What could possibly be North America's oldest church, may be beneath a small town in Newfoundland. If this is true, then this is the remains of the only medieval church in North America.
The story is that an Italian friar, Fra Giovanni, who was a sailing companion of the famed explorer, John Cabot, built this church during their second trip to North America in 1498. This according to the late Alwyn Ruddock's notes. Rudduck was a historian for the University of London.
Ruddock was one of the foremost experts on Cabot's voyages until her death in 2005. Upon her death, 40 years of documentation "was destroyed when she passed away, including 40 years' worth of work for a book about the many mysteries surrounding Cabot's maligned 1498 expedition." What remains are emails and a book proposal she had sent to her publisher, allowing him to publish his findings in the journal Historical Research.
It is believed that the church was named after "San Giovanni a Carbonara".
This is a piece that's worth watching in the years ahead, for those that are science, history and religious buffs. I guess I never thought about North America having a medieval anything!