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Show I HISTORICAL I 1 DEPARTMENT. I --------------s- ST. BRENDAN, "THE NAVIGATOR Irish. Saint Who Came to America 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 481. At an early I period of his life he crossed to Great j Britain and thence to France, founding found-ing monasteries or schools in his progress. prog-ress. But it was not until 545 that he undertook the voyage with which his j name is chiefly associated. This event, which was called "The Setting Sail of St. Brendan and His Crew," was commemorated com-memorated in the calendars of the Christian church on May 22 every year for many centuries afterward. Whither did the saint sail, and what did he discover? This is a question upon which light has recently only j been thrown. The late Bishop , of Dubuque, Iowa, at a meet- j ing in Dublin a few years ago, ' asserted that St. Brendan not only j ; landed in America 900 years before Columbus Co-lumbus was born, but also evangelized a portion of the country at that time. It 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 significant signifi-cant facts. That the Icelanders and the 'Norsemen preceded Columbus is generally admitted, and when Columbus Colum-bus inauired information about his ' proposed voyage he sought It in Ice-, Ice-, land and Ireland. One of the sailors he took with him to America was an Irishman named Patrick Maguire. I Maritime intercourse between Ireland land Iceland was frequent from the earliest days of navigation. To various ' voyagers from time to time the great western continent was known as "Ireland "Ire-land the Great" (Ireland ed Mikla). Professor Rafu of Copenhagen is of the opinion that this Great Ireland of Northmen 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 of the original tribes of North and Central America, which suggest a pre- sumption that those countries naa been , colonized from Ireland at some remote I period. The history of early Irish Christian missions to America affords another proof that country having been discovered dis-covered by St. Brendan 900 years before Columbus was born. In the year 1519, when Cortez and his 600 companions landed in Mexico, they were surprised to find that their coming was welcomed wel-comed by the Mexicans as the realization realiza-tion of an ancient native tradition to the effect that many centuries before a white man had come across the jrreat ocean from the northeast in a boat with "wings" (sails) like those of the Spanish vessels. In the year 558, six years after St. Brendan's return to Ireland from his voyage to America, he founded the cathedral ca-thedral of Clonfert in county Galway. When he came to Clonfert, he said: "This shall be my rest for ever; here I will dwell, for I have a delight therein." there-in." When he was dying at Annagh-. down, near Galway, on May 16, 577, when he was 96 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 cathedral. |