Brendan’s Time
Brendan’s Time

Summary/Abstract: Navigatio Sancti Brendani – 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 “Island of the Saints”. Thus, the anonymous author of this writing reiterates a commonplace of classic literature, but which he revalorizes from a Christian pastoral perspective: the mythical place of ancient Greco-Latin literature is now depicted as Terra Repromissionis Sanctorum, thus a place destined to those who follow Christian teachings and the lifestyle promoted by it. The entire imaginary of this Navigatio... is constructed starting from both classic and Christian sources, within an osmosis of symbols, literary motives, and philosophical topics through which the author aims to turn his work into a writing destined to Christians but also to those not affiliated to the Church. In our study, we propose an analysis of temporality aspects, considering that, in the aforementioned work, time also has dimensions that escape the perception of the triad past–present–future and that elude the common ways of measuring durations.

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