THE SCENE: In the passage below, Saint Brendan get a chance to meet the spirits of those who remained neutral in the war between heaven and Lucifer.
THE TEXT: Over the spring there was a tree of extraordinary girth and no less height covered with white birds. They covered it so much that one could scarcely see its leaves or branches. When the man of God saw this, he began think and ponder within himself what it meant. He was so tormented about this that the tears poured out and flowed down upon his cheeks, and he implored God, saying: “I implore your majesty to have pity and reveal to me, a sinner, through your great mercy your secret that I now look upon with my eyes.
When he said this, one of the birds flew from the tree, making a noise with her wings like a hand-bell, and took up position on the side of the boar where the man of God was sitting. The man of God immediately concluded that God had listened to his plea, and spoke to the bird: “If you are God’s messenger, tell me where these birds come from or for what reason they are congregated here.”
She replied immediately: “We survive from the great destruction of the ancient enemy, but we were not associated with them through any sin of ours. When we were created, Lucifer’s fall and that of his followers brought about our destruction also. But our God is just and true. In his great judgment he sent us here. We endure no sufferings. Here we can see God’s presence. But God has separated us from sharing the lot of the others who were faithful. We wander through various regions of the air and the firmament and the earth, just like the other spirits that travel on their missions. But on holy days and Sundays we are given bodies such as you now see so that we may stay here and praise our creator.
When she said this, she lifted herself off the prow and flew to the other birds. When the hour of vespers had come all the birds in the tree changed, as if were with one voice, beating their wings.
– The Voyage of Saint Brendan, 10th Century AD
