Like That - Sort Of

May/Discipline

5 May 2010

The night, moreover, of Brendan's birth, Bishop Erc saw Alltraighe Caille [the village in which Brendan was born] all in one great blaze, as was never seen before, and an attendance of angels in shining white garments all around that land.

    - Anonymous, Vita Brendani (Irish, 12th century, from an earlier ms.)

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.

  - Luke 2.9

Now here is an excellent example of what I mean by the "problem" of Irish hagiography. Does the writer really want us to believe that, on the morning Brendan was born, there was more glory shining around a larger area than even that which shone around the shepherds on the morning of Jesus' birth?

Should we suppose that this really happened? That Bishop Erc was real enough, as well as his association with Brendan, we know from other records. The village mentioned was probably a real historical site as well, and may even have still been in existence when the original account of Brendan's adventures was written. But the angels? And the holy blaze?

We could say, Well, who are we to judge? We weren't there. No, but we do know that this sort of thing, if it did really happen, would be considered to be most unusual. There aren't many such reports in Church or contemporary history, after all - apart, that is, from Irish saints' lives.

I'm assuming this didn't really happen as it is described, and that both the writer and those who read this story would have understood that. His point was, rather, I think, to suggest by a kind of spiritual hyperbole that Brendan seems to have been set apart for the work of the Lord from his birth. His mission was like that of Jesus - sort of. His parents seemed to think so, at any rate, as they immediately sent him off to school to begin learning Scripture and the ways of the Lord. Their action might have seemed cruel or irresponsible: How could any parents just ship their kid off, one year old, to be taught and raised by someone else? So the writer needed to sanctify their sense of his specialness and embellished the tale to justify their actions. Could be.

But that Brendan was set apart from a very early age for the service of the Lord seems fairly clear. And parents who did such things doubtless had high hopes for their children, and also doubtless found it very difficult to part with them - except, except for some compelling sense, however received, of divine purpose upon their child.

No, we don't see accounts like this these days. But then, we don't see many parents like Brendan's, either.

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T. M. Moore, nacurragh@aol.com