born 484/486, Tralee, Ire.
died 578, Annaghdown, County Galway; feast day May 16
Celtic saint and hero of legendary Atlantic voyages.
Educated by St. Ita at her school in southwestern Ireland, he became a monk and priest and was put in charge of the abbey at Ardfert. He later founded monasteries in Ireland and Scotland, notably Clonfert (561). A famous traveler, he voyaged to the Hebrides and perhaps to Wales and Brittany. He was immortalized in Voyage of Brendan , an Irish epic translated into Latin in the 10th century that told of his journey to a "Promised Land of Saints," and St. Brendan's Island was long sought by explorers.