Interesting read: Did Phoenicians beat Christopher Columbus to the Americas by thousands of years? No real proof... intersting. Reminds me of James Bailey, aforementioned.
Posted on 10/13/2019 10:16:07 PM PDT by Salvation
Every Columbus Day is the same: Christopher Columbus is attacked. His statues are desecrated. Public monuments in his honor are threatened or removed. Every year, more states and cities change Columbus Day to “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” or “Native Americans’ Day.” And left-wing professors smear the once-revered hero who discovered America in 1492.
Should Columbus be vilified instead of honored? Was he really a villain? Should we believe these attacks on his good name and character?
This post will debunk the most common lies about Columbus.
Everyone in Columbus’s time knew the earth was a sphere. This fact was known since antiquity. Scholars disagreed about its size. Based on the known world, Columbus underestimated it by one fourth.
In the late nineteenth century, enemies of Christianity spread the lie that medieval men believed in a flat earth. They claimed that because people in Columbus’s time were religious, they were therefore crude and ignorant. These enemies wanted to discredit the Church by portraying it as the enemy of science. But Christopher Columbus, a deeply religious man, would be the first to disagree.
History tells us otherwise. War, slavery, cannibalism, and sexual immorality were all common practices among the Indians. As the Spanish would later find out, human sacrifice and infanticide were the norm among other Indians, like the Aztecs. The Aztecs slaughtered upwards of 20,000 in a single day sacrificing many of their enemies by removing their still-beating hearts.
On Columbus’s second voyage, he brought the first of many Catholic missionaries. These men tried to convert the Indians from their barbaric pagan practices. Many missionaries suffered martyrdom to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Slavery was widely practiced by the Indians when Columbus arrived. Reading Columbus’s log, it is clear he insisted on the fair treatment of the people he encountered. Upon his first meeting with the natives on San Salvador, Columbus concludes, “I recognized that they were people who would be better freed [from error] and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force.”
The mass importation and subjugation of Africans did not begin until long after Columbus’s death.
Genocide is defined as the deliberate systematic and widespread extermination of a national, racial, religious, or ethnic group.
Yes, many Indians died in the initial contact with Europeans. However, any talk of deliberate extermination on the part of Columbus is a lie. Columbus always treated the natives fairly, even when some of his contemporaries did not. Indian conquests among themselves had been going on long before the arrival of the Spanish. Columbus actually helped to establish the foundations for the fair treatment of the conquered.
The real culprit of so many deaths, however, is tied to the next lie.
Wait…weren’t people back then crude and ignorant? If they did not know if the world was round, how did they know how to spread disease? No one knew what a germ was until Louis Pasteur discovered them in 1870, over 350 years later. Columbus and his contemporaries could not have deliberately spread diseases they themselves did not understand.
This allegation was first made 200 years after Columbus’s death, and has been repeated ad nauseum. Columbus had jealous rivals who would have taken advantage of any sign of marital impropriety to defame him. On this point, however, his enemies are silent.
Columbus’s first wife died shortly after the birth of his first son, Diego, in 1477. After he moved to Spain, he married Beatriz de Arana in 1487. His son Fernando was born the following year. All evidence indicates Beatriz de Arana was Columbus’s lawfully wedded wife. Some of her relatives served aboard Columbus’ ships.
Columbus lived out the Catholic Church’s teaching on chastity in one’s state in life. In Columbus’ own language, sins of impurity would consign souls to eternal punishment.
Yes, the Vikings and others before him came and visited these lands. However, to discover means to uncover, or make known. The illiterate Vikings never wrote about or told others of their travels. Knowledge of cartography, navigation, and wind patterns in America did not exist until Columbus came and discovered. The Indians were ignorant of the extent of the lands they occupied and the world at large. Columbus deserves credit for establishing lasting contact between the continents.
On his third and fourth voyages, Columbus wrote about finding something new. He spent his last voyage trying to find a passage between North and South America. Though his name was not given to the continent, it’s a lie to claim he died thinking he had found Asia.
Only after Columbus opened the way did others have the courage to sail to the Americas. What Columbus did was risky. He spent years finding money for the voyage. Despite many obstacles, he never gave up.
He firmly believed it was his God-given mission to explore new lands and bring the light of the Gospel. His first prayer on reaching land was:
“O Lord, eternal and omnipotent God, Thou hast, by Thy holy word, created the heavens, the earth, and the sea; blessed and glorified be Thy name; praised be Thy majesty, who hast deigned that, by means of Thy unworthy servant, Thy sacred name should be acknowledged and made known in this new quarter of the world.”
Yes, Columbus sought gold and other valuables, but not for personal gain. After he founded La Navidad on the island of Hispaniola on December 25, 1492, he writes:
“I hope to God that when I come back here from Castile, I will find a barrel of gold, for which these people have traded, and that they will have found the gold mine, and the spices, and in such quantities that within three years the Sovereigns will prepare for and undertake the reconquest of the Holy Land. I have already petitioned Your Highnesses to see that all the profits of my enterprise should be spent on the conquest of Jerusalem, and Your Highnesses smiled and said that even without the expedition they had the inclination to do it.”
The Muslims were finally pushed out of Spain in 1492.
Columbus sailed for a much higher goal than wealth. His greatest unfulfilled desire was to reclaim Jerusalem and the Holy Land where Christ shed His most precious blood.
Historian George Grant concludes: “Christopher Columbus wasn’t sailing to find a New World, but to find a way to rescue the old.”
Columbus had considerable wealth as he approached death. On May 20, 1506, the Vigil of the Ascension, Columbus, a third-order Franciscan, lay on his deathbed in his apartment at Valladolid, surrounded by his fellow Franciscans and his sons. As the friars chanted Compline, his last words echoed those of Christ on the cross: In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum. Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.
Christopher Columbus is treated as a scapegoat. The real target is Christianity, which formed Western civilization. Christians and all men of good will should have no qualms about celebrating Columbus Day. We need to fight back, giving due honor to this great man who spread the Gospel and civilized a hemisphere.
In a letter after Columbus’ first voyage, he gives us the best reason to continue celebrating:
“Let Christ rejoice upon earth as he does in heaven, to witness the coming salvation of so many people, heretofore given over to perdition. Let us rejoice for the exaltation of our faith, as well as for the augmentation of our temporal prosperity, in which not only Spain but all Christendom shall participate.”
Bibliography:
Jeffrey Burton Russell: Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus And Modern Historians, Praeger Publishers, 1997.
José Maria Iraburu: Hechos de los Apóstoles de América. Gratis Date, 2003. https://docplayer.es/13211342-...
Lawrence Keeley: War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. Oxford University Press, 1996.
Ann Ramenofsky: Death by Disease. Archaeology, Mar/Apr 1992. https://web.archive.org/web/20...
Fr. John Hardon, SJ Christopher Columbus, The Catholic. 1992. http://www.therealpresence.org...
Clark Hinckley: Christopher Columbus: A Man Among the Gentiles. Deseret Book, 2014.
Pope Leo XIII: Quatuor Abeunte Saeculo (On Christopher Columbus). https://www.papalencyclicals.n...
Xavier Donald Macleod: History of the Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary in North America. p. 1-3. Virtue & Yorston, 1866.
Carol Delaney: Columbus’s Ultimate Goal: Jerusalem. https://www.amherst.edu/system...
George Grant: The Last Crusader: The Untold Story of Christopher Columbus, Crossway Books, 1992.
Roselly de Lorgues: The Life of Christopher Columbus: From Authentic Spanish and Italian Documents p. 541-543. Catholic Publication Society, 1870. https://archive.org/details/li...
Yes I did. Just felt like venting. Ok with you?
Columbus’ real and true secret purpose was to draw attention and focus it away from Oak Island while events were transpiring there.
You read it on the internet so it must be true.
Neener neener.
Happy Columbus Day!
Appreciate the history and references. But once again I apologize for dropping in here, it was a mistake. Something I learned a long time ago is to stay out of threads owned by the Church.
It would be a very safe assumption that this category revolves around predetermined variables in ideology and anything other will be treated as heresy. And being the “religion” category I normally stay out of these because of this predetermined biased ideology.
I accidentally entered the wrong room, because true free and open objectivity is never welcome. There is always a predetermined narrative to adhere to or you will indeed be stoned. It is your domain and I respect your domain, and I should not have engaged. I was linked to here and posted before I realized what category I was in.
I can't help adding that your "very safe assumption" that this forum "revolves around predetermined variables in ideology" is verifiably false.
Most of the squeaking, squawking and feather-ruffling amongst the denizens of the RF would cease if this were the Kingdom of Predetermined Variables. It would be both a lot more peaceful and a lot less engaging
But stay in your own cubbyhole if it suits you. Ciao!
“You can certainly decamp from the RF and never return”.
Really? If you question, do not submit, or absolutely agree to the ideology then go away to never return? This frame of mind is straight out of the dark ages. Hence the predetermined variables...
See... Now there is the exact non-objective biased radical extremism I try to avoid. A prime example of the religious stoning I mention... I didn’t say one thing about the FR in general as a whole, just that I choose to stay out of the “religion” category because of the extreme intolerance for anything that even hints of heresy.
Now you wish excommunicate me from the whole thing because I accidentally stepped into the wrong room? The religion category is NOT the whole thing and what gave you the self providence and self righteousness to imply this or demand this?
Great example of Christian tolerance, forgiveness, and compassion. Thank you for the very example I spoke of... It more than well proves my point.
Not that I agree with Mrs. Don-o much of the time, but when she wrote “You can certainly decamp from the RF and never return”, she mean the Religion Forum (RF), not Free Republic (FR) as a whole.
Absolutely my mistake... And I stand corrected and apologize to Mrs. Don-o for the misunderstanding and reading it wrong. Thank you for pointing this out. But either way the concept still stands. I tried to go back out the door of the wrong room and was drug back in with intentions to create an example of public stoning. Been there before with Mrs. Don-o...
Happy Columbus Day? Not in Fairfax, Virginia, where today’s national holiday is masked as “professional development.”
So, I guess it’s “Happy Professional Development Day, Assholes”
Great article, now my children will be in a better position to defend our Italian heritage. Though I still prefer the Sopranos approach.
"You may do as you like" is the new mark of the brazen intolerant bigot?
I throw up my hands. You appear confused in a manner that does not invite dialogue.
Report from the parade:
Fewer watchers and fewer floats than in previous years, as could have been predicted. The floats from Italy were mostly gone. Filled in by Italian-American organizations.
Three people studying their phones while marching. I’m sure there must have been others that I didn’t see.
Looked like Joe Borelli leading the parade with the cops. Our next mayor I deeply hope.
De Blasio much farther back leading the Sanitation Department. Some guy across the street from me yelling his head off at the mayor. Wish I could have understood what he was saying.
Very low attendance in the City Council contingent of marchers. Predictably. After all, Columbus was a slaveowner and a cannibal. Oh wait. Those were the people he came to save.
Terror cops showed up for Cuomo’s appearance. Not a lot of fanfare for him. But lots of loyal supporters carrying signs that said SIAMO CON CUOMO.
Great high school and police, fire etc. bands. Last one, Falun Dafa was also excellent.
Lots of hateful looks at me as I made my way home with my Italian flag.
The monument at Columbus Circle sealed off with gates and guarded by the cops.
And American continues to devolve.
Thank-you and God Bless.
Thank-you and God Bless.
Thankful that you at least had a parade.
Pass this article around, though!
Bookmark
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