Who Really Discovered North America First?

Who really discovered America? We all know in 1492 "Columbus sailed the ocean blue..." and landed pretty close to what's now America. Of course, evidence exists that Vikings first reached the new world. But what if someone else got there even before the Vikings, in fact may have been the source of tales leading to the Viking westward exploration?

May 16th celebrates the feast of St. Brendan the Navigator. Missionary zeal was strong in Ireland during the early years of Christianity. With the fall of the Roman empire, Irish monks traveled all over Western Europe proclaiming the gospel.

Born circa 484 AD in County Kerry, St. Brendan was responsible for establishing numerous monasteries, churches and religious institutions along the west coast of Ireland, where he also grew up. The place he is most famous for is Clonfert in County Galway where he established a monastery. Clonfert, though small and seemingly insignificant now, became a thriving city known for its learning in Brendan's day. http://homepage.tinet.ie/~mcmullins/clon...

But Brendan did not stay just in Ireland. He also traveled extensively in Scotland, Wales and possibly Brittany. The most famous of his travels, however, is recorded in the Navigatio Brandoni or The Voyage of Brendan. This Irish epic, believed to have been written originally in the 8th century and later translated to Latin, recounts the monk's search for "The Promised Land of the Saints" or Paradise. Although accounts differ on the exact number-some say 17, others as many as 150-a group of fellow monks accompanied Brendan on this extraordinary venture across the Atlantic. St. Brendan and his monks made their journey in a curragh, an Irish fishing boat made of wood covered with ox-hide leather. The monks encountered many obstacles, fought demons, even encountered the Lord's traitor, Judas, who gave galling descriptions of the torments of hell. They saw gigantic crystals standing in the ocean, and were bombarded by fire balls from heaven. But at long last, they found their paradise...rising from the mist, a land rich in fruits and green vegetation. They returned to Ireland, seven years after they'd set out, bearing fruits and precious stones from this far away land.

For centuries explorers searched for "Brendan's Island" in vain, and eventually gave up. Religious leaders explained that the island had simply disappeared, while agnostics doubted it had ever existed. The account of Brendan's voyage was written at least a century, maybe more, after the saint's death in 577 AD, and was a well known story during medieval times. But in more recent years scholars have noted some striking similarities in the descriptions and geographical locations of actual spots in the Atlantic where Brendan supposedly passed on his journey.

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