29 NOVEMBER

In the old Irish calendar this is the feast of St. Brendan of Birr. According to D’Arcy’s The Saints of Ireland he was descended from “the race of Fergus MacRoy, which was said to have produced more heroes and more saints than any other of the Celtic septs.” He was founder of the school of Birr which produced the beautifully ornamented “Irish book now in the Bodleian library, the Gospels of MacRegal (scribe and bishop, abbot of Birr, who died in 822).” quotes all from D’Arcy

In the Carmelite calendar this is the feast of Ss. Denis and Redemptus. From the note in the Carmelite breviary:

Denis of the Nativity, a priest, called in the world Pierre Berthelot, was born in Honfleur in France in 1600. He was a cartographer and naval commander for the kings of Portugal and France before he joined the Discalced Carmelites in Goa in 1653. It was also at Goa that the Portuguese lay brother, Thomas Rodriguez da Cunha, born in 1598, had made his profession in 1615, taking the name Redemptus of the Cross. They were sent to the island of Sumatra, where, in the town of Achen, they received the martyr’s crown on November 29, 1638.

The 29th of November is Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s birthday. If he was right in what he did he may still need our prayers. If he wasn’t, he needs them even more. Requiescat in pace.