The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-12-21
HISTORICAL
DEPARTMENT.
o-e-c-o-c-o-o-0-0-o-0-0-0-o-00
ST. BRENDAN, 0THE NAVIGATOR
Irish Saint Who Came to America
Before Columbus Was Born.

I
Before Columbus Was Born.
The romance OF religion was never
better illustrated than in the career of
/ st. Brendan and in the history of the
cathedral which enshrines his remains,
writes Robert Dennis in the London
/ Express. The saint is known as the
navigator" and he is the patron saint
! of sailors He was born at Tralee, in
Kerry, in the year 4S1. At an early
/ period of his life he crossed to Great
Britain and thence to France, found
/ ing monasteries or schools in his prog
ress. But it was not until 545 that he
undertook the voyage with which his
name is chiefly associated. This event,
which was called THE Setting Sail of
st. Brendan and His Crew. was COM
memorated in the calendars of the
Christian church on May % every year
for many centuries afterWard.
Whittier did the saint sail, and what
did he discover? This is question
upon which light has recently only
been thrown. The late Bishop
of Dubuque. Iowa, at a meet
ing in Dublin a few years ago,
asserted that st. Brendan not only
landed in America 900 years before Co
Iumbus was born. but also evangelical
a portion Ol Tie county dI (udl llllIC'
1t is certain that the voyage lasted
altogether a period of seven years.
The belief that St Brendan was the
first European to visit America rests
upon a number of isolated but signif1-
cant facts. That the Icelanders and
the Norsemen preceded Columbus is
generally admitted, and when Column
bus inquired information about his
proposed voyage he sought it in Ice
land and Ireland. One of the sailors
he took with him to America was an
Irishman named Patrick Mcguire.
Maritime intercourse between Ireland
and Iceland was frequent from the
earliest days of navigation. To various
voyagers from time to time the great
western continent was known as Ire
land the Great Qreland ed Mikla).
Professor Rafu of Copenhagen is of
the opinion that this Great Ireland of
Mortimer was the country south of
Chesapeake bay, including Carolina,
Georgia and east Florida. There is a
remarkable tradition preserved among
the Shawanese Indians, who emigrated
more than a century ago from west
Florida to Ohio, that FLORIDA was
once inhabited by white men who used
iron instruments" Traces of Irish
origin have been observed among some
VI Tie OllSllIciA lIlDGo Va ANOA III anu
Central America, which suggest a pre-
sumption that those countries had been
colonized from Ireland at some remote
period.
The history of early Irish Christian
missions to America affords another
proof that country having been dis
covered by st. Brendan 900 years before
Columbus was born. In the year 1913,
when Cortez and his 600 companions
landed in Mexico, they were surprised
to find that their coming was well
coined by the MeXicans as the realiZa-
ton of an ancient native tradition to
the effect that many centuries before a
white man had come across the great
ocean from the northeast in a boat
with wings" (sails) like those of the
Spanish vessels.
In the year sos, six years after st.
Brendan's return to Ireland from his
voyage to America, he founded the ca
thedral of Clonfert in county Galway.
When he came to Clonfert, he said:
This shall be my rest for ever; here
1 will dwell, for 1 have a delight there
in" When he was dying at Annagh-
down, near Galway, on May 16, 5T7,
when he was So years of age, one of his
last requests was: Bury me in my
dear city of Clonfert" His wish was
granted. He was buried in the place
of honor, in the chancel of the ca
thedral.