Refugees and asylum-seekers were asked to take part in a 170-mile pilgrimage walk from Clonfert, Co Galway, to Brandon, Co Kerry, which began yesterday.
Father Tomas O Caoimh, one of the organisers, said the walk, while commemorating St Brendan of the sixth century who had connections with the Diocese of Clonfert and the Dingle peninsula, was also dealing with contemporary issues and with the Christian concept of welcoming the stranger.
The early Irish monasteries were havens "for the stranger and the refugee", he said. "It is to continue that spirit that we wanted to issue that invitation to asylum-seekers."
Some 50 people set out on the walk from St Brendan's Cathedral, Clonfert, on the first leg of the 11-day journey which celebrates the new millennium and the Jubilee Year. It ends at the summit of Mount Brandon on May 16th, St Brendan's Day.
Father O Caoimh said it was an ecumenical walk. Two asylum-seekers staying in Ennis, Co Clare, carried an icon of St Brendan which was blessed at a ceremony yesterday.
A special pilgrimage staff, made from yew at Clonfert, was also blessed by Dr John Kirby, the Catholic Bishop of Clonfert, and Dr Edward Darling, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick. It will be passed to different bishops as it passes through their dioceses.
Dr Kirby, the chairman of Trocaire, is also on the Bishops' Committee on Asylum-Seekers and Refugees, which recently called for a welcoming attitude to asylum-seekers.
Like the many saints they are commemorating, the walkers will be spending some time on water, going to Holy Island in Lough Derg today and travelling to Scattery Island in the Shannon Estuary next week, where a monastery was founded by Saint Senan and his followers.
"The Shannon was the great route for travelling. They used water. They did not travel by land," said Father O Caoimh.
The walk takes in part of the Lough Derg Way, the Dingle Way and parts of the yet-to-be-opened North Kerry Way.
Father O Caoimh, the curate of Ballyferriter parish in Co Kerry, said the pilgrimage could also be a spiritual exercise for people who do not like "stuffiness or churches of the big institution. It can be kept very simple but it can be very, very deep."
Other local saints which will be commemorated en route are Caimin of Inis Cealtra, Molua of Killaloe, Colum of Terryglass, Munchin of Limerick, Ide of Killeedy, Erc of north Kerry and Senach of Illauntannig.
Father O Caoimh said the pilgrimage also had an environmental theme.