Columbus Day
Each October 12th we celebrate Columbus Day which commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World on October 12th, 1492. The history of Columbus is frustratingly incomplete, but we do know that he was a seaman of humble and obscure origins who pursued a dream that became his obsession.Best evidence indicates he was born in or near Genoa inItaly around 1451 to a respectable family. At an early age he began his career as a sailor which is not surprising, as the Genoese were most enterprising and daring sea farers. While quite young he became athorough and practical navigator, and later acquired a good knowledge of astronomy.
About 1471 he found his way to Portugal where exploration of the sea was a dynamic of the age. He married Doña FelipaPerestella e Moniz and they had a son Diego. While in Portugal he gained a knowledge of the Atlantic in voyages to the Madeiras, England, Ireland, and at least once down the African coast. In these years, presumably with the help of his brother Bartholomew,he conceived of his bold economic and religious plan to search for a new route to the Far East by sailing westward to the Indies. Columbus grew up at a time of the rising scourge of Islamic expansion, perilous times for Christendom, and the blockage of trade routes to the spices of the Far East. All factors to nourish the dreams of an ambitious young man with nautical experience. He tried in vain to obtain the support of the King of Portugal John II, but his plan was rejected.
After his wife died, Columbus and his son Diego left for Spain, again seeking royal backing. And even though he managed to make friends with influential bishops and priests and members of the royal court, King Ferdinand was then preparing to deal the final blow to Moorish domination in Spain after a struggle of seven centuries and his financial resources were taxed to the utmost.Columbus would spend at least eight years entreating the courts and defending his plans before royal commissions. During that time he fell in love with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana of Cordoba who bore their son Ferdinand who would become his father’s devoted biographer. Later he would describe his father as a well-built man of more than average stature who had a complexion tending to bright red, an aquiline nose and blond hair that after the age of 30 had all turned white.
Only after the fall of Granada in January of 1492, which ended Moorish presence in Spain, did Ferdinand and Isabella relent and agreements were made, influenced by the king’s financial advisor and members of the clergy. The squadron with which Columbus set out on his first voyage consisted of the Santa Maria, completely decked, which carried the flag of Columbus as Admiral, the Pinta, and the Niña, both caravels. The three ships carried altogether 120 men who with Columbus and officers received the sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist as they readied to depart on August 3, 1492 into uncharted waters to the west.
In all Columbus made four voyages. He did cross the uncharted Atlantic, no mean feat. He did find new lands and people, and he returned to tell of it so that others could follow. He was unquestionably a man of genius. He was a bold, skillful navigator, better acquainted with the principles of cosmography and astronomy than any sailing master of his time, a man of original ideas, fertile in his plans and persistent in carrying them into execution. His success in overcoming obstacles to his expeditions and surmounting the difficulties of his voyages reveal him as a man of unusual resources and of unflinching determination. He was also deeply religious. Whatever influence scientific theories and the ambition for fame and wealth mayhave had over him, in advocating his enterprises he never failed to insist on the Catholic conversion of the peoplesin lands that he would discover as one of the primary objects of his undertaking.
It was his fate to be an agent of a transcendental discovery and, as a result, to be tossed into the tempestuous sea of history, drifting half-forgotten at first, then swept by swift currents to a towering crest of honor and legend, only to be caught in recent times in a riptide of conflicting views of his life and his consequential responsibility for almost everything that has happened since. For a good part of our nation’s history, Columbushas continued to epitomize the explorer and discoverer, a person of vision and audacity, one who overcame opposition and adversity to change history. In this newly founded nation of the United States,millions of immigrants took pride in the spirit of exploration and discovery. Our Order of the Knights of Columbus started outin the same spirit with hopes and aspirations to be good citizens of faith and to create a more just society, modeling themselves on a person of sublime vision.
As we commemorate our Order’s namesake this month, let the vision of Fr. McGivney and the very first Council members be reaffirmed in our own council’s goals to become better Catholics and better citizens. Let’s invite all Catholics of good faith to join us on yet another voyage, one of growing faith and still even to this day to create a more just society.
Vivat Jesus! Viva Cristo Rey!