25.1–6

Judas.  They see a rock with a figure sitting under a cloth suspended from two forks and blown by the wind.  The monks don't know what they're looking at, but, coming closer, they see an ugly and unkempt man. who tells them that he is Judas.  The cloth is sometimes blown away from him and sometimes it hits him in the face.

Although there was a rich tradition of post-Biblical stories about Judas, the account here has details not attested elsewhere.  Most importantly, Judas here gets days off from eternal damnation, just as the neutral angels get to spend Sundays and holy days as birds (11.17).  The idea of a respite from damnation has its origins in Judaism and a feeling that the Sabbath should be a day of rest even for the dead, but the concept was never orthodox Christian doctrine.  Our author's immediate source was probably the Visio Pauli.

[1] Igitur sānctus Brendānus, cum nāvigasset: = Igitur, cum sānctus Brendānus nāvigāsset.

appāruit illīs: it appeared to Brendan and also his followers.

[2] ā longē quasi mēnsūrā ūnīus sagī: “in length about the measure of a single cloak.” ā longē in CL means “from a distance” (OLD longē 2b). If ablative, mensūrā would be an ablative of degree of difference (AG § 414); it could also be mēnsūra, nominative, in a kind of apposition with vēlum.

sīc agitābātur: the subject is vēlum.

[3] Aliī ex frātribus: “some of the brothers”; alius in CL would be quīdam; see on 22.6.

[4] restitērunt undae in circuitū quasi coāgulātae: either the waves around the rock were miraculously calmed, to make it easier for Brendan to land (Orlandi and Guglielmetti), or they congealed to make it harder (O’Meara).

invēnērunt: the subject is now Brendan and his followers.

[5] undae ... percutiēbant eum usque ad verticem: the waters had just been calmed, but our narrator describes Judas as he normally was on the rock, with the waves hitting him all the way to the top of his head.

īnfēlīx ille: the subject is held to the end of the sentence; this may or may not be a reflection of Irish.

[6] Pannus quoque, quī ante illum pendēbat: pannus here is another word for the vēlum hanging in front of him; another “nominative absolute,” or anacolouthon, since the subject changes, temporarily, to ventus.

aliquandō ventus minābat illum ā sē: = aliquandō ventus minābat illum (pannum) ā sē [= hominem].

aliquandō percutiēbat eum: = aliquandō (pannus) percutiēbat eum.