Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis: Allegory of the Characters

Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis – a work whose manuscripts date to the 10th century – describes the voyage undertaken by Saint Brendan of Clonfert (cca 484–577) to find the so-called “Promised Land of the Saints”. Thus, the anonymous author of this writing reiterates a commonplace of classical literature, which he revisits from a Christian pastoral perspective: the mythical place of ancient Greek and Latin literature is now depicted as Terra Repromissionis Sanctorum, thus a place destined to those who follow Christian teachings and the lifestyle promoted by them. The entire imaginary of this Navigatio... is constructed starting from both classical and Christian sources, within an osmosis of symbols, literary motifs, and philosophical topics through which the author aims to turn his work into a writing meant to be read by both Christians and those not affiliated to the Church. In my study, I propose an analysis of some of the characters (individual or collective) within Navigatio... My hypothesis is that, similarly to other aspects of the work, it does not exhaust its meaning from the narrative perspective, because characters can be interpreted from the perspective of the fundamental themes of the Christian doctrines. Obviously, the interpretation I propose does not exclude others, while sometimes this view seems to be confirmed by corresponding excerpts of Vita prima... or Vita secunda..., both of them successive re-elaborations (thus reinterpretations) of Navigatio.

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