Joint Irish / Faroe Islands / Iceland
Issue--: An
Irish monk by the name of Saint Brendan is the reason Ireland, the Faroe Islands and
Iceland issued a joint series of stamps. According to the Icelandic Sagas, the Brendan
legend and a number of writings come from the Middle Ages. Saint Brendan was, in
fact, credited with the discovery of Iceland and the Faroe Islands in a simple skin boat. According to the legend, this happened around the year 500 A.D. Saint Brendan’s objective in setting out on these hazardous voyages in the North Atlantic was to spread the Christian faith. After the collapse and fall of the Roman Empire, the Irish monasteries were the most important centres of religion, scholarship and culture in the whole of Europe. The Irish monks therefore sailed across the Irish sea to England and onwards across the North Sea to Europe in order to build monasteries and spread Christianity. They did this without the benefit of compass or charts navigating solely by the stars.