Brendan's Island  

Brendan's Island
Visitor Information Center

Brendan's Island home pagePlaces to go on Brendan's Island
I Love It Here! main page
A Walk on the Catholic Side
Brian's Attic
Attack of the Amateur Photo Album
Brendan: A Monk, A Boat and A Legend
Brendan's Island Guest Book
Brendan's Island Visitor Information Center

 

Your Guide to Brendan's Island

1. Descriptions of the places to go on Brendan's Island
2. Site map of Brendan's Island
3. Why call this "Brendan's Island?"

1. Descriptions

I Love It Here!

A personal view of life in a small town. I discuss what it is like to live in a small town in central Minnesota. You'll learn why this family likes living in small town America.

You'll find a few facts about Sauk Centre, Minnesota, and perhaps learn a little about a real small town.

A Walk on the Catholic Side

Signs of a Catholic presence in this area go beyond churches. Take a walk on the Catholic side, and see some of the ways people's faith expresses itself.

Brian's Attic

Pages worth writing, but which didn't fit into existing areas of Brendan's Island.

Attack of the
Amateur
Photo Album

Just when you thought it was safe to go online: A collection of amateur photos, mostly of Sauk Centre.

Mercifully, this place is split up into many pages, to keep download time (fairly) short.

Brendan:
A Monk, A Boat
And a Legend

As told by the son of an Irishman. St. Brendan, you see, is chiefly famous for a wonderful voyage he is said to have made. Now, it is entirely possible that certain details of that voyage may have gotten exaggerated in the telling and retelling of the tale, but I declare that the account has merit both historical and as a story.

Visitor Information Center

That's this page: Your guide to Brendan's Island.

Brendan's Island
Guest Book

Comments left by visitors, and a form so that you can share your own thoughts about this site.
Last update: 2007.

What's New

Spotlighting changes (big and small) on Brendan's Island.
Last update: 2004.

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2. Site Map

I Love It Here!

Sauk Centre This Season: Sauk Centre Journal

Sauk Centre Journal Archive 2006
Sauk Centre Journal Archive 2005
Sauk Centre Journal Archive 2004
Sauk Centre Journal Archive 2001-2003

Seasons:
Winter
Spring
Summer
Fall

Holidays:
Christmas
Easter
Memorial Day
Labor Day
Armistice Day
Thanksgiving

Walking to Work
A House of Our Own
Attic Time
Things I Miss
In Praise of . . .
Factoid Man: general info.
Factoid Man: Climate
Factoid Man: Changes
Area Web Sites
More Web Sites

A Walk on the Catholic Side

Devotion to The Divine Mercy in Sauk Centre, Minnesota

Getting There
The Merciful Jesus Carving at St. Paul's Church
Chaplet of The Divine Mercy
Novena to The Divine Mercy
The Divine Mercy: a homily (Mercy Sunday 2002)
Reflections on The Divine Mercy, 2003(formerly The Novena of Mercy at St. Paul's Church, 2003):

Sixth Reflection: Mary's role in the Devotion of Divine Mercy

St. Faustina Adoration Chapel in Sauk Centre, Minnesota

Catholic Events in Sauk Centre, Minnesota

The Missionary Image's procession In Sauk Centre

Brian's Attic

Americana:
9/11/2002, 2005 (updated 9/11/2005)
An American Family
Ich Bin Ein Amerikaner
Mustard and Ketchup
Ronald Wilson Reagan

Observations:
Arthur's Home by Naomi Gill
Day of the Living Driver
Jonah Fan Page
Once It Was Believed, Now We Know

Fiction:
The Dream
The Village, the Fence and the Sign
Wilbert and Grunt

Attack of the Amateur Photo Album

Summer
Fall
Winter
Spring

Brendan: A Monk, A Boat And a Legend

Visitor Information Center

Brendan's Island Guest Book


Central Minnesota Theater
Videos, updated sporadically


Contact the Webmaster of Brendan's Island


Mini-sites:

Easy Griller

L. N. Kaas Company

Sauk Centre Knights of Columbus

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3. Why call this "Brendan's Island?"

It's a sort of metaphor, an allusion to North America, the "promised land" which St. Brendan quite likely reached some ten centuries before Columbus arrived.

As for exactly how I came to call this website, I don't know for sure. It's as if I had approached a dock, and saw a sign reading, "Brendan's Island."

That's been the name of this virtual place almost from the beginning: almost, but not quite.

The first records I kept, back in June of 1997, called this site "Brendan's Web." The folder which the site filled was called "brendan:" as close as I could come to the longer name.

I spent much more time working on the site than thinking about the name from June 4, 1997, when "I Love It Here!" appeared, to July 12, 2001, when www.brendans-island.com rose from the digital waters. Early in that period, I see now, my name for the site became "Brendan's Island."

This leads right back to the question: why "Brendan's Island?"

I think my chain of association went this way: The land that St. Brendan visited (assuming that the tale isn't a fabrication) was probably on the east coast of North America. I'm living about a thousand miles west, much closer to the center of that same continent. The old cartographers had it wrong! Brendan's Island wasn't a smallish piece of land somewhere in the Atlantic: It's a much larger landmass: the one I'm living on, that we now call North America. North America is Brendan's Island!

I know. That's not very "scientific."

"Brendan's Island" seemed a fine name for a Web site intended to show what is good and pleasant here. I am under no illusion that the place where I live is a fabled land of the saints, awash with exotic perfumes and graced with beaches of precious stones. However, I find this part of "Brendan's Island" to be quite pleasant: and on the beaches in lake country, just north of here, you will indeed find agates, at least, on the rockier shores.

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Brendan's Island home page
I Love It Here! (life in a small town) | A Walk on the Catholic Side
Brian's Attic | Attack of the Amateur Photo Album
Brendan: A Monk, A Boat And a Legend
Brendan's Island Guest Book | Visitor Information Center


Brendan's Island Guest Book   While you're here, please take a look at Brendan's Island's guest book. Leave a comment, if you like.   You can send me a message on the contact page.
Brian H. Gill, webmaster
  E-mail Brendan's Island Webmaster

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This page last updated: May 05, 2022