rhetoric, dialectics, geometry, astronomy, and music. Thus he passed three
years, and was then advised to go to an especial teacher in the mountains,
who had particular modes of teaching certain branches. But this priest--he
was an Italian--was suffering from poverty, and could receive his guest
but for a few weeks. One day as Brandan sat studying, he saw, the legend
says, a white mouse come from a crack in the wall, a visitor which climbed
upon his table and left there a grain of wheat. Then the mouse paused,
looked at the student, then ran about the table, went away and reappeared
with another grain, and another, up to five. Brandan, who had at the very
instant learned his lesson, rose from his seat, followed the mouse, and
looking through a hole in the wall, saw a great pile of wheat, stored in a
concealed apartment. On his showing this to the head of the convent, it
was pronounced a miracle; the food was distributed to the poor, and "the
people blessed his charity while the Lord blessed his studies."

In the course of years, Brandan became himself the head of one of the
great abbeys, that of Clonfert, of the order of St. Benedict, where he had
under him nearly three thousand monks. In this abbey, having one day given
hospitality to a monk named Berinthus, who had just returned from an ocean
voyage, Brandan learned from him the existence, far off in the ocean, of
an island called The Delicious Isle, to which a priest named Mernoc had
retired, with many companions of his order. Berinthus found Mernoc and the
other monks living apart from one another for purposes of prayer, but when
they came together, Mernoc said, they were like bees from different
beehives. They met for their food and for church; their food included only
apples, nuts, and various herbs. One day Mernoc said to Berinthus, "I will
conduct you to the Promised Isle of the Saints." So they went on board a
little ship and sailed westward through a thick fog until a great light
shone and they found themselves near an island which was large and
fruitful and bore many apples. There were no herbs without blossoms, he