms, and that Gildas even asked Brendan to remain there and become superior of the monastery. This is very doubtful; if there be truth in it, it is that Gildas was desirous of returning to Britain, and asked Brendan to take his place while he was away. He would make use of him for his own convenience, but could not be gracious to him.

From Ruys Brendan crossed the still lake-like sea of the Morbihan,

With all its fairy crowds

Of islands that together lie
As quietly as spots of sky
Among the evening clouds.

Perhaps the three coracles were directed up the creek of the Auray river, carried forward by the flush of the rising tide that swelled over the mud flats, without a ripple, and were given direction by a few A beautiful river, even in winter. The steep strokes of the oars. densely wooded hills descended to the glassy flood, russet with the oak leaves still clothing the trees in every fold where sheltered from Here the banks contracted, and then drew the blast of the ocean. back allowing the water to extend to lake-like stretches; creeks ran on both sides far inland, making it difficult for those drifting inwards. to know which was the main river and which the mouth of an affluent. To the left, where the high ground sank to heathery low tracts with lagoon and marsh, could be seen long rows of giant stones set upright, stalking over the waste, like an army of marching men petrified, the relics of a vast necropolis of the primeval inhabitants, monuments even then in the sixth century uncomprehended and invested with mystery. As the three coracles glided on, the mouth was passed of a stream up which the tide was rolling, forming between it and the Auray River a long peninsula on whose top, perhaps at that very

1 "Et habebat S. Gylldas missalem librum scriptum Graecis litteris, et positus est ille liber super Altare. Et custos templi ex jussione Sti. Gildae dixit Sto. Brendano: Vir Dei, praecepit tibi sanctus senex noster ut offeras corpus Xti; ecce altare hic est (et) librum Graecis litteris scriptum, et canta in eo sicut abbas noster . . . et cepit missam cantare." Ibid., pp. 13-14.

time, was dwelling a female anchorite, Ave or Eve, who had come from Britain, bringing with her, after the manner of the Celtic Saints, her lech, the stone on which she would lie for the death agony, and on which to be laid to her last rest. Did she look down on the floating monks from the sister isle, and call to them in salutation, wishing them God-speed? We cannot tell. And then rock and forest intermingled on both sides; the river contracted, and still they slid upwards under the heights, where one day would rise the town of Auray about a church granted to the successors of Gildas, and where his story-all but his insolent treatment of Brendan-would fill the windows in painted picture. A little further up and the coracles grounded, and the tide was of no further avail. Then carrying the light wicker-work boats, the sturdy crew went up the river, dwindled now to an insignificant stream, and possibly made a protracted lodgment at Brandivy,1 where, from the name, we may suspect that Brendan formed a settlement, but where his connection with it was forgotten when a later Saxon Saint Ywy planted himself on the same site, two centuries after. Near this was Plouvigner, the Plou of Fingar, an Irishman of royal descent. Guaire the White, Brendan would have called him, perhaps the son of Ailill Molt, king of Connaught, or of Ailill of the Hy Bairrche, it is not possible to say which. Fingar was not there then, he was probably by this time dead, murdered in Cornwall, but his Irish colony was in possession of the land, and held a very extensive tract, separated from Brandivy by the stream of the Loc.

After a stay at this pleasant spot, where there was plenty of firewood and where was shelter from the winter storms, we may imagine Brendan and his party, when the buds began to swell, and the primroses and the wood anemones opened to tell that spring was come-to have shouldered their coracles and to have made their way across the high ground clothed with the forest of Camors and past the fortress of Conmore, who though regent of Domnonia had lands in the Vannes district, to the River Blavet, where again the boats were floated, and the travellers proceeded on their way, with intent to cross the watershed into Domnonia.

When they had traversed the ridge to Mur, they possibly diverged to the right to visit another Irish settlement, a monastery, now no longer existing, but under the name of S. Caradoc it recalls a foundation by Carthagh the pupil of and successor to S. Ciaran of Saighir. He

Le Mené, Paroisses de Vannes, i, p. 94, supposes the name Brandivy to be derived from Bre-Ivy, the Hill of S. Yivy; but it is not probable that Bran would be introduced as a corruption. Brevy would be the natural form the name would take from the derivation proposed.

himself may not have been there, but his spiritual sons were, and would surely not have shut their gates against their brethren from the Emerald Isle.

Brendan now formed a settlement at the spot that still bears his name and remembers him as patron, near Quintin. He may have left a few of his monks there, and then he pushed on eastward to the Rance, descended it, and established himself at Aleth.

For what has been described with some detail, it must be clearly understood that we have no textual authority. We know only that he did cross from Ruys to the Rance, but the indications of his presence at Brandivy and at S. Brandan by Quintin, perhaps justify what has been said. Near Aleth, now S. Servan, opposite S. Malo, Brendan founded an important monastery.1

66

Brendan's monastery was not on the mainland, but in the island of Césambre over against Aleth. Here to this day Brendan receives a cult, and has a chapel somewhat resembling a coast-guards' watchhouse, the vault encrusted with shells. Formerly girls went there from the mainland to invoke S. Brendan to obtain husbands, praying, Bienheureux S. Brendan, baillez-nous un homme, on vous donnera un cierge, tant plus tôt, tant plus gros." As the isle has recently received fresh fortifications, no one is now suffered to disembark on it, and to the custom, accordingly, a stop has been put. When, some thirty years after the foundation had been made by Brendan, S. Machu, or Malo, disembarked on Césambre, he found the monastery flourishing under the direction of an abbot, Festivus.

Aleth was a town mainly occupied by indigenous pagans, and Brendan trusted that his monastery would form a nucleus for the evangelization of the place and neighbourhood. Aleth had been a Roman station, in which resided an officer, a military prefect, with a detachment of soldiers. But now it was other, it was open and undefended, and about this period was sacked and burnt by marauding Saxon pirates.2 Probably partly for security, and partly because it was better suited to the discipline of a monastery, Brendan preferred placing his monks on an island, rather than on the mainland.

That he extended his activities eastward appears from his name, under the form given it by the Britons, Branwalader, attaching to a parish church on the rising ground that forms the limit of the great

1 "In alia regione in Britannia monasterium nomine Ailech, sanctus Brendanus fundavit," Vita, ed. Moran, p. 15. 'In Britanniam remeavit ac duo monasteria, unum in insula Ailech. fundavit," Acta in Cod. Sal., col. 768.

In this latter life the author supposes Ailech to be in Britain. 2 De la Borderie, Hist. de Bretagne, 1896, tome i, p. 132.