6th Century AD

They headed west, following the prevailing winds, to Iceland, Greenland, Nova Scotia, and perhaps farther south to the present-day United States. They established settlements and preached Christianity to the natives for seven years before returning to Ireland. Brendan spent the rest of his days traveling throughout Ireland and the British Isles preaching the gospel and founding monasteries.
At least that’s what legend tells us.
The story of St. Brendan’s 6th century voyage to the Americas — 400 years before Leif Erickson and 900 years before Columbus — is one of the most intriguing mysteries of ancient Irish history. Most of the legend is based on several ancient biographies of Brendan and a 9th century published account of the journey, the Navigatio Sancti Brendani (“The Voyage of St. Brendan”). The latter actually became a best seller of sorts and more than 100 copies of the ancient manuscript in several languages exist today.
Setting aside Brendan’s alleged voyage for a moment, there is wide agreement among scholars on many aspects of his life and career. He was born ca. 484 AD at Tralee in County Kerry. Sent at an early age to study with the famous mystic St. Ita, he took holy orders and began a life as a zealous missionary. Brendan became a leading figure among the so-called Second Order of Irish saints (St. Patrick being of the First Order). Tradition says he established monasteries throughout Ireland, including several in Galway, as well as others in Scotland, Wales, and England. These were among the many institutions that constituted Ireland’s famed network of monasteries that helped preserve and then later reintroduce the knowledge of Western Civilization that was nearly lost with the collapse of the Roman Empire (a story wonderfully chronicled by Thomas Cahill in “How the Irish Saved Civilization”).
So even without the legend of his journey across the Atlantic, St. Brendan would be remembered today as a key figure in Irish history. But it is the journey — he is, after all known as St. Brendan the Navigator — that has intrigued people for centuries. Was it possible to reach North America in the manner described in the “Navigatio”? Does any evidence of such a journey exist?
Before answering these questions, we need to turn our attention to the description of the journey as provided in the “Navigatio.” According to the book, Brendan had heard of an island known as the “Land of Promise and of Saints” often visited by a voyaging abbot. Yearning to see the place for himself, he gathered 14 monks at Brandon Creek in Kerry and there built a small boat with wooden ribs covered in leather skins. With no knowledge of the Land of Promise’s location, they set sail trusting that God would show them the way. After nine months at sea, Brendan and his crew reached what might have been the Faroe Islands, an archipelago between Norway and Iceland. From there they pressed on to reach the island of Ailbe, where they found a monastic community of monks who had set out on a similar journey generations earlier. References in the “Navigatio” to warm muddy pools suggest to some that this might have been Iceland where active volcanoes create such things. Pushing farther west, the account describes encountering perhaps the Azores, then a flat island barely above sea level, perhaps one of the Bahamas, and then a lush island reminiscent of Jamaica. The narrative goes on to describe many more encounters over the next five years, including references to an island enclosed in fog that suggests Newfoundland.
Many parts of the narrative become quite fantastic, in the manner of the great epics. At one point, for example, the voyagers befriend a whale they name Jasconius who offered his back as a platform for the celebration of Easter Sunday Mass (and did so every year thereafter). Other aspects of the story that at first appear to be similarly imaginative have been interpreted by some scholars as evocative references to real wonders. Their encounter with a “crystal pillar” very likely refers to icebergs commonly found in the north Atlantic. The story of natives on a strange island pelting them with fiery, foul-smelling rocks might be attributed to an eruption on one of the many volcanic islands they passed.
The question of whether Brendan and his crew ever made such a voyage will never be answered with any certitude. The extant evidence is suggestive but insufficient, though the discovery of stones at several locations on the east coast of America bearing ancient Irish inscriptions adds to the intrigue.
But one question regarding the voyage has been answered: that Brendan and his men could have done it. In 1977 a navigation scholar named Tim Severin built a small boat according to the description in the “Navigatio,” a design, as it turns out, quite similar to the traditional curragh boats still made in Kerry today. Setting out from Brandon Creek in Kerry, Severin and his crew followed the prevailing winds to the Hebrides, Faroe Islands, Iceland (where, like Brendan, they wintered), Greenland, and on June 26, 1977, Newfoundland. Along the way they encountered, like Brendan, friendly whales, icebergs, and volcanic islands. The successful voyage did not prove that Brendan made his voyage, but did make clear that one like it could have been completed in the 6th century.
Two more things about Brendan’s legend are also clear. The popularity of the “Navigatio” led early cartographers to include a St. Brendan’s Island on many ancient maps depicting the Atlantic Ocean. And many future explorers, including Columbus, read the account and drew inspiration from it.

HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK
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