15.17–23

On returning to the whale they find the cooking pot they had abandoned the previous year.  They stay there to celebrate Easter Eve and Easter morning.

[17] cacabus: for the cooking pot, see 10.7 and 10.9.

[18] illō ascendente: refers to the subject of the sentence; not a CL usage.

ymnum trium puerōrum: the “Song of the Three Holy Youths” was based on the story of the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3.23–30). Parts of it became part of the service of Matins / Morning Prayer and other services, e.g., the canticle Benedicite.

[19] vigilāte, et ōrāte ut nōn intrētis in temptātiōnem: spending the night on Iasconius would mean spending it in the presence of satanic power (see Orlandi and Guglielmetti 2014). On the warning, compare Matthew 26.41, where Jesus in the Garden of Gesthemane complains to Peter that the disciples fell asleep: “Watch ye, and pray that ye enter not into temptation (Vigilate, et orate ut non intretis in temptationem). The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

[21] per illam silvam: the bristles on Iasconius

ad vigiliās mātūtīnās: until Matins

omnēs sacerdōtēs: see on 10.5; the contrast between frātrēs and sacerdōtēs seems pointed, perhaps confirming that some of Brendan’s “monks” were also priests, who (unlike monks) could perform the Mass.

ad tertiam hōram: 9 a.m.

[22] Tunc beātus Brendanus ... immolavit agnum immaculatum Deo: see on 9.4; 15.11: probably he celebrated Mass, unless he performed an actual animal sacrifice.

[23] ita volō et hōc annō: Orlandi and Guglielmetti (2014) take this as meaning that he has not yet celebrated Easter, even though we’ve been told that he just did that; they suggest that he may mean the rest of the celebrations after Easter Sunday itself.  I wonder if volō couldn’t simply mean “I have wanted.”