New York Public Library / wikipedia
Saint Brandão and his monks leave towards a western land
Was Christopher Columbus really the first European to “discover” America? According to historical accounts, 500 years before the Genoese navigator, an Irish monk built a rudimentary vessel — in which he set out, with 14 men, towards “enigmatic lands”.
The discovery of America is historically attributed to the Genoese navigator (or ) Christopher Columbus.
But after the discovery, in the 1960s, of a viking settlement in L’Anse aux Meadows, in eastern Canada, many historians began to doubt the idea that America had been discovered in 1492: it is possible that others there arrived even earlier.
One of these candidates is Saint Brandonan Irish monk from the 6th century, who was exiled to the limits of the then known world to follow a path dictated by faith, says .
Irish oral tradition celebrates Brandão de Clonfertalso called Brandão, the Navigator, as a heroic figure. According to this tradition, it crossed the Atlantic heading to the New World — about 500 years earlier that the Vikings themselves did it.
Who was Brandão de Clonfert?
Brandão de Clonfert was one of those called twelve apostles of Irelanda group of saints of the first Christianization who is credited with spreading Christianity throughout the territory. They were scholars of theology, art, science and geography, and founded schools and churches, training missionaries.
Brandão had a strong connection to the seaand made several voyages to islands off the coasts of Ireland and Scotland. He also traveled to France and Wales to found monasteries. Tradition attributes it to spiritual leadership of around 3,000 monks.
According to historical accounts, Brandão de Clonfert told São Barinto that he had heard rumors about lands beyond the Atlantic. Feeling compelled to look for them, he would aim to establish monastic communities there.
The saga of Saint Brandon
Brandão gathered 14 monks and prepared a vessel capable of withstanding the crossing of the Atlantic. They built a traditional Irish boat known as Curr: a light wooden frame, covered with animal skins, protected by a layer of tar for waterproofing.
With simple benches, a small mast and a linen sail, the vessel could transport 15 men and supplies.
The trip was recorded in a saga-like text, entitled Navigation of St. Brendan Abbot (The Navigation of Saint Brendan the Abbot). The story situates the journey between 512 and 530 dC.
After going up the coast of Great Britain, where they had encountered a sea monster, and after almost celebrating mass about a whalewhich they would have mistaken for an island, Brandão de Clonfert and his companions visited several enigmatic lands.
The text refers to a visit to Bird Paradise and Sheep Islandwhere “the sheep were so big… bigger even than oxen… because they were never milked and did not feel the rigor of winter, having abundant pasture in all seasons”.
He also mentions another island where “great demons they threw clods of incandescent slag down from an island with rivers of golden fire.” After this terrifying encounter, which reminds me of a description of a volcanothe reference to another island appears, this time with an abundance of grapes.
Further on, the text talks about a strange sea full of columns that looked like glass or crystal. Finally, the group reaches a paradise “similar to Heaven”which they call Promised Land of the Saints:
“When they disembarked, they saw a vast land, densely covered with trees, laden with fruit, as in autumn. During all the time they crossed this land, while they remained there, there was no night: a light always shone, like the sun at noon.“, reads the text
The explorers later arrive at a large river flowing inlandwhich however can’t cross.
Where did they go?
Some details in the report seem to give some strength to the hypothesis of an arrival at North America. There are those who argue that São Brandão followed a similar to the Vikings: from the British Isles to Iceland, where they could have witnessed a volcanic eruption, then to Greenland and from there to North America.
Ilha das Ovelhas and Paraíso das Aves could correspond, respectively, to the Shetland Islands and the Faroe Islands. It is known that sheep have existed in Shetland since the Iron Age and that the Faroes are home to more than 300 species of birds.
In 2021, scientists, dating from the 5th or 6th centuries, who suggest human visits, probably from Celtic shepherds, before Viking settlement in the 9th century. It is plausible that there were already sheep on the islands when Brandão visited there.
The so-called Grape Island also has parallels in the Norse sagas: Leif Eriksson named an area of North America as Wine country there you will find wild grapes and fertile land.
Now the “sea of columns” can be interpreted as a crossing between icebergs, possibly in the Greenland area. And the arrival in a fertile land where “the sun did not set”, blocked by a large river, led some historians to suggest contact with the São Lourenço River.
Tim Severin’s recreation
In 1976, British explorer Tim Severin tried to recreate São Brandão’s journey. Built an 11 meter boatfollowing the Navigatio instructions and using wood and animal skins.
Severin left County Kerry and sailed for 13 months to Peckford Island in Newfoundland. He reconstructed a possible route: Ireland, the Scottish Islands, the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland and, finally, Canada. The crossing was tough: faced very rough seas and was close to capsizing.
Still, Tim Severin’s experience showed that the trip attributed to São Brandão it was at least technically possibleand added evidence to the idea that Christopher Columbus finally found a land that had already been discovered long before — and by several different explorers.
