by Jane S. Elliot
 

One of the famous lines written by the songwriter Ira Gershwin is "They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round." You can call that poetic license for a musical comedy, but it's important to know that that line is a lie, and it's unfortunate that it appears in many school textbooks. Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries knew very well that the earth was round. Medieval science had been built on the precise studies of Greek scholars, and every educated person of Columbus's time knew that the earth is round. Not only had the ancient Greeks discovered that the earth is round, but the philosopher Eratostenes accurately calculated the earth's circumference in the third century before Christ. Medieval scholars debated such details as the earth's size and how big are the oceans, but no serious scholar believed the earth to be flat. The great medieval religious scholars, such as the Venerable Bede, Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas, added to the Greeks' knowledge with their own calculations.

The myth that people of the 15th century believed that the earth was flat was popularized by 19th century atheists in order to use science in their war against religion. What better way to discredit religion than to attribute an obviously false idea to religious people! This myth can be traced directly to two very influential 19th century books: History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science by John William Draper (a physician) published in 1874 and History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom by Andrew Dickson White (the first president of Cornell University) published in 1896. Both men used the flat-earth myth to help spread their arguments against religion. These books started the false and dangerous ideology that there is a war between science and religion, and that science is the only source of truth. The flat-earth myth did not appear in schoolbooks before 1870, but nearly all textbooks included it after 1880.

The attempt to make Columbus into a hero of the battle between science and religion is particularly ridiculous. Columbus was a deeply committed Christian whose own writings prove that his desire to carry the message of Jesus Christ to faraway lands was the primary motivation of his historic voyage to the New World.

Phyllis Schlafly Radio Script, October 9, 2000

The Mission and Faith of Christopher Columbus

It was early in the morning on this day in 1492 that Columbus stepped from his command post on the Santa Maria into a tiny boat. A few yards from the shore, he plunged into the shallow water and went ashore on a tiny island of the Bahamian archipelago and wept tears of joy. He lifted his head toward Heaven and cried out in thanksgiving to God in the words of the traditional dawn-watch canticle: "Blessed be the light of day, and the Holy Cross we say; and the Lord of Verity, and the Holy Trinity. Blessed be the light of day, and He who sends the dark away."

Columbus was one of the greatest seamen in the history of the world. Any competent sailor could have reached America by sailing west long enough, but it's unlikely that any others could have found their way back to Spain or could have returned to the same island on later voyages.

Columbus had great moral and physical courage. Again and again he faced mutinous sailors, armed rebels, frightful storms, and fighting Indians.

Christopher Columbus had a mystic belief that God intended him to sail the Atlantic Ocean in order to spread Christianity. He said his prayers several times daily. Columbus wrote what he called a Book of Prophecies, which is a compilation of passages Columbus selected from the Bible which he believed were pertinent to his mission of discovery. What a person believes is what determines his interpretation of life and history and inspires his vision and purpose in life. Columbus's own writings prove that he believed that God revealed His plan for the world in the Bible, the infallible Word of God. Columbus believed that he was obeying the mission God staked out for his life when he set sail west across the Atlantic Ocean.

Columbus's voyage to America ranks among history's most important events. It led to lasting contacts between Europe and America, and it opened new windows. To few men in modern history does the world as we know it owe so great a debt as to Christopher Columbus.

Phyllis Schlafly Radio Script, October 14, 2002

The Myth about Christopher Columbus

One of the famous lines written by the songwriter Ira Gershwin is "They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round." You can call that poetic license for a musical comedy, but it's important to know that that line is a lie, and it's unfortunate that it appears in many school textbooks. Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries knew very well that the earth was round. Medieval science had been built on the precise studies of Greek scholars, and every educated person of Columbus's time knew that the earth is round. Not only had the ancient Greeks discovered that the earth is round, but the philosopher Eratostenes accurately calculated the earth's circumference in the third century before Christ. Medieval scholars debated such details as the earth's size and how big are the oceans, but no serious scholar believed the earth to be flat. The great medieval religious scholars, such as the Venerable Bede, Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas, added to the Greeks' knowledge with their own calculations.

The myth that people of the 15th century believed that the earth was flat was popularized by 19th century atheists in order to use science in their war against religion. What better way to discredit religion than to attribute an obviously false idea to religious people! This myth can be traced directly to two very influential 19th century books: History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science by John William Draper (a physician) published in 1874 and History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom by Andrew Dickson White (the first president of Cornell University) published in 1896. Both men used the flat-earth myth to help spread their arguments against religion. These books started the false and dangerous ideology that there is a war between science and religion, and that science is the only source of truth. The flat-earth myth did not appear in schoolbooks before 1870, but nearly all textbooks included it after 1880.

The attempt to make Columbus into a hero of the battle between science and religion is particularly ridiculous. Columbus was a deeply committed Christian whose own writings prove that his desire to carry the message of Jesus Christ to faraway lands was the primary motivation of his historic voyage to the New World.

Phyllis Schlafly Radio Script, October 9, 2000

Columbus, the Christ-bearer: Did you Know?

Did you know that Christopher Columbus was a devout Catholic who believed that God guided him to make his voyage?
Did you know that Columbus always saw Divine Providence as his daily guide, and to him coincidences became messages from God?

Did you know that Christopher means "Christ-bearer" and Columbus means "male dove" (the symbol of the Holy Spirit), and that Columbus was convinced that his name predestined him to be a bearer of Christ to the world like his patron saint? Like St. Christopher who carried the Christ Child across the water, Christopher Columbus would bring Christ across the ocean to the new world.

Did you know that Columbus' son Ferdinand noted that his father was extremely strict in prayer and fasting and so devout that Columbus could be mistaken for a member of a religious order?

Did you know that Columbus set sail on August 2nd, feast of Our Lady of the Angels?
Did you know that when October approached, Columbus wrote that if he did not see land by the Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, he would turn around and go back to Spain?

Did you know that it was the custom for the sailors on the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria (the flagship named after Holy Mary) to sing the Salve Regina, a hymn in honor of the Blessed Mother every night at about 7:00 o'clock after reciting their prayers together?

Did you know that Columbus prayed privately in his cabin, but on the night of October 11, 1492, the Admiral decided to sing the Salve Regina with his crew, and at 2:00 A.M. that very morning of October 12, Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar, and Beloved Patroness of Ferdinand and Isabella's Spain, land was discovered in the Bahamas?

Do you see that as St. James the Apostle brought Christianity to Spain (and to whom Our Lady of the Pillar appeared), Christopher Columbus brought Christianity to the New World?

Did you know that later that morning Columbus went on shore and claimed the land he had found for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, and name the small island San Salvador (which means "Holy Savior") in honor of the Savior of the World?

Did you know that the full name of Columbus's ship was the Santa Maria de la Imaculada Concepcion (Holy Mary of the Immaculate Conception) and that the American bishops would later place our country under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception?

Did you know that on Christmas Day, 1492, Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria, sank on a sandbar off Santa Domingo (which means "Holy Lord"), and from the very timbers of the Santa Maria, the sailors built the first settlement in the New World known as La Navidad (Spanish for "Christmas")?

Did you know that on May 20, 1506, vigil of the Ascension, Columbus uttered his last words, which echoed Christ's on the cross: "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit."?

Do you know that there are no coincidences with God?

Christopher Columbus, The Catholic

by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

Talk 2

(Presented 4-24-92 at St. John Vianney in Northlake, Illinois)

Hundreds of biographies of Christopher Columbus have been written in the last five centuries. They range from the poetic to the highly critical. As a result, it is not always easy to identify the real Columbus from the person who is responsible for discovering the New World.

Our purpose here is not to sift through this library of Columbus biographies. It is simply to show that Columbus was not only a good man. He was extraordinary. He was the instrument of extraordinary grace. This, then, is our focus in this chapter. It is to see how God used a very human, human being, whose faith enabled him to achieve what most writers on Columbus do not recognize. It is one thing to say that Columbus discovered America. It is something else to realize that he opened the door to the most phenomenal spread of Christianity since the time of St. Paul.

There are those who say that Christopher Columbus died a saint. Certainly the sufferings he experienced, especially from those to whom he was most devoted, chastened his heart and brought him close to God before he entered eternity. One thing we can say: his phenomenal career on earth was a heroic response to a sublime vocation. He was the destined herald of the true faith to half of the human race.

Our plan for understanding "Christopher Columbus, the Catholic" is to follow a chronological sequence. Given our necessary limitations, we shall highlight those aspects of his life that reveal what may be called the "mystic" behind the trained explorer.

Zealous Faith in Christ's Divinity
The exact date of Columbus' birth is unknown. Fourteen-thirty-six is one of the probable dates. What is more important is the fact of his baptism in the Dominican Church of St. Stephen in Genoa. All we know of his early life indicates that he was deeply pious. It is recorded of him that he assisted at daily Mass at a convent chapel where he first met his wife, Donna Philippa. What is more important, however than anything else is that Columbus came into the world at the end of more than seven centuries of Moslem domination of the Spanish people. As we have already seen, he crossed the Atlantic and found the New World within one year of the Catholic reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula.

English speaking people have only a vague idea of the struggle of the Spanish people to recover the Catholic freedom from Moslem oppression. Not coincidentally, in this quincentennial year of the discovery of America, the Catholic Bishops of Sudan issued a pastoral letter that could almost be called a commentary on the Islamic-liberated Spain from which Columbus sailed in 1492. The Sudanese hierarchy protest against the militant persecution of Catholics in their country. Islamic studies are mandatory for all students advancing to higher education. There is active discrimination against Catholics. Moslem propaganda against the Catholic Church is woven into all academic programs. The avowed purpose is to eradicate Christianity from the country. In fact, no less then twenty-four African nations have bound themselves behind the Koran to de-christianize the whole continent.

As we read these facts, we are not surprised that the same country, in the same century, should have produced two men whose lives were shaped by centuries of defense of the Catholic faith against Moslem oppression of Christianity. St. Ignatius Loyola was a born Spaniard. Christopher Columbus was a Spaniard by adoption. Both men had the vision of extending the kingdom of Christ by a spiritual militancy that seems strange to a modern unbelieving mind. The key to understanding the faith of Christopher Columbus is the Moslem denial of Christ's divinity as the Cardinal mystery of Christianity.

Woven into the Koran as a theological theme, and has since become the cornerstone of Islam, is the dogma that God could not have had a son and therefore that Jesus could not be one with Allah. "Jesus in Allah's eyes is in the same position as Adam," wrote Mohammed. "He created him of dust and then said to him, `Be,' and he is." This was revealed by Gabriel and "whosoever disputes with you concerning Him (Jesus), we will summon our sons and your sons and our women and your women and we will humbly and solemnly invoke the curse of Allah upon those who lie." In one eloquent passage, Mohammed consigns all Trinitarian Christians to eternal doom.

They surely disbelieve who say, "Behold, Allah is the Messiah, Son of Mary." The Messiah himself said, "Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your God." Whoever ascribes partners unto Allah, for him Allah has forbidden paradise. This abode is the fire. For evildoers there will be no relief. They surely disbelieve who say, "Behold Allah is the third of three," when there is no god save the one God. If they desist not from so saying, a painful doom will fall on those who disbelieve. The Messiah, Son of Mary, was no other than a messenger. Many were the messengers that passed away before him. See how God makes His signs clear to them (Christians); yet see how they are deluded away from the truth.

No Moslem who professes to accept the Koran questions these judgments about Jesus and His followers. Christ is for him only a great teacher and the precursor of Mohammed.

If there is one thing that stands out in the extensive writings of Christopher Columbus it is the divinity of Christ. Phrases like "our Lord Jesus Christ," and Christ "the Lord," recur in a way that leaves no doubt who Jesus Christ was in the faith of Christopher Columbus. He speaks of "Christ, who is the Son of God by nature." He quotes from St. Paul of "Christ Jesus before the beginning of time" (2 Timothy 1:9-10). He sees himself as contributing to the extension of Christ's kingdom when, "All the kings of the earth will bow down before Him, and all peoples will serve Him" (Psalm 72:11).

It is no wonder then, that Columbus wants to share his faith with others. He believed that there is nothing more important than to proclaim faith in Christ to all the nations. Jesus Christ, Columbus declared, is the One "Whom we recognize as the true God Who was to be worshiped, not only among the people of Israel, but among all peoples, in such a way that all their false gods must be cast from their temples and from the hearts of their worshippers (Christopher Columbus, Book of Prophecies, Folio 22).

Against this background, there is only one logical conclusion. The underlying motive of Columbus' historic voyage was the conversion of those who did not know Christ as the living Son of God Who became the Son of Mary. His favorite prayer, said in Latin, was Jesu cum Maria sit nobis in via, which means "may Jesus with Mary be with us on the way." For Columbus this way meant both the voyage through time into eternity and the voyage in time to bring Mary's faith in her divine Son to a still unbelieving world.