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Part 12: The Community of Ailbe

Then the holy father, with his group, was driven here and there for three months over the space of the ocean. They could see nothing but sky and sea. They ate always every second or third day.

One day there appeared to them an island not far away. When they were approaching the shore, the wind drew them away from landing. They, therefore, had to circle the island for forty days, and still they could not find a landing-place. The brothers in the boat implored God with tears to give them help. Their strength had almost failed because of their utter exhaustion. When they had persevered for three days in frequent prayer and abstinence, a narrow landing-place appeared to them, just wide enough to take one boat only; and there appeared before them there also two wells, one muddy and the other clear. The brothers then rushed with their vessels to drink the water. The man of God, watching them, said:

"My sons, do not do a forbidden thing, that is, something without permission of the elders who live in this island. They will freely give you the water that you now want to drink in stealth."

When they disembarked and were wondering in which direction they should go, an elder of great gravity met them. His hair was snow-white and his face was shining. He prostrated himself three times on the ground before embracing the man of God. But Saint Brendan and those with him raised him from the ground. As they embraced one another, the elder held the hand of the holy father and went along with him the distance of about two hundred yards to a monastery. Saint Brendan stood with his brothers before the gate of the monastery and asked the elder:

"Whose monastery is this? Who is in charge of it? Where do the inhabitants come from?"

The holy father kept questioning the elder in various ways, but he could not get one answer out of him: he only indicated with his hand, with incredible meekness, that they should be silent.

As soon as the holy father realized that this was a rule of the place, he spoke to his brothers, saying:

Keep your mouths from speaking lest these brothers be defiled by your garrulousness."

At this remonstrance eleven brothers came to meet them with reliquaries, crosses and hymns, chanting the versicle:

"Rise, saints of God, from your dwellings and go to meet truth. Sanctify the place, bless the people, and graciously keep us your servants in peace."

When the versicle was finished the father of the monastery embraced Saint Brendan and his companions in order. In the same way his community embraced the companions of the holy man.

When they had exchanged the kiss of peace, they led them to the monastery as the custom is in western parts to conduct brothers in this way with prayers. Afterwards the abbot of the monastery with his monks washed the feet of the guests and chanted the antiphon:

"A new commandment."

When this was done the abbot led them in great silence to the refectory. A signal was sounded, hands were washed, and then the abbot made them sit down. When a second signal sounded, one of the brothers of the father of the monastery got up and served the table with loaves of extraordinary whiteness and some roots of incredible sweetness. The brothers sat mixed with their guests in order. There was a full loaf between every two brothers. The same server, on the sounding of the signal, gave the brothers drink.

The abbot for his part was urging on the brothers, saying with great glee:

"In joy and fear of the Lord, drink in love now water from the well from which you wanted to drink in stealth today! The feet of the brothers are washed every day from the other, muddy, well that you saw, because it is always warm. We have no idea where the loaves that you see are baked or who carries them to our larder. What we do know is that they are given to his servants from the great charity of God by means of some dependant creature. There are twenty-four of us brothers here. Every day we have twelve loaves for our food, a loaf between every two. On feast-days and Sundays God increases the supply to one full loaf for each brother, so that they can have supper from what is left over. Just now on your coming we have a double supply. Thus Christ feeds us from the time of Saint Patrick and Saint Ailbe, our father, for eighty years until now. Yet neither sign of old age nor weakness spreads in our limbs. On this island we need nothing to eat that is prepared by fire. Neither cold nor heat ever overcomes us. And when the time comes for Masses or vigils, we light in our church the lights that we brought with us from our homeland under divine predestination. They burn till day and still none of them is reduced in any way."

After they had drunk three times, the abbot sounded a signal in the usual way. The brothers rose all together in great silence and gravity from the table, and preceded the holy fathers to the church. Behind them walked Saint Brendan and the father of the monastery. As they entered the church twelve other brothers, genuflecting quickly, met them on their way out. When Saint Brendan saw them he said:

"Abbot, why did these not eat along with us?"

The father replied:

"Because of you our table could not hold us all together in one sitting. They will now eat and will miss nothing. Let us now, however, go into the church and sing vespers so that our brothers, who are eating now, will be able to sing vespers after us in good time."

When they had finished the office of vespers Saint Brendan examined how the church was built. It was square, of the same length as breadth, and had seven lights — three before the altar, which was in the middle, and two each before the other two altars. The altars were made of crystal cut in a square, and likewise all the vessels were of crystal, namely patens, chalices and cruets and other vessels required for the divine cult. There were twenty-four seats in a circle in the church. The abbot, however, sat between the two choirs. One group began from him and ended with him, and it was likewise with the other. No one on either side presumed to intone a verse but the abbot. No one in the monastery spoke or made any sound. If a brother needed anything he went before the abbot, knelt facing him, and requested within his heart what he needed. Thereupon the holy father, taking a tablet and stylus, wrote as God revealed to him and gave it to the brother who asked his advice.

While Saint Brendan was reflecting upon all these matters within himself, the abbot spoke to him:

"Father, it is now time to return to the refectory so that all that we have to do will be done while there is light."

This they did in the same way as before.

When they had completed the day's course in order, they all hurried with great eagerness to compline. When the abbot had intoned the versicle:

"God, come to my aid" and they had given honor to the Trinity, they began to chant the versicle:

"We have acted wrongly, we have done iniquity! You, Lord, who are our faithful father, spare us. I shall sleep in peace therefore, and shall take my rest; for you, Lord, have placed me, singularly, in hope."

After that they chanted the office of the hour.

When the order of psalms had been completed, all went out to the church, the brothers bringing their guests, each to his cell, with them. But the abbot and Saint Brendan remained seated in the church to wait for the coming of the light. Saint Brendan questioned the holy father on their silence and their community life: "How could human flesh endure such a life?"

The father replied with great reverence and humility:

"Abbot, I confess before my Christ. It is eighty years since we came to this island. We have heard no human voice except when singing praise to God. Among the twenty-four of us no voice is raised except by way of a signal given by a finger or by the eyes, and that only by the elders. None of us has suffered ill in the flesh or from the spirits that infest the human race, since we came here."

Saint Brendan said:

"May we stay here now — or not?"

He replied:

"You may not, because it is not the will of God. Why do you ask me, father? Has not God revealed to you, before you came here to us, what you must do? You must return to your own place with fourteen of your brothers. There God has prepared your burial-place. Of the two remaining brothers, one will stay abroad in the Island of the Anchorites, and the other will be condemned by a shameful death to hell."

While they were thus conversing a fiery arrow sped through a window before their very eyes and lit all the lamps that were placed before the altars. Then the arrow immediately sped out again. But a bright light was left in the lamps. Saint Brendan again asked:

"Who will quench the lights in the morning?"

The holy father replied:

"Come and see the secret of it. You can see the tapers burning in the center of the bowls. Nothing of them actually burns away so that they might get smaller or reduced in size, nor is there any deposit left in the morning. The light is spiritual."

Saint Brendan asked:

"How can an incorporeal light burn corporeally in a corporeal creature?"

The elder replied:

"Have you not read of the bush burning at Mount Sinai? Yet that bush was unaffected by the fire."

They kept vigil the whole night until morning. Then Saint Brendan asked leave to set out on his journey. The elder said to him:

"No, father. You must celebrate Christmas with us until the octave of the Epiphany."

The holy father, therefore, with his company stayed that time with the twenty-four fathers in the Island of the Community of Ailbe.

< PART 11. THE PARADISE OF BIRDS | PART 13. THE SOPORIFIC WELL

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