AGAIN Magazine Mentions First Western Rite Liturgy in North America?

The newest issue of AGAIN Magazine includes an interview with Orthodox journalist and professor Terry Mattingly. Discussing the ancient faith of the West, he notes:

My own personal patron saint is St. Brendan of Ireland, and if you look at our wall behind the chanter's stand at the saints of America, you will find an icon of Brendan as well as the others because of the historical stories of his sea travels. There is archaeological evidence that if he didn't make it to the shores of America, his disciples certainly did. There are things written in the ancient Celtic writing called Ogham on rocks at sites in New England. . . There are rocks along Brendan's Trail in Ireland that have been carved with this same writing.

So, as radical as it may sound to some people, that would mean that the first Divine Liturgy on American shores would have been Western Rite.

If St. Brendan or his companions did not reach North America, as I've written elsewhere, there may have been other Western Rite Orthodox on these shores in the distant past. But "TMatt" presents more fodder for our Western Orthodox history, including the celebration of the Mass, in this continent.

(Hat tip: Virtue Online)