A monk named St Brendan made many voyages to new lands in order to convert heathens to Christianity. In a ninth centry book called "The Voyage of St. Brendan," the monk made a voyage to an area that sounds an awful like Newfoundland. To date there is no hard evidence, just the book (wirtten 300 years after St. Brendan died). "In 1976, adventurer, writer, and historian Tim Severin," build a replica boat and managed to get from Ireland to Canada in it.