Saint Brendan’s Isle, also spelt St Brendan’s Isle, is a phantom island, or mythical island, supposedly situated in the North Atlantic somewhere west of Northern Africa. It is named after the Saint Brendan who founded the Clonfert monastery and monastic school. It is said to have been discovered by the saint and his followers while they were traveling across the ocean, evangelizing to islands. It appeared on numerous maps in Christopher Columbus' time. It is referred to as La isla de San Borondón or isla de Samborombón in Spanish.
It also sparked some controversy because the claim is that Saint Brendan and his brethren made a seven-year voyage to the Americas and back (one version has five years in a leather boat and a second voyage of two years in a wooden boat) in the 6th century (around 530 A.D.). The first mention of the island was in the ninth-century Latin text Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abatis (Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot), placing the island into Irish and European folklore.
In 1976, explorer Tim Severin undertook Saint Brendan’s supposed voyage, using a leather currach, to see if the voyage was possible. His expedition did manage to arrive at Newfoundland following the records of the Latin text, confirming that it was possible to have made a one-way voyage lasting just over a year.
Famous quotes containing the words saint and/or island:
“And Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)
“I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)