Voyage of St Brendan

tr. O’Donoghue, 1893

12. Judas Iscariot

Judas Iscariot

On another day there came into view a large and high mountain in the ocean, not far off, towards the north, with misty clouds about it, and a great smoke issuing from its summit, when suddenly the wind drove the boat rapidly towards the island until it almost touched the shore. The cliffs were so high they could scarce see the top, were black as coal, and upright like a wall. Here the monk, who remained of the three who followed St. Brendan from his monastery, leaped from the boat, and made his way to the foot of the cliff, wailing and crying aloud: “Woe is me! father, for I am forcibly torn away from you, and cannot return.” But the brethren, seized with a great fear, quickly drew off from the shore; and, lamenting loudly, cried unto the Lord: “Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us!” St. Brendan plainly saw how the wretched man was carried off by a multitude of demons, and was already burning amongst them, and he exclaimed: “Woe is yours, unhappy man, who has made you so evil an end of your life.”

Afterwards a favourable breeze caught the boat, and drove them southwards; and as they looked back, they saw the peak of the mountain unclouded, and shooting up flames into the sky, which it drew back again to itself, so that the mountain seemed a burning pyre. After this dreadful sight, they sailed for seven days towards the south, and then St. Brendan observed a very dense cloud, on approaching which there came into view what had the shape of a man, sitting on a rock, with a veil before him as large as a sack, hanging between two iron prongs; and he was tossed about like a small boat in a storm. When the brethren saw this, some thought it was a bird; others, that it was a boat; but the man of God told them to cease the discussion, and to steer directly for the place; where, on his arrival, he finds the waves all around motionless, as if frozen over. They found a man sitting on a rugged and shapeless rock, with the waves on every side, which in their flowing beat upon him, even to the top of his head, and in their ebbing exposed the bare rock on which the wretched man was sitting; and the cloth which hung before him, as the winds tossed it about, struck him on the eyes and on the forehead.

When the saint asked him who he was, for what crime he was sent there, and how he had deserved to suffer so great a punishment, he answered: “I am that most unhappy Judas, the most wicked of all traffickers; not for any deserving of mine, but through the unspeakable mercy of Jesus Christ, am I placed here. I expect no place for repentance; but through the forbearance and mercy of the Redeemer of the world, and in honour of His Resurrection, I have this cooling relief, as it is now the Lord’s Day; while I sit here, I seem to myself tc be in a paradise of delights, considering the agony of the torments that are in store for me afterwards; for when I am in my torments, I burn like a mass of molten lead, day and night, in the heart of that mountain you have seen. There Leviathan and his satellites dwell, and there was I when it swallowed down your lost brother, for which all hell exulted, and belched forth great flames, as it always does, when it devours the souls of the reprobate. But that you may know the boundless mercy of God, I will tell you of the refreshing coolness I have here every Sunday from the first vespers to the second; from Christmas Day to the Epiphany; from Easter to Pentecost; on the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and on the festival of her Assumption. On all other days I am in torments with Herod and Pilate, with Annas and Caiphas; and, therefore, I adjure you, through the Redeemer of the world, to intercede for me with the Lord Jesus, that I may remain here until sunrise to-morrow, and that the demons, because of your coming here, may not torment me, nor sooner drag me off to my heritage of pain, which I purchased at an evil price.”

The saint then said: “The will of the Lord be done; you will not be taken away by the demons until to-morrow.” And he asked him what meant that cloth in front of him. Judas replied: “This cloth I once gave to a leper, when I was the purse-bearer of the Lord; but as it was not my own, I find no relief from it, but rather hurt; those iron prongs on which it hangs, I once gave to the priests for supporting their caldrons; and the stone on which I am sitting, I placed in a trench on a public road before I became a disciple of the Lord’s.”

When evening came, a multitude of demons gathered round in a circle, shouting: “Depart from us, O man of God, for we cannot come near our comrade unless you retire from him, and we dare not see the face of our prince until we bring back to him his pet victim; give us therefore, our prey, and keep it not from us this night.” The saint then said: “I protect him not, but the Lord Jesus Christ has permitted him to remain here this night.” The demons cried out: “How could you invoke the name of the Lord on behalf of him who had betrayed Him?” The man of God then commanded them in the name of Jesus Christ to do him no hurt until morning.

When the night had passed, at early dawn, when St. Brendan was proceeding on his way, a countless multitude of demons covered the face of the deep, uttering dreadful cries: “O man of God, accursed be thy coming and thy going, for our chief has this night scourged us with cruel stripes, because we had not brought back his wretched captive.” “Not on us,” said the saint, “but on yourselves shall those curses be; for blessed is he whom you curse, and accursed is he whom you bless.” The demons shouted: “He will suffer double punishment for the next six days, because you saved him from his punishment last night.” But the man of God warned them: “You have no power, neither has your chief, only whatever power God may give you; and I command you in the name of the Lord, that you increase not his torments beyond those you were wont to inflict before.” “Are you,” said they, “the Lord of all, that we should thus obey your command?” “No,” rejoined the saint, “but I am the servant of the Lord of all; and whatsoever I command in His name, it is done, and I am His minister only in what He grants to me.” In this manner they pursued him with their blasphemies until he was far away from Judas; and they bore off this wretched soul with great rushing and howling.

Saint Brendan and Judas Iscariot

Saint Brendan sails the northern main;
The brotherhoods of saints are glad.
He greets them once, he sails again;
So late!—such storms!—The saint is mad.

He heard, across the howling seas,
Chime convent-bells on wintry nights;
He saw, on spray-swept Hebrides,
Twinkle the monastery lights;

But north, still north, Saint Brendan steered,
And now no bells, no convents more!
The hurtling Polar lights are neared
The sea without a human shore.

At last—(it was the Christmas night;
Stars shone after a day of storm)—
He sees float past an iceberg white,
And on it—Christ!—a living form.

That furtive mien, that scowling eye,
Of hair that red and tufted fell—
It is—oh, where shall Brendan fly?—
The traitor Judas, out of hell!

Palsied with terror, Brendan sate;
The moon was bright, the iceberg near.
He hears a voice sigh humbly: “Wait!
By high permission I am here.

“One moment wait, thou holy man!
On earth my crime, my death, they knew;
My name is under all men’s ban—
Ah! tell them of my respite, too!

“Tell them one blessed Christmas night
(It was the first after I came,
Breathing self-murder, frenzy, spite,
To rue my guilt in endless flame)—

“I felt, as I in torment lay
’Mid the souls plagued by heavenly power,
An angel touch mine arm, and say:
‘Go hence and cool thyself an hour!’

“‘Ah! whence this mercy, Lord?’ I said.
‘The Leper recollect,’ said he,
‘Who asked the passers-by for aid,
In Joppa, and thy charity.’

“Then I remembered how I went,
In Joppa, through the public street,
One morn when the sirocco spent
Its storms of dust with burning heat;

“And in the street a leper sate
Shivering with fever, naked, old;
Sand raked his sores from heel to pate,
The hot-wind fevered him five-fold.

“He gazed upon me, as I passed,
And murmur’d: ‘Help me, or I die!’—
To the poor wretch my cloak I cast,
Saw him looked eased, and hurried by.

“O Brendan, think what grace divine,
What blessing must full goodness shower,
When fragment of it, small like mine,
Hath such inestimable power!

“Well-fed, well-clothed, well friended, I
Did that chance act of good, that one.
Then went my way to kill and lie—
Forgot my good as soon as done.

“That germ of kindness, in the womb
Of mercy caught, did not expire;
Outlives my guilt, outlives my doom,
And friends me in the pit of fire.

“Once every year, when carols wake,
On earth, the Christmas-night’s repose
Arising from the sinner’s lake,
I journey to these healing snows.

“I stanch with ice my burning breast,
With silence balm my whirling brain.
O Brendan! to this hour of rest
That Joppan leper’s ease was pain.”

Tears started to Saint Brendan’s eyes;
He bowed his head, he breathed a prayer.
Then looked, and lo! the frosty skies,
The iceberg, and no Judas there!

MATHEW ARNOLD’s Poems.

(With kind permission of Macmillan & Co.)