St. Brendan of Birr   November 29th
   
Today I would like to muse about St. Brendan of Birr, also known as St. Brendan the Elder, which will lead into a discussion of an imporant aspect of Celtic Christianity, the Soul-Friend or Anamchara.

Before I launch into that however I want to quickly thank Leslie Keeney who is the blogger of the Ruthless Monk that I mentioned a few days ago.  She made some great suggestions about improving my blogging!  Her blog can be found at theruthlessmonk.com
Her section on "Exploring the Trinity" is something I can see I am going to enjoy going through.

Back to St. Brendan of Birr.  He was born in Ireland in the early 500's and joined the monastery school of Clonard under the direction of St. Finian.  This was a time period of an explosive interest in Christianity in Ireland.  Clonard had a high enrollment, but 12 of the students of the time seemed to stand out and became known at the Apostles of Ireland...Brendan was one of the those twelve.  His sanctity and intuitive judge of character caused him to be call the "Prophet of Ireland."  I found one quote attributed to Brendan: "If you become Christ's, you will stumble upon wonder upon wonder, and every one of the true!"

He became close friends with two other significant Saints of this time:  Brendan of Clonfert and Columcille (Columba).  The other Brendan became known as St. Brendan the Voyager as he and group of his followers went out into the western sea in coracles to search for the Blessed Isles.  He is credited by some scholars as the discover of America, pre-dating both Columbus and Leif Erickson.

Columba became best known as the founder of the Monastery at Iona, off the western coast of Scotland.  In order to get a better idea of Brendan the Elder's friendship with him, I need to digress and discuss a little about St. Columba's "troubles."  While at Clonard, Columba found a manuscript that he felt drawn to.  He made a copy of it, without going through the usual channels of getting permission from the Abbot, and eventually took the copy out of the Monastery.  Finian found out and was livid and this resulted in a violent war, culmnating in the Battle of Cul Dreimhne in 561, where several monks on both sides were killed. (See my post from yesterday about this darker side of Celtic Christianity.)  Columba was brought to trial at the Synod of Meltown where Brendan's defense of Columba resulted in exile rather the death.
They must have kept in contact over the years as Columba is quoted as saying that he knew the time of Brendan's death from a vision of Brendan's soul, in the form of a dove, being carried by angels up to heaven.

Brendan of Birr was a wonderful example, particularly with Columba, of what it means to be a soul-friend.  This is a concept that is akin to spiritual direction but with more of mutuality and less hierarchy.  Brendan O'Malley in his book Lord of Creation decribes it as follows:
"Essentially it is about being present to a friend who is seeking God, is actually serious about it and needs to sound out and share their thoughts and aspirations with an empathic mentor. It can be seen  at its most simple level as a conversation between two people on the ways of prayer and the journey of faith."  St. Brigid of Kildare is quoted as saying the a Christian person without a soul-friend is like a head without a body.

Having soul-friends is considered one of the key elements of the Order of St Aidan and Hilda to which I belong.  And, if I am honest with myself, which seems to be what I am trying to do this Advent, it is one of my growth edges.  I have soul-friends and recently was able to get together with two of them, but I know that I have a tendency to try to be too self-reliant.  I try to work out my spiritual issues through solitary prayer and journaling.  Often when I do get together with one or more of my soul-friends I fall too much into the ease of just plain conversational banter (how are the grandkids?).  While it is an important aspect of soul-friendship to know something of that person's non-spiritual life, I think that is secondary to the original concept. Instead I should be finding out what is going on with their walk with Christ, both the joys and the obstacles, and, since this is mutual, sharing the same for me.  The latter involves admitting faults and vulnerabilities, again a growth edge for me, but one which I know I have to address if I am truly going to emulate thos early Celtic Christians.

Lord, thank you for leading me to the life of St. Brendan of Birr.  His dedication to his friends in Christ reminds me of at least one direction that I know You want me to go:  to be more committed in spiritual-friendship.  Help me Lord, to put aside my busy-ness, and my tendency to rely on my self alone.  In thy name...Amen.