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Show THE FAIR GOD. Plausible Inferences St. Brendan's Voyage Voy-age Religious Reformations Striking Strik-ing Analogies With Christian Rites Testimony of a Distinguished Prelate Indian Practices Coming Down for Generations Confirm Their Christian Conversion. (Foreign Correspondence Intermountain Catholic.) Those of your readers who have examined the passages cited by General Butterfield from the Brendan manuscript of the tenth century will. I am satisfied, admit there is at least a reasonable probability prob-ability that the Irish Abbot reached America long-before long-before the time of the Vikings. That famous voyage voy-age synchronized with the appearance of th3 Fair God in Mexico. Brendan and his sailor monk3 sailed away from Ireland about the middle of the sixth century. Xow the traditions of thi "Fair God"' in Mexico and Yucatan at the time of tiie Conquest fix the period of Quetzel-Coatl's residence j among them at about the same time. "It is not at all impossible," writes the learned French archaeologist archae-ologist and antiquarian, the Abbe Brasseur do Bourbbourg, "that in pre-Columbian times sonio. Christians crossed the sea and visited America. The vague traditions on the reformation in religion reli-gion and manners in Chiapas. Mexico, Yucatan I and Oaxaca which took place about the fifth or sixth century would seem to confirm the European Euro-pean lending on the shores of this country. It - j was during this period and almost at the samo time j that these white divinities appeared, these extra. r- d;nary men, whose memories yet live in the litem- j ture and traditions of the people from Peru to- I Michoacan." These strangers who preached un- I known doctrines and purity of morals, who taught I a higher civilization were, when they departed, can- onized under the names of QuetzelcoatI, Sube, Yira- cocha and Zixipecocha. They laid the foundations of a new religion whose pontiffs, like the Dairis of Japan, exercised supreme authority even at th-i j time of the Conquest, either at Lyobaa or Mictlan, i ' in the state of Oaxaca. ! Xo one familiar with Mexican and Yucatan J history may deny that the religious customs and f practices of these early people not only bore a j striking analogy to many of our Christian rites, j sacramentals and sacraments, but even to the cere- j monies of the faith of - Moses. The religious tra- I ditions of all the peoples inhabiting the coast lands j of the Gulf of Mexico, when the Spaniards came, recorded, according to Herrara,' that these white patriarchs came across the sea from where the sun . f rose. Xow, unless some one introduced the rites of f the Christian religion among these people, how can we account for the striking and certainly not accidental resemblance to the ceremonies and ! practices of the Catholic church today and in the time of St. Brendan? Xow let us dismiss the speculations of Protestant Protes-tant historians like Lord Kingsborough, Jones and f Prescott, and, from the most reliable and the very f earliest authorities, study the subject independent f ly and dispassionately. j During the time intervening between the years 1543 and 1570 Diego de Landa of the princely j House of Calderon was missionary priest and mis- f sionary bishop to Yucatan, Chiapas and Tabaso. j After his elevation to the Episcopate he fixed his ! See at Merida, Yucatan, where in 1579 he died at I the age of 51. From this great man we have in- j herited a most accurate and valuable treatise on I the customs, manners and religion of the Indians inhabiting these lands in his time. The title of this priceless book is "Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan," or "Report on the State of Things in Yucatan." I will translate the passages bearing on our subject, sub-ject, leaving the reader free to draw his own conclusions conclu-sions : Baptiorr. "When any one wishes to have his child baptized he goes to the priest and a day is appointed. For three days before the time when the child is to be baptized the father practices abstinence ab-stinence from certain food. The ceremony takes place in a house selected by the priest, which before be-fore the ceremony is PURIFIED OR BLESSED, li the person to be baptized is of an age to commit sin, the priest advises to confess his sins, which he does. The priest then baptizes him." The priest in baptising makes use of incense, oils for anointing, prepared water and a white I (Continued on Page 5.) j t f THE FAIR GOD. j (Continued from page 1.) cloth. He makes use of certain prayers and rites to expel the evil spirit. Confession "The Indians know when they do evil and they believe that all sickness, suffering and f'eath itself are punishment for their sins. Tt is a oustcm with them to confess their sins. When they are seriously 'ill or in danger of death they send for their priest and confess to him. If they eannct get a priest they confess to their fathers or mothers, or wives to their husbands or husbands to their wives." They practiced exorcisms, or the casting out of evil spirits, used holy water, incense and lights. Thne were other ceremonies having a remarkable aftinity with many of the ceremonies of the Catholic Cath-olic church. They claimed that these religious practices and rites came down to them from the days of the white gods. Xow, taking into consideration the wonderful r.nalogy between these rites and those of the Catholic Cath-olic church, the undoubted tradition of the visit of white men from across the sea. the sailing of St. Brendan with his companions in A. D. 555, the time early in the fifth or sixth' century when, according ac-cording to Brasseur de Bourbourg, the strangers l:i Tided in Mexico or Central America. tL"iv is certainly cer-tainly made out l strong case in favor of the voyage voy-age of Brendan and his-discovery of Am- ric.i To my mind the probabilities in the controversy, arc much more plausible than were the ,ir.-;;u men's j it: belli; If of Lief Erickson. before the Lorain-.? Historical His-torical society proved to a certainty the voyage and landing en the shores of America of Lief Kricksvn early in the eleventh century. "After an exhaustive examination of v the tr.t-diiions tr.t-diiions and documents extant." writes Vosiu.-t i.i Lis "Di-HM-tation on the Age of the World." L am satisfied that. Christianity was preached in lVru. Mexico rnd Central America lung before the-coming of the Spanish Friars." Tlaxcalla, Mexico. |