In his historical account of Minnesota’s Diocese of St. Paul written in 1952, Father James Reardon wrote that the Kensington Rune Stone inscription told the story of “a lost colony of Vikings whose visit conferred baptism on the state by the shedding of Catholic blood.” Chapter four of Myths of the Rune Stone: Viking Martyrs and the Birthplace of America tells the fascinating story of  how Catholics came to embrace the Scandinavian artifact as their own.

Read my September 2015 blog article on the topic at the University of Minnesota Press website: http://www.uminnpressblog.com/2015/09/the-kensington-rune-stone-legend-and.html