Ancient American • Issue Number 54

Connecticut’s by5th Century

John Gallager
Church
I
n the stillness of Cockaponset State
Forest, southern Connecticut, near
the town of Guilford, masterfully
carved from solid rock, stands North
America’s oldest Christian church.
Recent epigraphic evidence found here
suggests that it is 1500 years old, and
linked to a voyage of Christian
Byzantine monks who fled from North
Africa during the 5th Century, in the
wake of the Vandal invasions. Greek and
North African inscriptions, Greek
cupule patterns in the form of Chrismons
(monograms of Christ), baptismal fonts,
a cathedra or throne, candelabras and an
altar have been found at the site.
These items indicate that it was
“Main Altar” with Greek Doric style plinth. to the left is fish-shaped cupule (holes)
a place of worship, an Early Christian
pattern. Both hold candles for ceremonies. Photos courtesy of the author.
Church. The artifacts are illuminated by
Libyan Arabic texts found at Figuig
(Hadj-Mimoum), a remote oasis in east-
ern Morocco, in 1926. They tell of a voy-
age undertaken by North African
Christian monks sailing “toward the set-
ting sun,” to “Asq-Shamal,” the
“Northern Land,” suggestive of North
America. A diffusionist scholar,
Frederick J. Pohl, who studied the
Figuig inscriptions during the 1960s,
placed the monks arrival in North
America at about 480 AD.
About 40 years ago, he was told
of some strange carvings on stone in the
Connecticut woods, and obtained the
services of a local a physician as a guide Flame-shaped Baptismal Font representing the Holy Spirit. Here the elderly were
to their location. As the author of several baptized by pouring water over their heads.
books describing Norse voyages to
America, Pohl anticipated Viking origin by long hours investigating source mate- bishops operated across North Africa,
for the Connecticut inscriptions. Seeing rials in public and university libraries. mostly in Tunisia, where Christianity
them in person, however, he knew at Together with Pohl, I sought out the sank its roots in the Dark Continent at
once that they were not 10th Century opinions of other experts in pre- the ancient Phoenician port-city of
runic, but belonged to something entire- Columbian matters. Their insight com- Carthage. From the beginning, the new
ly different and much older. Seeking bined with diligent, independent faith was a tale of violence and heresy.
clues from the immediate environment, research to reveal the Guilford location Under Emperors Decius (249 to 250),
he noticed a nearby cove suitable as a as an Early Christian Church and Valerian (257 to 259) and Diocletian (245
land-fall for ships was visible from the Baptismal site of Byzantine Greek North to 313), many Christians everywhere
inscriptions. African origin. Epigraphic evidence iden- were arrested, tried and executed on
When I first met an older tified its construction or carving by charges of theological or political subver-
Frederick Pohl at his home in Brooklyn, Christian monks who voyaged to sion, because they characterized the
New York during 1976, he asked me to go Connecticut from North Africa in the deities of all other faiths as “devils” and
to the site, look it over and see what I mid-5th Century. called for the downfall of the Roman
could make of it. For two and a half years To understand the origins and rea- state.
thereafter, I regularly visited the site sons behind this 1600 year-old undertak- Meanwhile, fanatic followers of
gathering information, taking photo- ing, something about the history of the Manichaeism, Montanism, Pelagianism,
graphs and making drawings, followed Early Christian Church during this peri- and a dozen other, largely forgotten here-
od is needed. By 430 AD, more than 600 sies fought bitterly between themselves
1
 Ancient American • Issue Number 54
holes or cupules have been found. All are
in the form of Chrismons or monograms
of Christ and the Blessed Mother Mary.
Some are also acrostics in the shape of a
fish spelling out in abbreviated Greek
letters a theological statement about
Christ. An acrostic is a verse or arrange-
ment of words in which certain letters in
each line, such as the first or last, when
taken in order, spell out a word or motto.
The Guilford holes or cupules were used
for candle-like objects known as tapers.
The cupule pattern of holes drilled into
the rock face of an apparent altar spells
out the ancient Greek Christian ICX-
COYC, an acrostic for Iesous Christos
theos Yios Soter, or “Jesus Christ Son of
God Savior.”
Appropriately, it is in the shape
of a fish, an early Christian symbol for
“Jesus” and “baptism.” When
Christianity was an underground move-
ment in Rome, its followers recognized
“Overflowing Fountain” sculpture containing fishes. the fishes are the newly bap-
tized Christians swimming in the “waters of eternal life.” each other by each sketching one half of
a fish, connecting the two sides together
for control of Christianity. Among them 5th Century. Only after Roman Emperor to form a Chi-Rho, the first two letters in
was Arianism, after a late 4th Century Justinian sent his General Belisarius to Greek for Christ’s name (XP for XPIC-
Alexandrian priest who preached against conquer the Vandal army in 534 AD were TOC, or “Christ”). The likeness of a can-
the alleged divinity of Jesus. Arius non-Arians able to safely return to delabra has also been found at the
claimed that the Christian Holy Trinity North Africa. Connecticut site, carved into the right
was a descending Triad with only the Destruction wrought by the side of the large rock outcrop referred to
Father as the true God. Jesus was con- Vandals and the end of these “years of as the “altar.” It is adjacent to the fish
sidered the Son of God, but only through trouble” by the “trousered men”(Vandals) cupule pattern.
by grace and adoption, and was neither was vividly described in the Figuig The candelabra features 14
co-equal nor co-eternal with the Father. inscriptions by a monk who returned to holes which were used to hold candles or
Because they stressed the human nature his homeland after the Vandals defeat. tapers, with a seven-level plinth or base
of Christ, Arius and his followers were He also described the voyage of fellow below. The 14 holes incised into the hor-
condemned as heretics by the Councils of ascetics to North America: “In the name izontal surface of the altar niche spell
Nicea in 325 AD and fifty-six years later of the hermitage of the fraternity now out the Greek letters IC with a ligature
in Constantinople. dispersed abroad, by oath sworn to of Byzantine style above it. “Ligature”
Even so, Arianism spread to Christ the Lord, the testimony of an eye- refers to a written character containing
throughout the Germanic tribes of witness who has returned home by ship, two or more united or combined letters,
Northern Europe. Fleeing from other that has put into the seaport, now in his such as ae. IC are the first and last let-
barbarians, the Vandals crossed into homeland, a second time. Ended are the ters of the Greek word IHCOC, Iesous, or
North Africa during early the 5th centu- years of trouble by the trousered men.” “Jesus.” The Byzantine style ligature
ry, remaining there for over a century, The author wrote of destruction above these letters, also composed of
until 534 AD. Saint Basil and Saint by fire, looting, and the eventual escape holes, binds the two letters I and C
Augustine had introduced the cenobitic of the monastic community “toward the together to form the name of “Jesus.”
or “common life” form of monasticism setting sun,” to Asq-Shamal, or the The plinth or base of the candelabra is
into North Africa, the latter saint form- Northern Land, in several ships. “Across Doric Greek in style.
ing his rules for monks as early as 388 the void of waves,” guided by a “cross- Also found at the site is another
AD. Meanwhile, North Africa was ruled staff” by which to sight positions of the cupule pattern that spells out the Greek
by six Vandal monarchs, three of whom sun and presumably the stars, and using letters MP, the first and last letters of the
(Geiseric, Huneric and Thrasamund) calculations known only to their “helms- Greek word Meter or “mother,” here
vigorously persecuted their fellow man,” they crossed the Mid-Atlantic referring to the “Blessed Mother Mary.”
Christians in the Roman Catholic Ocean. After months at sea, they made These two forms can be seen in the for-
Church. Huneric sent many bishops in landfall in an unknown country, then mer Byzantine Cathedral of Sancta
an attempt to purge monasticism from “ventured into the wilderness.” Sophia in Constantinople, now an
North Africa. Geiseric drove many The inscription refers to a mosque. They were uncovered by archae-
monks from the deserts and mountains “North and West course from Morocco.” ologists presently engaged in their
of eastern Libya in the latter part of the At the southern Connecticut site, 96 restoration. The modern name of
2
 Ancient American • Issue Number 54
Constantinople is Istanbul, now part of
modern Turkey. Flanking the mosaic of
the Blessed Mother Mary and the mosa-
ic of Christ are the letters MP OY or
Meter theou, “Mother of God,” in Greek.
On the mosaic of Christ are the Greek
letters IC XC. In Byzantine Greek form
with a ligature above it, the translation
is Iesous Christos, or “Jesus Christ.”
These examples date from the 9th
Century, but the others can be seen in
Rome’s 5th Century Santa Maria
Maggiore, as well as from other churches
of the period.

F
ound also at the Connecticut site
are two extremely impressive bap-
tismal fonts; one rectangular, the
other in the shape of a flame, represent-
ing the Holy Spirit. The flame-shaped
baptismal font is carved into a large rock
outcrop which also contains the letters
FPBC, probably an abbreviated form for
the Latin words Fons Pro Baptisimus
Catechumen, or “Font for the Baptism of
Catechumens.”
Incised into the flame-shaped
baptismal font are nine holes for candles.
Eight holes, when containing lighted
candles at Easter, could have represent-
ed the eighth day after the Crucifixion,
the Resurrection, the beginning of the
New Era, also signifying a second (spiri-
tual) birth for baptized Christians. The
flame shape represents the Holy Spirit
received at Baptism. The ninth hole in
the middle of the font stands for the
Paschal candle, symbolic of Christ. Here
the elderly were baptized by effusion, or
the pouring of water over their heads.
The rectangular baptismal font
a short distance away was used for the
ablution of infants who were lowered
into its waters by a priest while baptiz-
ing them in the name of the Holy Trinity.
The three times they were lowered into
the font represented the three days
Jesus remained in the tomb before his
resurrection; the rectangular baptismal
font represented Christ’s tomb. A simi-
lar ceremony probably occurred at the
nearby cove, where adults were baptized
by being lowered into the waters three
times, in the name of the Father, the Another carving forms a rock seat or flowered from the stem of Jesse and
Son, and the Holy Spirit. throne in which the bishop or abbot sat David, the newly baptized Christians
A beautifully crafted symbolic while conducting a “confirmation” cere- were intended to bloom and flower into
carving representing overflowing water mony, presiding over the newly baptized holy Christianhood. Such imagery was
and fishes protruding from the waters Christians and the Baptismal ceremony suggested by an Old Testament passage
lies nearby. It is symbolic of the newly itself. Carved into one of the rocks is a announcing the arrival of Jesus from the
baptized Christians (who were known as four-petaled flower signifying the Christ house of Jesse and David: “He will flower
“little fishes”) emerging from the waters and the newly baptized Christians. from the rod (Nazareth) and the stem
of eternal life after being baptized. Like Jesus, believed to have (house) of David and Jesse.”
3
 Ancient American • Issue Number 54

Runestone Museum
Kensington Runestone is going to Sweden

T
he Runestone Museum of
Alexandria, Minnesota is
pleased to announce that the
Kensington Runestone traveled to
Stockholm, Sweden in fall to take
part in an exhibit of Swedish
Runestones. Invitation by directors
of the Statens Historiska Museum in
Stockholm, Sweden, was prompted
by their review of extensive new
research on the stone.
Richard Nielsen of Houston,
Texas, Scott Wolter of Chanhassen,
Minnesota, and Runestone Museum
Executive Director, LuAnn Patton
traveled with the Kensington artifact
to present their findings at a confer-
ence organized by the Statens
Historiska Museum on October 23rd.
The focus of the Swedes’ research was
on the geological aspects of the stone,
as well as various aspects of the writ-
ten language featured in the inscrip-
tion.
It is truly gratifying to realize
that the Kensington Runestone has
at long last become a serious object of
An inscription, carved in two based on linguistic affinities between the
study by Scandinavian scholars after
languages, has also been recovered from Greek spoken there and that represented
more than a century of official
ridicule and indifference. Found in the site. A scholar requesting anonymity in the Guilford text.
1898 by Swedish immigrant farmer, believes one is in Mic-Mac, an Indian Others who contributed to the
Olof Ohman and his son, Edward, for tongue of Nova Scotia, while the other is inscription, as the Figuig Decipherment
years thereafter the runestone was at Greek as was spoken in Cyrene, Libya. or inscription proves, were from
the center of an on-going controversy. In his translated interpretation of the Morocco. Since the Vandals’ powerful
A translation of its carved text inscription, the Lord is the eternal father navy controlled the western
reveals that Scandinavians arrived in of his children, mankind; the Redeemer Mediterranean, these and other early
Minnesota about seventy years has ascended into Heaven, and sits at Christian groups from North Africa must
before Columbus left Spain for the the right hand of the Father. A word have endured an arduous journey to the
New World. appearing in the text, Chrismon, or sea coast of Morocco, before attempting
High-tech research over the
ICYTH-XPICTOC (“Jesus, Son of God, to cross the Mid-Atlantic Ocean.
past three years renewed interest in
the question of its authenticity, how- the Messiah”) is an abbreviated form in Inscriptions, acrostics and symbolic carv-
ever. Scholars, researchers, and pro- accord with the Byzantine and North ings found at the Connecticut site are
fessionals from all over the world African Church of the Vandal period. evidence for the arrival of these

A
travel to Minnesota’s Runestone Roman Catholic priest of New Orthodox Christians from the persecu-
Museum to learn first-hand about York City, Father John O’Connor, tion of Arian Vandals in Lybia. Ruins of
this intriguing artifact. The has identified the Guilford the church they built confirm their land-
Kensington Runestone will remain in inscription as a paraphrase of the Epistle fall in America a thousand years before
Sweden until January, 2004. of Saint Paul to the Romans (Chapter 8, the official arrival of Christianity with
Meanwhile, its exact replica remains Verses 14-17 and also Verse 34). The Christopher Columbus in 1492. n
on display in Alexandria museum. writing style is 5th Century Greek, just
For further information, John Gallager is a historical detective. He
when the Vandals invaded North Africa,
please contact LuAnn Patton, has a B.A. in history from Fordham
where Lybian Cyrene was one of the old-
Executive Director of the Runestone University, New York City, NY. He is the
Museum and coordinator of the test- est Christian bishoprics. Some 100 miles former epigrapher consultant for the
ing team for further information; or more to the East, also in Libya, lay American Institute of Archaeological
Adrimachidae from which some of the Research in New Hampshire. He has writ-
telephone (320) 763-3160; e-mail
ten several articles on the early explo-
[email protected] Christians who made the Connecticut
rations into North America.
carvings are believed to have originated,
4