St. Brendan
484-577
Irish Missionary
Saint Brendan. (The Granger Collection, Ltd. Reproduced with permission.)One of the most puzzling figures from the history of medieval exploration was the Irish monk St. Brendan. Some claim that Brendan, who in about 522 sailed with a group of some 60 men for what he called the "Land of Promise," actually reached North America. Others have maintained that he at least visited the Canary Islands or Madeira, and still others hold that the entire story of Brendan's journey was a legend.
Known variously as St. Brendan of Ardfert and Clonfert, or as Brendan the Voyager, he was born near the present-day city of Tralee in Ireland's County Kerry. Educated under several clerics who like Brendan himself were destined for canonization or sainthood, he received his ordination as a priest in 512, and promptly began building monastic centers in a number of towns around Ireland.
About 10 years after his ordination, Brendan allegedly sailed westward or southward, depending on which of several written accounts—most were composed between the ninth and eleventh centuries—one consults. So extensive did this body of literature become, in fact, that writings about Brendan's voyage were known collectively as the Navigatio Brendani, or "The Voyage of St. Brendan."
Most versions of the Navigatio Brendani hold that Brendan and a group of other monks (estimates of the number range from 18 to 150) set out for an earthly paradise, and that after seven years' journey they finally found such a land, known as Terra repromissionis. Maps made in the fourteenth century identified this area with the "Fortunate Isles," the premodern name for the Canaries; or with Madeira. But as knowledge of those areas increased, the hypothesized destination of Brendan's voyage edged further westward. By the late sixteenth century, geographers were placing the "Land of Promise" to the west of Ireland, but by the early nineteenth century the entire story had been dismissed as a mere fabrication.
In later times, however, there arose a new theory concerning Brendan's voyage, one that placed his destination in America. Proponents of this idea have often tended to be motivated by something other than a pure desire for scientific knowledge—usually Irish nationalism and ethnic pride—yet a number of findings do at least make this an interesting position.
In 1976 and 1977, British navigational scholar Tim Severin and others undertook a voyage in a craft similar to the one Brendan would have used, and successfully traveled from theIrish coast to Newfoundland. There is also some basis for the claim that legends of the Norse colonies established by Leif Eriksson (c. 970-c. 1020) and others include some mention of an Irish colony, though it is not clear that this has any direct connection with Brendan himself. The same goes for Shawnee Indian legends regarding a white tribe with iron tools that inhabited Florida long before the Europeans arrived, as well as modern claims that medieval tablets inscribed in Ogham, the Old Irish alphabet, have been found in West Virginia.
Certainly it is likely Brendan undertook some sort of voyage; as to his exact destination, that remains a matter of conjecture. In any case, he lived nearly half a century after his return in about 529, during which time he founded a number of monasteries throughout the British Isles. He also traveled extensively in Wales, and visited the monastery on the island of Iona, an important center for the preservation of learning during the early years of the medieval period.
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