Saint Ghislain (died October 9, 680) was a confessor and hermit in Belgium. He lived during the reign of King Dagobert I (605-639 A.D.), King of the Franks and one of the last great kings of the Merovingian dynasty.
The name of Ghislain comes from the Germanic words gisal, “hostage,” and lind “sweet.” St. Ghislain is frequently portrayed with a bear or bear cub beside him. According to legend, King Dagobert was out hunting in a forest and was chasing a bear. She sought refuge with Ghislain and he protected her from the hunting party. The bear later showed Ghislain the place where he should establish a monastery.
The legend is sweetly told in the 1854 article, “A Few Words About Bears,” by S. French in an 1854 edition if the New York Journal of Romance, General Literature, Science and Art.
“One day, as King Dagobert, who reigned over France and Belgium, was hunting in the forests of Hainault, he strayed from his company in the pursuit of a large bear, which, knowing what it was about, sought refuge in the hermitage of Saint Ghislain. The saint was at his devotions, and did not look around. The bear squatted beside a basket, in which the hermit left his sacerdotal ornaments. Soon after, King Dagobert entered the hermitage, and was not a little startled and surprised to see the monstrous animal lying at the feet of an old man engaged in prayer.”
“Saint Ghislain turned at the noise made by the prince’s entrance. He then perceived what had occurred, and begged the life of the bear. Dagobert immediately recognized the man of God, whose name was celebrated throughout the country, and accorded him that which he had solicited; and after embracing him, and praying him to rely upon him for countenance and support, he retired and left the Saint with his bear. “
“No sooner had the King departed than the bear arose, took up the basket with its contents, and, laden with this precious burden, fled away towards the place where she had left her young. She knew that by so doing she would be able to draw thither the hermit who protected her. The spot was a charm and picturesque one, afterwards called Ursidong or the Bears Grove, situated in the forest on the border of the river Haine, which has given its name to Hainault.” 
“As the bear calculated, Ghislain followed her; but, impelled by a desire to join her little ones, she went so fast that the Saint in a very short time lost sight of her. He found himself bewildered in the midst of the vast forest, where the foot of man had never yet traced a path, when an eagle appeared before him, fluttering to attract his attention. Ghislain, seeing something extraordinary in all of this, suffered himself to be guided by the eagle, and presently arrived at the Grove of the Bear.”
“This spot he found to be so attractive and convenient, that he transported thither his dwelling. His new friends, the eagle and the bear, never quitted him. Numerous anchorites, drawn by reports of these marvels, came and placed themselves under the discipline of the saint. They built a grand monastery, around which, in the process of time, grew a town, which was called Saint Ghislain.”
“Up to the end of the last century, when the monastery was suppressed, an eagle and a she bear were constantly kept there, in memory of the saint who died in 670.”
I like Michael Shellenberg. I enjoy reading his blog. I like him because he’s a thinker; not an ideologue. This is evident in his blog post, “Climate Dogma Killed Biden’s “Build Back Better.”
Michael Shellenberger
“Build Back Better,” the $1.7 trillion climate change boondoggle President Biden and progressive Democrats tried to push on the American people, went down to defeat when Senator Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia killed the legislation by refusing to vote for it. Build Back Better was also a sneaky way to lay the groundwork for higher taxes and beefing up the IRS to make sure they are paid.
“Progressives, environmentalists, and Democrats are furious with Sen. Manchin, but it was their own climate and renewables dogmatism that doomed the legislation. Democratic Senators could have written legislation that expanded nuclear energy and natural gas, the two main drivers of decarbonization, which are strongly supported by Manchin, and Republicans, but instead investments went overwhelmingly to solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars.”
Who would benefit financially from the Build Back Better subsidies, grants and spending: solar energy entities and foreign suppliers. After decades of trying, solar energy is still unproven as a large-scale energy option. What were the lessons learned by the Solyndra debacle, the Silicon Valley solar start-up that left taxpayers on the hook for $535 million in federal guarantees? Solar energy also brings its own environmental problems, which progressive Democrats ignore at our peril. “Solar Panel Waste – The Dark Side of Clean Energy.”
Shellenberg has the right idea: “The core principles of the energy legislation that comes next should be reliability, affordability, and sustainability. Only nuclear and natural gas fit the bill. Both are produced domestically, in contrast to solar panels and wind turbines. It also has to work politically. In October, a YouGov poll found that 53% percent of those polled in West Virginia thought Build Back Better would result in higher inflation, taxes, and interest rates.”
Go back and craft a better bill with bipartisan support and realistic funding. 
In his book, Tornado God: American Religion and Violent Weather, Peter J. Thuesen compares tornados, windstorms, and other especially violent weather events to human conceptions about God, punishment, and gratitude for coming through them. “Tornadoes, and weather generally,” he writes, put us in touch with the origin of religions, which arose in part as humans struggled to account for the forces of nature.” Thuesen explains that God and weather are unknowable and have uncontrollable power, so it is not surprising to see that the two tied together in the human psyche.
One night in August 1683, a tornado hit the Jesuit mission at Sault St. Louis, (the Mohawk village of Kahnawake) in Quebec, Canada. “All the monsters of hell” were unleashed against the mission in the form of a “whirlwind” which destroyed the chapel. Miraculously, Fr. Claude Chauchetiere and two other Jesuits who were in the chapel at the time of the tornado survived without serious injury.
Fr. Chauchetiere credited their deliverance to Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk convert to Christianity. Earlier in the day each of the men had prayed at her grave nearby. They attributed their prayers at the site for their salvation from the tornado. Surviving the destructive tornado was the second miracle Chauchetiere attributed to Kateri Tekakwitha. Three years earlier an oak tree next to the chapel had been struck by lightening but the chapel was left untouched. 
Fr. Claude Chauchetiere (September 7, 1645-April 17, 1709) was a French Jesuit missionary priest and painter. He met Kateri Tekakwitha at Kahnawake a year or so before her death. His oil painting of her hangs in the sacristy of St. Francis Xavier Church on the Kanawake Mohawk Reserve near Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Saint Brendan the Navigator (484-577 A.D.) is the patron saint of boaters, mariners, travelers, whales, portaging canoes, elderly adventurers and two Irish dioceses, Kerry and Clonfert. His feast day is celebrated on May 16. Brendan is chiefly renowned for his legendary journey to the Isle of the Blessed. It is recorded he took two voyages; the first unsuccessful, the second (565–573 A.D.) is recorded as The Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot.
Brendan was born in County Kerry, in the province of Munster, in the west of Ireland. When he was one, he was handed over to the care of the nun, Ita, when she lived at the foot of Mount Luachra. Ita of Killeedy was known as the “Brigid of Munster” and sometimes called “the white sun of the women of Munster.” She was a skilled organizer, herbalist, and teacher. Brendan remained with her until he was seven. He regarded Ita as his foster mother and treated her with reverence and affection. He came to her for advice and guidance throughout his life. One story states that after his first five years of wanderings, Brendan returned to Ireland and went to see Ita. “O my beloved,” she said, “wherefore hast thou tried without my counsel? Thou wilt not gain the Land of Promise borne in the hides of dead beasts. Thou wilt find it in a ship made of boards.” He went to Connaught, built a wooden ship, and embarked on his famous voyage. 
According to Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis, Brendan was in his seventies when he and 17 other monks set out on a westward voyage in a curragh, a wood-framed boat covered in sewn ox-hides. The Irish monks sailed about the North Atlantic for seven years. One of his companions is said to have been Saint Malo, the namesake of the historic port city of Saint-Malo in Brittany, France. The idea to sail in search of the promised land of the saints came from Barinth, the abbot of Drumcullen, a distant relative of Brendan’s. Barinth told him about a wonderful isle, a place where there was no hunger, thirst, or darkness. Brendan was determined to find it. There were 13 voyagers (12 original apostles, plus 1) and Brendan. At the last minute three other monks begged to be taken along. Brendan consented, but predicted that while one of them would come to a good end, the two others would perish miserably.
The Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot is one of several wonder-voyages or sea tales of the Irish known as the “Immrama.” These voyage stories describe the hero’s series of seafaring adventures. Besides Brendan’s tale, four others have come down to us: the Voyage of Bran, the Voyage of Mael Duin, the Voyage of the Boat of Ui Corra, and the Voyage of Snedgus and MacRiagla. Unlike the Voyage of Bran, where alluring women figure prominently, Brendan and his crew do not encounter any females on their trip. Not one. Only men and boys—very monk-like. 
During the Dark Ages (500-1000 AD), Irish monks ventured across Europe and into the North Atlantic in pursuit of spiritual and religious missions. They reached the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Faeroe Islands. They may have even reached Iceland. Was it faith that made them step into a boat and hope they would find the Isle of the Blessed; or did they have prior knowledge of lands to the West from Scandinavians or others? It’s possible that fishing boats, traders or a raiding party was blown off course during a storm and made an accidental discovery. Brendan’s voyage is part chronicle, allegory, explanation, and sea yarn. It contains a lot of mysteries, which makes it fun to try to identify different lands and creatures. Two that particularly appeal to me are “Jasconius” and “Paul the Hermit.”
Jasconius
Jasconious is a giant sea creature that appears several times in the Voyage of Brendan the Abbot. The monks first thought Jasconius was an island, and went off to cook some fish to eat, leaving Brendan with the boat. “…and no sooner was the fire hot and the fish beginning to boil, than the island began to quake and to move like a living thing, and there was great fear on the brothers and then went back into the ship leaving the food and cauldron after them, and they saw what they took to be an island going fast through the sea, and they could notice the fire burning a long way off, that they were astonished. They asked Brendan then did he know what was the great wonder, and Brendan comforted them, and he said, “It is a great fish, the biggest of the fishes of the world, Jasconye his name is…”
Jasconius or Jasconye was most likely a Right whale but could have been a Humpback or even Sperm whale. Various cultures and ancient peoples had many legends surrounding the Leviathan, a gigantic and fearful sea creature found in the Book of Jonah in the Bible. The Fastitocalon, a giant sea turtle, lured sailors to rest on its back, and then drowned them. In the Latin Physiologus, written in the second century AD, the creature is called an Aspidochelone. The Christian scribe who compiled the Physiologus included plants, stones, animals and fabled, fantastic creatures, each with a moral or allegorical background. In the folklore of the Greenland Inuit, there was a similar monster called Imap Umassoursa, which also disguised itself as an island, and killed its prey by tipping over and spilling them into the sea. More likely mariners, hunters, or the curious attempted to stand on or get near the creature and were pulled down in its wake when it dove. Vikings also had many stories about giant whales or kraken monsters that would attack ships.
Paul the Hermit
Brendan finds “Paul the Hermit” living on a small circular island. Paul says he is 140 years old. For his first 30 years on the island, he was fed by an otter, who brought him a fish and firewood for cooking every three days. For the last 60 years the hermit subsisted only on the waters of a tiny spring before the entrance to his cave home. He had no clothes except for his own hair which was long and white. He was 50 years old when he first arrived on the island.
Brendan asked him about how he came to the island. Paul told him his story: “For forty years I lived in the monastery of St. Patrick, and had the care of the cemetery. One day when the prior had pointed out to me the place for the burial of a deceased brother, there appeared before me an old man whom I knew not, who said, ‘Do not, brother, make the grave there, for that is the burial place of anther.’ I said, ‘Who are you, father?’ ‘Do you know know me?’ said he. ‘Am I not your abbot?’ ‘St. Patrick is my abbot,’ I said. ‘I am he,’ he said; and yesterday I departed this life and this is my burial place.’ He then pointed out to me another place, saying, “Here you will inter our deceased brother; but tell no one what I have said to you. Go down on tomorrow to the shore, and there you will find a boat that will bear you to that place where you shall await the day of your death.’ Next morning, in obedience to the directions of the abbot, I went to the place appointed, and found what he promised. I entered the boat, and rowed along for three days and nights, and then I allowed the boat to drift whither the wind drove it. On the seventh day, this rock appeared, upon which I at once landed, and I pushed off the boat with my foot, that it may return whence it came, when it cut through the waves in a rapid course to the land it had left.”
Was he deranged to push off the boat; or was he full of faith to obey his vision and abandon himself to his fate? The story of Paul the Hermit’s relationship with the otter is similar to the tale of St. Cuthbert and the Otters. Both men had otters help and comfort them in their spiritual trials. Because of the presence of the otter, we know Paul’s island cave probably wasn’t more than a mile from land in Scotland or northern Ireland.
Is there any truth behind the story of the Voyage of Saint Brendan? Could it have really happened? British historian and explorer Tim Severin set out to follow the legend. In 1976 Severin built a replica of Brendan’s currach. Handcrafted using traditional tools and materials, the 36-foot, two-masted boat was built of Irish ash and oak, hand-lashed together with leather throng, wrapped with 49 traditionally tanned ox hides, and sealed with wool grease. Between May 1976 and June 1977, Severin and his crew sailed the Brendan 4,500 miles from Ireland to Newfoundland, Canada. 
He sought to prove Brendan’s voyage by undertaking a similar journey following what is known as the “stepping stones” route: following trade routes to and amongst and beyond the islands of the Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland to Nova Scotia. Severin’s re-creation of the voyage helped to potentially identify many of the legendary sites in the story: the “Island of the Sheep,” the “Paradise of the Birds,” “Crystal Towers,” “mountains that hurled rocks at the voyagers,” (volcanoes) and the “Promised Land” of the saints. The patch of sea they described as being in a semi-solid state may have been ice floes and slush.
The voyage of the Irish monks across the Atlantic and back was significant for the next group of transatlantic voyagers: Norwegians. Did Irish monks reach North America in the 6th century? It appears they did, and the stories of their sea voyages inspired Norsemen to set out for new lands farther to the west. Vikings first traveled to Greenland in the 8th or 9th century; and Leif the Lucky (Leif Eriksen) established the first Viking settlement in “Vinland,” in the 10th century. Brendan the Abbot discovered the “New World” almost 1,000 years before Columbus.
The abbot, Barith, Brendan’s distant kinsman, was his inspiration to travel to the Island of the Blessed. Barith had traveled there and returned to Ireland. Who told Abbot Barith about the fabled lands to the west? 
Read the Brendan manuscript here.
Chapter Synopsis of the Voyage
1.Barinth tells of his visit to the Isle of the Blessed, which prompts Brendan to go on his journey.
2.Brendan assembles 13 monks to accompany him.
3.They fast at three-day intervals for 40 days and visit Saint Enda for three days and three nights.
4.Three latecomers join the group. They interfere with Brendan’s sacred numbers.
5.They find an island with a dog, mysterious hospitality (no people, but food offered) and an Ethiopian devil.
6.One latecomer admits to stealing from the mysterious island; Brendan exorcises the Ethiopian devil from the latecomer; the latecomer dies and is buried.
7.They find an island with a boy who brings them bread and water.
8.They find an island with some sheep; eat some and stay for Holy Week.
9.They find the island of Jasconius, celebrate Easter Mass, and hunt whales and fish.
10.They find an island that is the “Paradise of Birds.” The birds sing psalms and praise God.
11.They find the island of the monks of Ailbe, who have magic loaves of bread, do not age, and maintain complete silence. They celebrate Christmas.
12.They undertake a long sail after Lent. They find an island with a well, and drinking the water puts them to sleep for 1-3 days, depending on the number of cups each man drank.
13.They find a sea in a semi-solid state.
14.They return to the islands of sheep, Jasconius, and the Paradise of Birds. A bird prophesies that the men must continue this year-long cycle for seven years before they will be holy enough to reach the Island of the Blessed.
15.A sea monster approaches the boat, but God shifts the sea to protect the men. Another sea monster approaches, bites the first into three pieces, and leaves. The men eat the flesh from the dead creature.
16.They find an island of three choirs of monks who give them fruit, and the second latecomer remains while the others leave.
17.They find an island of grapes and stay there for 40 days.
18.They see a gryphon and bird battle. The gryphon dies.
19.They journey to the monastery of Ailbe again for Christmas.
20.Many threatening fish circle their boat, but God protects them.
21.They find an island, but when they light a fire, the island sinks. They realize it is a whale.
22.They pass a “silver pillar wrapped in a net” in the sea.
23.They pass an island of blacksmiths who throw slag at them.
24.They find a volcano, and demons take the third newcomer down to Hell.
25.They find Judas Iscariot sitting unhappily on a cold, wet rock in the sea, and learn it is his respite from Hell for Sundays and feast days. Brendan protects Judas from the demons of Hell for one night.
26.They find an island where Paul the Hermit has lived for 60 years. He wears nothing but his hair and is fed by an otter.
27.They return to the islands of sheep, Jasconius, and the Paradise of Birds.
28.They find the Promised Land of the Saints.
29.They return home, and Brendan dies.
“It was all dazzling whiteness to our eyes, and we could make out no sign of the route we were to follow.” – Antonio de Andrade, S.J. 
Father Antonio de Andrade (1580-March 19, 1634) was a Jesuit priest and explorer from Portugal. From 1600 until his murder in 1634, he was engaged in diplomatic and missionary activity. Andrade set out from India in 1624 in search of rumored Christian communities beyond the Himalayas. He was the first confirmed European to reach Tibet, but two others may have preceded him several hundred years earlier. The first was Marco Polo in the service of Kublai Khan (1280-1295). Odoric of Pordenone, OFM, an Italian Franciscan friar and explorer, claimed to have traveled extensively throughout Asia in the early 14th century. He may have visited Tibet between 1323-1328 on his way back to Italy. 
Andrade was one of the first Jesuits attached to the court of the 4th Mughal emperor, Jahangir (1605-1627). He was head of the Jesuit mission in the capital, Agra. Andrade learned to speak Persian, the language of merchants along the trade routes from India to the north, and along the Silk Road to China. From these travelers Andrade heard intriguing rumors of a lost community of Christians in Tibet, the remnants of early evangelizing missions. He decided to try to contact them.
On March 30, 1624, Fr. Andrade and Br. Manuel Marques left with Emperor Jahangir who was on his way to Kashmir. When they were in Delhi on May 11, they discovered that a group of Hindu pilgrims was leaving for the temple of Badrinath, in what is now the northern part of the present-day Indian state of Uttarakhand. Andrade decided to take advantage of this unexpected chance to travel to Tibet. Disguising themselves as Hindus, Andrade and Marques joined the caravan. They made their way north up the Ganges to Hardwar, “the Gate of Vishnu,” up the Alaknanda gorges to Srinagar in Garhwal and finally through the perilous Mana Pass. Braving hunger, snow blindness and frostbite, they crossed the pass at an altitude of 18,000 feet and became the first recorded Westerners in Tibet.
Andrade arrived in Tsaparang, capital of the western Tibetan Kingdom of Guge at the beginning of August 1624. King Tri Tashi Dakpa extended a warm welcome to him and his companions. The king was fascinated by the foreigner’s story and his exotic religion. Although he was not interested in converting from Buddhism, he asked Andrade to remain and allowed him to build a small “house of prayer.”
Andrade and Marques left less than a month after they arrived since they needed to return to India before the snows blocked the passes. They went back on August 18, 1625 with other Jesuit missionaries and supplies. With support from the king, the mission flourished. In 1627 Andrade received an invitation from the King of Utsang in Lhasa to visit his land. He also received an invitation from the King of Ladakh, the kingdom neighboring Guge on the west. There is no record that Andrade went to Lhasa, although he may have visited Ladakh. Andrade was recorded as visiting Tholing, a half-day’s trip from Tsaparang. He traveled with King Tri Tashi Dakpa who went there to visit his brother, the chief lama of the Tholing monastery. 
Between 1624 and the 1630 Andrade made several journeys back and forth between India and Tibet. Accounts of his adventures, written in 1624 and 1626, were published in 1626. His vivid observations of the dangerous journey over the Himalayas, impressions of Tibetan society and Buddhism had a significant influence on Western knowledge and attitudes toward Tibet. A modern English translation of Andrade’s writings was published in 2017: “More Than the Promised Land” – Letters and Revelations from Tibet by the Jesuit Missionary Antonio de Andrade (1580-1634).
Andrade left Tibet in the spring of 1630 after he was appointed Father-Superior of the Jesuit province of Goa in India. Shortly after his departure the Kingdom of Guge was attacked by the King of Ladakh. Andrade heard about the conflinct but was unable to return because of his post in Goa. The trouble may have started with the lamas in Guge, who were unhappy about King Tri Tashi Dakpa’s preferential treatment of the Jesuit missionaries. It is possible that the lamas and Buddhist monks, led by the king’s brother, encouraged intervention by the King of Ladakh. In spring 1631 Andrade sent Fr. Francisco de Azevedo to Tsaparang as inspector to Tsaparang. The Jesuit returned a year later with his report. The loss of the presence of a friendly king, combined with the previous loss of Andrade as a strong leader led to the deterioration of the effectiveness of the mission. In 1631 lamas opposed to the Tibetan Christian community (nearly 400 members) destroyed the mission station at Tsaparang. Over the next decade the missionaries were persecuted or expelled, the Tibetan Christians were sent to Ladakh, and, by 1640, the mission was destroyed.
On February 4, 1633 Andrade sent a letter to Rome about the mission’s problems. Shortly after he was freed of his duties as the Jesuit Provincial and asked permission to return to Tibet. However, just as he was getting ready to leave in January 1634, he was appointed as Inspector for Japan and China. Andrade never returned to his Shangri-La. He died on March 19, 1934. Contemporaries said he drank poison mixed with his drinking water around a “fortnight,” or two weeks before he died. His death was painful.
What person or group wanted to kill him can only be speculated.
Andrade’s assassination was attributed to a servant or hired Moorish assassin. The killer was used by a local merchant family or Portuguese native to escape punishment by the Inquisition. Andrade was the local Inquisitor. His investigations included an accusation of heresy against a Portuguese native, Joao Rodrigues. Rodrigues’ son was a servant in the Jesuit compound and allegedly poisoned the water Andrade drank. The case could not be proved, but the young man fled to Manila. A “new Christian” merchant was also a suspect.
“Murder in the Refectory: The Death of Antonio de Andrade, S.J” by Michael Sweet, was published by The Catholic Historical Review in January 2016. It makes the case that Andrade was murdered by a handful of Jesuit malcontents. An Inquisition inquiry into Andrade’s death that was brought to light in the 1990s suggests that the murder was committed by priests and brothers who had been punished by Andrade for their infractions of Jesuit rules. The motive was personal animosity. They got away with it.
Andrade’s explorations and mysterious murder remind me of another famous explorer: Merriweather Lewis, who died of gunshot wounds on the Natchez Trace in 1809. It may have been a simple robbery, but historians and others have suspected political intrigue was behind his death.
