Saint Kieran was an Irish abbot and bishop who lived in the sixth century. His feast day is March 5. Saint Kieran is said to be the first native-born saint of Ireland. 
His conversion to Christianity probably preceeded the arrival of Saint Patrick. He may have been ordained a bishop during a visit to Rome; or he could be one of the twelve bishops appointed by Saint Patrick.
On his return from Rome Saint Kieran settled in Saighir as a hermit, an area near the Slieve Bloom Mountain range. He wore animal skins and lived in the wilderness. One day, he noticed a fierce looking boar close to him in the forest. Saint Kieran spoke gently to the boar calling him, “Brother Boar.” Kieran loved animals and they trusted him. The boar realized that Kieran was a friend. He helped him build his hut, tearing down strong branches with his teeth and tusks and bringing them to Kieran. Soon, other animals joined them included a wolf, fox, badger, deer, and many birds. Kieran called them his brother monks. The fox stole Kieran’s shoes. The badger went after the fox The animals stayed even though men came to follow to follow Kieran and join his community.
Kieran performed his first miracle as a boy. A kite soared over him and grabbed a little bird as she sat on her nest. Kieran demanded that the kite release the little bird. The kite turned back and released the bird, but it was wounded and half-dead. At Kieran’s command, the little bird was restored to life and resumed sitting on her nest.
In one wonderful tale, Saint Kieran blessed a well and from that time it “had the taste of wine or honey—for everyone who drank from it got drunk as well as filled.” The site may have been a local holy well, which certainly would have become even more popular after his miracle.
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.
Swift Runner was a Cree hunter and trapper from the country north of Fort Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His Cree name was Ka-Ki-Si-Kutchin. He was a big man, tall and muscular. He traded with Hudson’s Bay Company and in 1875, served as a guide for the North West Mounted Police. 
He was well-liked, until he developed a taste for whiskey. When he was drunk, Swift Runner became nasty and violent. The police sent Swift Runner back to his tribe, where he caused so much trouble that he was eventually turned out of his community. In the winter of 1878-79, Swift Runner took his family, including his wife, six children, mother-in-law, and brother, out into the wilderness to a hunting camp. Only Swift Runner returned in the spring. He said his wife had committed suicide and the others had died of starvation. Swift Runner appeared well fed and in good shape. His anxious in-laws asked the police to investigate. The police travelled with Swift Runner to his family’s camp in the wilderness north of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta.
Swift Runner brought a detachment of mounted police to the camp. He showed them the grave of his eldest son. The police opened the grace and found the bones undisturbed. There were human bones scattered around the encampment, some broken in half and hollowed out. That could only mean one thing – someone had snapped them open and sucked out the marrow. They found a pot full of human fat. Swift Runner identified one of the skulls as belonging to his wife. A small moccasin had been stuffed inside the skull of Swift Runner’s mother-in-law, a beading needle still sticking out of the unfinished work.
Without much prodding, Swift Runner revealed what happened to his family. At first, Swift Runner became haunted by dreams. A Wendigo spirit called on him to consume the people around him. The spirit crept through his mind, gradually taking control. Finally, he became a Wendigo. The Wendigo killed and ate Swift Runner’s wife, and eventually cooked and ate the rest of his family.
The police didn’t believe Swift Runner resorted to cannibalism out of hunger. Emergency food supplies were close by at a Hudson’s Bay post was 25 miles away. Swift Runner believed that he had become a Wendigo; the police thought he was a killer cannibal. He may have been suffering from Wendigo psychosis, a psychiatric disorder associated with the Algonquian-speaking peoples—Cree, Wabanaki, Anishinaabe in the northern boral forests along the U.S.-Canadian border. It manifests itself through compulsive attacks and a craving for human flesh. 
On May 27, 1879, the Mounted Police arrested Swift Runner and hauled him and the remains of his victims back to Fort Saskatchewan. His trial began on August 8, 1879. Swift Runner was tried for murder and cannibalism by a jury that included three “English speaking Cree half-breeds,” four men “well up in the Cree language,” and a Cree man who translated the proceedings. Swift Runner sat calmly throughout the testimony of witnesses, who described the family being in perfect health when they headed out to the woods, then Swift Runner coming out of the forest alone. Swift Runner confessed to the killings and said he had seen spirits telling him to become a Wendigo. After returning to his camp from a moose hunt, all that he could hear were “young moose, nothing but moose.” Local gossip said Swift Runner had developed a taste for human flesh from years earlier when he was forced to eat the remains of a hunting partner to save his life. Other people believed he had been possessed by the Wendigo.
Swift Runner was sentenced to be hung at Fort Saskatchewan on December 20, 1879 at 7:30 am. He declined to speak to a priest before he was executed. “The white man has ruined me,” he said. “I don’t think their God would amount to much.” The morning was dark and bitterly cold when the police led the condemned man to the scaffold. It was discovered that the trap from the gallows had been burned as kindling, and the old pensioner that was hired as the hangman had forgotten to bring straps to bind the prisoner’s arms. As the sheriff and hangman rushed around to get the scaffold ready again, Swift Runner sat near one of the fires that had been lighted nearby, joking and talking, and snacking on pemmican. “I could kill myself with a tomahawk and save the hangman the trouble,” he joked. Two hours later, the gallows was ready. Swift Runner was given the opportunity to address the crowd that had some to watch him die. He openly acknowledged his guilt, thanked his jailers for their kindness and berated his executioners for making him wait in the frigid cold. Just before the trap door opened, Swift Runner said, “I am no longer a man” the Daily Evening Mercury newspaper reported. “He died without a struggle. The body was cut down in an hour and buried in the snow outside the fort.”
Does the Wendigo exist or is it a myth? Is it an explanation for human behavior or part of the supernatural? A cultural warning about cannibalism or spiritual possession? Do they all blur together in the snowy mist we see just before a Wendigo appears?
The Wendigo (also known as Windigo, Weendigo) is part of the traditional beliefs of a number of Algonquin-speaking tribes in the northern United States and Canada, most notably the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Saulteaux, Cree and Abenaki. Though descriptions can vary, common to all these tribes is the conception of the Wendigos as malevolent, cannibalistic, savage, supernatural beings (Manitous) of great spiritual and physical power. They were strongly associated with winter, snow, cold, famine and starvation. The lived in the forest, and stalked villages and camps, waiting for humans to venture alone into the woods. People who did so and never returned were said to have been taken by a Wendigo; eaten alive or turned into a Wendigo themselves.
Basil H. Johnson, a Canadian Anishinaabe author, teacher and linguist, described the Wendigo in his book, The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway (1995):
“The Weendigo was a giant manitou in the form of a man or woman, who towered five to eight times above the height of a tall man. The Weendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its desiccated skin pulled tautly over its bones. With its bones pushing out against its skin, its complexion the ash grey of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Weendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it had were tattered and bloody from its constant chewing with jagged teeth. Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Weendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.” 
“When the Weendigo set to attack a human being, a dark snow cloud would shroud its upper body from the waist up. The air would turn cold, so the trees crackled. Then a wind would rise, no more than a breath at first, but in moments whining and driving, transformed into a blizzard. Behind the odor and chill of death and the killing blizzard came the Weendigo.”
“The Weendigo seized its victim and tore him or her from limb to limb with its hands and teeth, eating the flesh and bones and drinking the blood while its victim screamed and struggled. The pain of others meant nothing to the Weendigo; all that mattered was its survival. The Weendigo gorged itself and glutted its belly as if it would never eat again. But a remarkable thing always occurred. As the Weendigo ate, it grew, and as it grew so did its hunger, so that no matter how much it ate, its hunger always remained in proportion to its size. The Weendigo could never requite either its unnatural lust for human flesh or its unnatural appetite. It could never stop as animals do when bloated, unable to ingest another morsel, or sense as humans sense that enough is enough for the present. For the unfortunate Weendigo, the more it ate, the bigger it grew; and the bigger it grew, the more it wanted and needed.”
Wendigo sightings continue along our northern border with Canada. Walking alone in the woods in winter may not be a wise idea. Ancient gods and goddesses are rarely worshiped, but it doesn’t mean they have ceased to exist—we are just less aware of their supernatural presence. Some native people believe that the spirit and the ideas that the Wendigo embody live on in the modern world as executives in state run corporations, multinationals and conglomerates; people who have an insatiable appetite to devour natural resources, no matter what the consequence is to communities and human victims. Cree songwriter-signer Buffy Sainte-Marie’s song, “The Priests of the Golden Bull” asserts that “money junkies” of the world are wendigos. Greed, indifference, and ravenous consumption continue to kill a lot of people every year. 
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.
Saint Swithin, also spelled Swithun, The meaning in Old English is “strong bear cub.” He was the Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester. Winchester Cathedral in England and Stravanger Cathedral in Norway are both dedicated to him. His feast day in England is July 15 and in Norway it is July 2. Why Norway? His veneration may have originated with English missionaries who worked with St. Olaf in evangelizing Norway. 
Swithin was born in Winchester around 800, counseled Saxon kings Egbert and Ethelwulf, and was bishop of Winchester for the last ten years of his life. One legend claims Swithin tutored young Alfred the Great. Another says he built the first stone bridge over the river Itchen that runs through Winchester.
One of St. Swithin’s most famous miracles is a simple act of kindness. A group of workmen broke all the eggs in a poor woman’s basket as she was crossing a bridge. Swithin demanded the workmen apologize to the woman. He blessed her basket of eggs, which restored all the broken shells and runny yolks so she had whole eggs again.
His appearance to Queen Aelgifa, also known as Emma of Normandy, was another miracle. She was a half-sister to William of Normandy, later King of England. Aelgifa was the mother of Edward the Confessor, and a famous queen of England, Denmark and Norway, through her marriages to Aethelred the Uncounseled and Cnut the Great. Aelgifa was accused of adultery with Aelfwine, the former bishop of Winchester.
On the night before her “ordeal,” a trial which involved walking across white-hot ploughshares blades at Winchester Cathedral, St. Swinthin is supposed to have comforted the queen, “I am Saint Swithin whom you have invoked; fear not, the fire shall do you no hurt.” The following day the queen was able to walk barefoot across the blades and remain completely unharmed.
Swithin died of July 2, 862. On his deathbed, the bishop left instructions that his body should be buried outdoors and not in the cathedral. He wanted the rain from the eves to fall upon his grave. 100 years later Swithin’s body was removed from its simple grave and interred in the cathedral on July 15, 971. On the same day his bones were moved from the outdoors an extraordinary rainfall began. It was said his spirit was so offended by the move that it caused rain to fall for 40 consecutive days.
In 1093 his bones were moved again into a huge new cathedral built by Norman invaders. His Anglo-Saxon reliquary was carried with great ceremony to its home behind the high altar. Swithin’s tomb became a major site for pilgrims, many seeking to be healed from illness. A short tunnel (the Holy Hole) allowed them to crawl under his shrine, as close as possible to his bones and miraculous healing powers. In the middle of the night on September 21, 1538, King Henry VIII’s commissioners smashed the shrine and stole all the valuables. Three years later workmen filled in the Holy Hole. A modern memorial marks the spot where the shrine was located.
The name of Swithin is best known today for a British weather lore proverb, which says that if it rains on St. Swithin’s Day (July 15), it will rain 40 more days.
St Swithun’s day if thou dost rain. For forty days it will remain. St Swithun’s day if thou be fair. For forty days ‘twill rain nae mare
There is a scientific basis to the weather pattern behind the legend of St. Swithin’s day. Around the middle of July the jet stream settles into a pattern which holds reasonably steady until the end of August. If the jet stream lies north of the British Isles, continental high pressures is able to move it; when it lies across or south of the British Isles, Arctic air and the Atlantic weather systems dominate. 
Emblems associated with St. Swithin are rain and apples. Apple growers hope for rain on St. Swithin’s Day or St. Peter’s Day (June 29th). They see the rain as saints’ watering the orchards; or as St. Swithin blessing and christening the apples.
A verse by Anglo-American writer Elizabeth Sewell proclaims,
“High in the Heavenly Places/ I see Saint Swithin stand./ His garments smell of apples/ And rain-wet English land.”
