Planting the Cross of Christ the King in the Americas: The Work of Columbus

Christopher Columbus landed on these shores five hundred thirty-one years ago today.

Our Lady herself put the Divine seal of approval on the work that had begun with Columbus's expedition of 1492, appearing to Juan Diego on December 9, 1531, at Tepeyac, Mexico, resulting in the rapid conversion of over nine million indigenous people to the true Faith following within ten years the conquest of the barbaric Aztec system of human sacrifice. Indeed, a thriving Catholic culture emerged in Central and South America within a very short period of time. Saints, both from abroad and those born in the Americas, emerged to propagate the true Faith.

William Thomas Walsh, writing in his epic book on Queen Isabella of Spain, wrote the following about the famed navigator who planted the Cross of the Divine Redeemer, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, on these shores on October 12, 1492. First and foremost in the minds of Columbus’s Spanish sponsors, Queen Isabella and her husband, King Ferdinand, was the conversion of heathen souls in the Indies to the true Faith.

Here is the first of several excerpts from William Thomas Walsh’s Isabella of Spain: The Last Crusader:

Who was Columbus and what did he want? His own accounts of himself at various times are conflicting, and do not wholly explain the mysteries of his origin and early life. He was a Lugurian, born in one of the little villages outside Genoa – probably about the year of Queen Isabel's birth, 1451, the son of a wool-comber, Domenico Colombo, and his wife Susanna Fontanarosa. Christopher seems to have been a weaver at Savona, his father's birthplace, until late in 1472. That year he made a voyage to Chios, and in 1476 he sailed as a merchantman from Genoa to England; but, his ship having been attacked at Saint Vincent and disabled, he took refuge at Lisbon. There he married Felipa Moniz Perestrello, and there, in 1480, his son Diego was born. After a voyage to Guinea, he received from his mother-in-law the papers of her husband, Perestrello, was moved thereby to become a maritime discoverer, and asked the aid of Dom Joao, King of Portugal. A committee of two bishops and two doctors – one “that Jew Joseph” whom Columbus bitterly blamed afterwards for the unfavorable report – advised against the project, and described Colombo as a visionary. Dom Joao, however retained an interest in him as late as 1488, when he invited him to return to Portugal, in a letter which has only increase the mystery of Columbus's early life by its hint of having run afoul of the law, either for debt or for some crime or misdemeanor. “And as you may have some fear of our justice, because of certain things that render you obligor,” wrote the King, “by these presents we guarantee that neither upon your arrival, nor during your sojourn, not at the time of your departure, shall you be arrested, held, accused, cited or prosecuted for any cause, be it civil or criminal of any nature whatsoever.” This throws but little light on why Columbus left Portugal, taking his little son Diego. The commonly accepted belief that his wife was then dead seems to be contradicted by what he wrote years later: “When I came from such a great distance to serve these Princes, I abandoned a wife and children, whom, for this cause I never saw again.”

Whatever his reason for leaving his family, he sailed for Spain; or he may have taken a ship for Huelva, where his brother-in-law lived, intending to go from there to France. A storm drove the caravel ashore at Palos. The Liguerian and his son asked for food and shelter at the Franciscan monastery of La Rabida. Fray Antonio Marchena, a monk skilled in astronomy and cosmography, heard him explain his project, and was immediately kindled with enthusiasm. So did Fray Juan Perez, prior of the monastery, who had at one time been Queen Isabela's confessor. The friars persuaded Columbus not to go to France, but to give Spain the opportunity to reap the glory of his discoveries. They suggested his appealing to the Duke of Medina Sidonia or the Dunk of Medina Celi, either one of whom could equip three vessels and never miss the money. The former rejected him; the latter sent him to the Court.

When the King and Queen returned to Cordoba, April 28, they heard nothing but favorable reports of the stranger who wanted to sail west to arrive at the east. It was probable early in May when they received him in the great hall of the Alcazar. They bade him explain his project, and while he was speaking in his rich strong voice, whose cadences became almost metrical as he warmed to his subject, they studied him. He was fairly tall and robust, with sandy hair turning gray, and a long freckled face that flushed as he spoke. His light gray eyes shone like those of a man with a vision. His nose, hooked like the beak of an eagle, suggested an acquisitive and domineering nature. Father Bernaldez, whose guest he was a few years later, called him “a man of very high talent, but without much learning, very skilled in the art of cosmography and of the proportioning of the world, who thought, from what he had read in Ptolomy, and from other books, and from his own ingenuity, that the world in which we are born and move about is fixed in the sphere of the skies, but doesn’t touch any part of the skies, nor does it join anything else of solidity, save land and water, embraced in sphericity within the dizzy vacuity of the heavens. And he thought that by going he would find much gold. And he thought that this world and firmament of earth and water was all traversable round about by earth and water, according to the reckoning of Sir John Mandeville; and whoever wished, if he had ships, could sail west, from the right of San Vicente, and return by Jerusalem and Rome and Seville.” It was gold that Columbus emphasized for the benefit of the King, who was always in need, but he probably looked at the Queen when he mentioned the uses that might be made of the gold – the crusade against the Moors, and perhaps even a crusade for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre; and then, there were the souls of the heathens of the Indies, who might be converted to Christianity.

The Queen liked Columbus from the start. There was enough poetry in her to perceive what could not have escaped Cardinal Mendoza; that the Italian was essentially a poet, a man of stupendous imagination; perhaps even a bit of a liar. His Eminence, who in his youth had translated the Odyssey and the Aeneid into Spanish, because his poet-father regretted being unable to read them, knew as well as anybody that there is more truth in the fancies of poets than in the catchpenny wisdom of the world. And of all persons the Queen was hardly the one to think little of any man for attempting the impossible.

Could Columbus by any chance, be of Jewish ancestry? He was sometimes called Colom; and in an auto de fe at Tarragona some people named Colom were made to wear sanbenitos on confessing that they secretly practiced Jewish rites. If he were, he would say nothing about it, naturally. What difference did it make whether he was or not? The Queen constantly had about her trusted Jews whose conversion to Christianity she felt to be sincere – in fact, she often found them the best Christians. Time would show whether this man's frequent expressions of faith in Christ were from the heart, or the lip service of a clever actor. Isabel was no fool, as those who tried to pass off counterfeit piety on her sometimes discovered. It might be significant that among those who recommended Columbus were several of the great Conversos – Santangel, Sanchez, Cabrero, de Deza. On the other hand, he had even more champions among the Old Christians of the Court. In fact, no one has ever unearthed any evidence that Columbus had Jewish blood. The theory had been deduced from characteristics supposed to be exclusively Jewish – as though they were not to be found in every race. Lacking proof, posterity must accept the man's own word – confirmed by evidence – that he was an Italian with Christian ancestors.

 As for his project, Isabel did not need to be convinced that the world was round, any more than Father Juan Perez did, or Luis de Santangel, or Cardinal Mendoza. It was a fact accepted by most persons of any education at all. Aristotle had argued from the shadow cast by the earth in lunar eclipses that it must be a sphere and Aristotle's opinion in the Imago Mundi of Cardinal Pierre d'Aully. Heraclitus, a pupil of Plato, discovered the rotation of the earth on its axis. Aristarchus, two and a half centuries before Christ, propounded the heliocentric theory, and was called a blasphemer for his pains by the Stoic Cleanthes, who wrote a tract demanding that he be silenced. Eratosthenes measure the angle of obliquity of the ecliptic within half a minute of one degree, and made a fairly correct estimate of the earth's circumference. Within Isabel's lifetime the learned Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, who became Pope Pius II, had written “Almost all agree that the shape of the earth is round.”

It was generally believed, however, that the earth was larger than it is. How wide the ocean was between Spain and the Cipango and Cathay described by Messer Marco Polo, whether that ocean could be safely crossed in a reasonable time, what storms, winds, whirlpools or other dangers were might be – those were the moot questions. But there were even more practical considerations. When ships were needed to blockade that Moors on the Mediterranean, and money was desperately required to pay troops and buy guns and munitions, it seemed unwise to spend perhaps 2,000,000 maravedis – $30,000 to $40,000 – on the project that was, after all, hypothetical. At any other time, Queen Isabel, following the sure intuition that had discerned the worth of the Marques of Cadiz and Gonsalvo de Cordoba, would have risked that much on Columbus. But she was a woman of single purpose.

The more calculating King could not have failed to see also the wisdom of deferring action until Columbus was well separated from his patron the Duke. Besides, he admitted frankly that he knew nothing of cosmography, and would like to hear the opinions of some experts. Columbus said the earth was only one-seventh water; how could he prove that? Fernando suggested referring the proposal to a learned commission. With the Queen's consent, he appointed her confessor, Fray Hernando de Talavera, President of the Junta; and Columbus was turned over to the good graces of that gentle theologian. (William Thomas Walsh, Isabella of Spain: The Last Crusader, published originally by Robert McBride and Company in 1930 and republished by TAN Books and Publishers in 1987, pp. 292-296.)

Mr. Walsh’s account demonstrates that, as per usual, the ancient enemies of Our Lord and His Holy Church, insinuated themselves into Columbus’s work, partly because they, facing expulsion from Spain, believed that they could found a “New Jerusalem” in a new world:

On the Thursday when the Jews were hurrying out of Spain, Don Christopher Columbus stood on a hillside near the harbor of Palos and watched the setting of the sun in a tranquil sky. Above him were vineyards heavy with grapes, and still higher, on a promontory, the low buildings of the monastery of Santa Maria La Rabida, looking out into the western ocean. Below him, in the harbor, were three small vessels, newly calked, ready for sea. The wind, which had been contrary, had shifted to the east, and blew steadily toward the Elysian fields, the land of Avilion, the isles of Saint Brenden, the palaces of Kubala, the earthly paradise of Sir John Mandeville, the land of heart's desire that Columbus had dreamed of these many years. The great moment was at hand, God had sent a good wind, and the next day was Friday, always a lucky one for Columbus and for Spain. Tomorrow!

The Admiral, armed with royal authority, had gone to Palos in the middle of May. He had had no end of trouble with his ships and his crews. Neither the ship owners nor the sailors of the town shared the fluent Italian's confidence in himself as a navigator, and all put so many obstacles in his way that the King and Queen were obliged to send a sharp reminder that he was their officer. The calkers did their work so badly that it had to be done over. Some of the ill will may be explained, perhaps, by the fact that the town resented having been sentenced, for some offense against the Crown, to furnish two of the vessels. But the Admiral had a most influential friend in the person of Fray Juan Perez. And it was probably through the kindly Franciscan that he won the support of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the most expert and popular sea captain in Palos.

It was not difficult to convert Martin Alonzo to the project, for he had been cherishing the same dream ever since he visited the Vatical library at Rome and conversed with the cosmographer of Pope Innocent VIII; if fact, he had even made copies of the Vatican maps of the western seas, with islands marked on them. According to the testimony of Pinzon's son in a later lawsuit, Columbus promised the captain half the profits if he would make up the balance of the money needed for the expedition, and persuade the sailors of Palos to enlist. It appears that the Crown of Castile contributed 1,000,000 maravedis, and that Columbus paid 167,542 maravedis, making the total cost of the expedition 1,167,542 maravedis, or, if we estimate the maravedi at two American cents of 1929, the sum of $23,350.84 Just how much of Columbus's share was paid by Pinzon, we do not know.

When the men of Palos learned that Martin Alonzo had agreed to go in command of the Pinta, with his brother Francisco as pilot, and that Vincente Yanez Pinzon would captain the Nina, ninety of them enlisted for the voyage. There were seamen from Palos, Huelva, Seville, Moguer, and other nearby places; and there was one Tallarte Lajes (Arthur Laws?) of England and on Guillermo Ires (William Harris?) of Galway, Ireland. There were also some converted Jews, including the ship's physician, Maestre Bernal, who had lately been penanced by the Inquisition.

The ships, contrary to the accepted legend, were good solid sailing vessels, well adapted for the voyage, as Columbus later admitted, but as small as safety would allow, by his own request, to perment them to enter shallow harbors and coast along strange shores. His flagship, the Maria Galante, which he renamed the Santa Maria in honor of the Blessed Virgin, was probably of 100 tons register, with a displacement of a little over 230 tons fully loaded. She was about 128 feet long, according to the computations of the experts who built her replica in Seville in 1928, and was 26 feet in the beam at the main-deck. She carried a crew of 52. the Pinta and Nina were smaller, perhaps of 50 tons each, with a crew of 18 a piece. All the ships had deck, with three masts and a square lateen sail, and mounted guns. They were provisioned for a year's voyage.

The Admiral carried with him a letter from King Fernando and Queen Isabel to the Great Khan of Prester John or whatever other oriental potentate he might encounter when he landed on the shores of Asia. It was written in Latin and read thus:

“Don Fernando and Dona Isabel, by the grace of God King and Queen of Castile, of Leon, of Toledo, of Galicia, of Aragon, of Valencia, etc., etc., . . .

To King ________:

We have heard that Your Highness and your subject entertain great love for us and for Spain. We are informed, moreover, that you and your subject very much wish to hear news from Spain. We therefore send our Admiral Christopher Columbus, who will tell you that we are in good health and perfect prosperity.

Yo, El Rey   Yo, la Reyna

Granada, April 30, 1492

Columbus's purpose as he prepared to set sail is clearly reflected in the introduction to the Journal of his first voyage. After speaking casually and without emotion of the expulsion of the Jews, he says:

“Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and Princes, loving the Holy Christian Faith and the spreading of it, and enemies of the sect of Mohammed and of all idolatries and heresies, decided to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the said regions of India, to see the said Princes and the people and lands, and learn of their disposition, and of everything, and the measures which could be taken for their conversion to our Holy Faith.

Columbus went not to find a new trade route, but as a missionary explorer; and his last acts before sailing were consistent with his lofty view of the enterprise. On that Thursday evening, August 2, he and his men confessed their sins to Fray Juan Perez in the little Church of La Rabida. Next morning early they received Holy Communion before they broke their fast, and placed themselves under the protection of God, Fray Juan blessed the ships, the ensigns of the Holy Cross and of the King and Queen were hoisted to the mastheads, and at eight o'clock after the women of Palos cried their last farewells to their men, Columbus weighed anchor at the bar of Saltes “in the name of the Most Holy Trinity” – it was with these words that he began all his undertakings – and put out to sea. A fair wind still blew from the east. The people on shore watched the square rigged Santa Maria and her two little consorts until they vanished where the sea melted into the sky.

A courier naturally carried the last messages of Columbus, and the news of his sailing, to Queen Isabel. He found her still at Cordoba, but living in seclusion and wearing the deepest mourning for Don Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, Marques-Duke of Cadiz, who had recently died at seville. He had been the outstanding hero of the Morish war, and in the eyes of the ladies of the court, he was greater than the Cid Ruy of immortal memory. Not only Fernando and Isabel, but the whole court went into mourning for him. By an odd coincidence, his reconciled enemy, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, followed him to the tomb within a week.

The chronicles of 1492 mention the sorrow of the sovereigns and the courtiers for Don Rodrigo, but say nothing of how Isabel received the news of the departure of the Jews on the second of August and the sailing of Columbus on the third. In fact nothing at all is said of the epoch-making event at Palos. Modern Jewish writers have endeavored to link the two happening together, and to find a compensation for the exodus in the discovery of a New World where perhaps might be found at last the New Jerusalem, the Promised Land. Dr. Meyer Kayserling devoted considerable space to the theory that the American Indians might have been the lost tribes of Israel. Isabel, too, undoubtedly linked together the exodus and the discovery – for they were repeatedly mentioned as among achievements of her reign – but from quite another point of view.

To Isabel it seemed most significant that in the single year of 1492, three events contributed to the glory of Spain and of the Christian religion; first, the conquest that ended al fear of Mohammedan dominion; second, the final delivery of the new nation from all danger of exploitation by internal enemies of the Christian Faith; and finally, the opportunity to carry the gospel of Christ to millions of benighted souls across the seas. In all this the Queen saw a manifestation of the divine will.  (William Thomas Walsh, Isabella of Spain: The Last Crusader, published originally by Robert McBride and Company in 1930 and republished by TAN Books and Publishers in 1987, pp. 373-376.)

It is not for nothing, of course, that efforts to “beatify” Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand during the long antipapal reign of Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II were stopped dead in their tracks by Talmudists, who are, of course, in the vanguard of seeking to eradicate the work of Columbus from the history books as they support the tearing down of statues bearing his likeness. Columbus may have brought the first Jews over to the New World, but he also brought the Cross of the Divine Redeemer, and it is for this that he, a very flawed and proud man, is hated especially in these times of “political correctness.”

William Thomas Walsh provided an account of Columbus’s landing on the island of San Salvador on this very date five hundred twenty-five years ago:

On the sixth of October Pinzon urged Columbus to alter the course from west to southwest, where he thought there would be islands. Columbus, who appears to have found Pinzon very irritating, refused, But on the next day he shifted that the course from W. to W.S.W , giving as his reason that the birds were flying towards the southwest, and that “the Portuguese had discovered most of the islands they possessed by attending to the flight of birds.” If Columbus had continued to follow the inner voice of his own genius instead of Martin Alonzo and the birds, he would have landed on the North American continent in a few days. As it was, he discovered land on the fourth day.

In his journal he says nothing of any “mutiny” or threat to mutiny by his crew. The story of the mutiny, like that of the dying sailor whose secret Columbus was supposed by certain historians to have appropriated, must be dismissed as a later fabrication. Years after Columbus's death, a sailor Francisco Vallejo, a relative of Pinzon, declared that Pinzon  had to quiet a disturbance in Columbus's crew, and to persuade the Admiral to continue. But as Harrisse observes, the “inane” story was told “a half centruy after the alleged event, by an individual in the employ of the Pinzons and their blood relation, repeating, on his own authority, what these last had taught him to say in the course of a lawsuit that they lost before the Council of the Indies.”

On the evening of the eleventh the Admiral saw a moving light ahead. The three crews chanted the Salve Regina with unusual fervor; and the next morning they landed on an island which Columbus called San Salvador, “Holy Savior.” It was on a Friday, always a lucky day in the Admiral's life and in Spanish history.

It was not certain which of the islands of the Lucaya Archipelago is the San Salvador of Columbus. It may have been Watling Island. It may have been Grand Turk, or “Turk's Island, which corresponds to Columbus's description of San Salvador as “flat, without any lofty eminence, surrounded by a reef of rocks, and with a lake in the center.”

Naked savages gazed with wonder and delight as the “celestial men” landed. Columbus bore the royal standard and each of the Pinzons carried a banner of the Green Cross, containing the initials of the names of the King and Queen each side of the cross, and over each letter a crown. The Indians swam out to the ships.

“As I saw that they were very friendly to us,” wrote the Admiral in his journal, “and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force, I presented them with some red caps and strings of beads to wear upon the neck, and many other trifles of small value, wherewith they were much delighted . . . Bu they seemed on the whole to me to be a very poor people. They all go completely naked, even the women, thought I saw but one girl. All whom I saw were young, not above thirty years of age, well made, with fine shapes and faces; their hair short and coarse like that of a horse's tail, combed toward the forehead, except a small portion which they suffer to hang down behind, and never cut. Some paint themselves with black . . . some white, others with red.” (William Thomas Walsh, Isabella of Spain: The Last Crusader, published originally by Robert McBride and Company in 1930 and republished by TAN Books and Publishers in 1987, p. 406.)

Columbus discovered the mainland of South America on his third voyage to the New World, which was undertaken in 1498 and ended with his imprisonment:

It was during this voyage, however, that the Admiral discovered Trinidad. And on the following day, August 1, 1498, he saw the American continent from his deck, and, according to Las Casas, named it Isla Santa, thinking it, naturally, to be another island. Thus to Columbus belongs the glory of having been the first European to look upon the mainland of the western world, even if he had died in ignorance of the fact. His crew went ashore, but he himself was prevented by illness from doing so. On Friday August 3, Columbus discovered the point of Paria (Venezuela) where he called Gracia, believing it to be another island. Vespucci's letter to King Rene of Sicily claiming to have discovered the continent in 1497 was a fabrication which he never dared to publish in Spain. It was the opinion of Las Casas that the New World ought to be called Columbus, Colombo, or by the names he gave the continent – Santa (Holy) or Gracia (Grace).

When at last he arrived in Hispaniola at the end of August, the Admiral found himself much hated because of the stern rule of his brother and adelantado, Bartholemew, whom he had left in command during his absence. A revolutionary party was formed among the colonists under the leadership of Francisco Roldan, a bold and able but turbulent man, with the intent of ousting the whole Columbus family. The island was soon divided into two armed campls. Both Columbus and Roldan wrote the King and Queen, each blaming the other and exculpating himself. Fernando and Isabel decided to send an impartial investigator to settle the dispute. They commissioned Francisco de Bobadilla, a cavalier who had won their confidence as commander of a wing of the army at the siege of Malaga, to proceed to Hispaniola, and place under arrest any disturbers of the peace. It is likely that they had in mind the rebels against the authority of Columbus.

When Bobadilla arrived, the Admiral, after a long period of lenient parleying with the rebels, had finally had a young Spanish nobleman hanged. Bobadilla concluded that the Admiral's incapacity as an administrator was the cause of the trouble; he arrested him, had him taken aboard ship in chains, and sent him to Spain. When the ship's captain offered to take off the chains, Columbus insisted on wearing them, and thus in November, 1500, he landed in Cadiz, crippled by gout, white haired, painfully aged by exposure and suffering. But under all circumstances, right or wrong, sick or well, rich or poor, he preserved a certain sublimity of bearing and a grandeur of phrase that leave him always, despite all that has been and can be said against him, the great figure, the heroic man. If Columbus had been a thief, he would have taken purses with a lordly air; if he had been a beggar, he would have held out his hand with the gesture of an emperor.

On shipboard he wrote to Dona Juana de la Torre, who had been Prince Juan's nurse, a letter evidently intended to be passed on to Her Majesty:

“Most virtuous lady: Although it is a novelty for me to complain of the ill usage of the world, it is, nevertheless, no novelty for the world to practise ill usage. Innumerable are the contests which I have had with it, and I have resisted all its attacks until now, when I find that neither strength not prudence is of any avail to me; it has cruelly reduced me to the lowest ebb. Hope in Him who created us all is my support: His assistance I have always found near at hand. On one occasion, not long since, when I was extremely depressed, He raised me with His divine arm, saying: 'O man of little faith, arise it is I, be not afraid' I offered myself with such earnest devotion to the service of these princes, and I have served them with a fidelity hitherto unequalled and unheard of. God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth, of which He spoke in the Apocalypse by Saint John, after having spoken of it by the mouth of Isaias; and He showed me the spot where to find it.”

The reference to “the new heaven and the new earth” was a felicitous accident considering that Columbus still thought he had been to Asia. In the same letter he repeated his promises of fabulous wealth. “Already the road is opened to the gold and pearls and it may surely be hoped that precious stones, spices and a thousand other things, will also be found. Would to God that it were as certain that I should suffer no greater wrongs than I have already experienced, as it is that I would, in the name of Our Lord, again undertake my first voyage.”

He never doubts that his name will be cleared of the charges against him and, as he defends himself, sorrow wrings eloquence worthy of Cicero or of Edmund Burke from the pen of the self-educated wool-comber:

“God is just, and He will in due time made known by whom and why it has all been done. Let them not judge me as a governor who had been sent to some province or city under regular government, and where the laws could be executed without fear of danger to the public weal or subjection to any enormous wrong. I ought to be judged as a captain sent from Spain to the Indies to conquer a nation numerous and warlike with customs and religion altogether different to ours; a people who dwell in the mountains, with regular habitations for themselves or for us; and where by the divine will, I have subdued another world to the dominion of the King and Queen, our sovereigns; in consequence of which Spain, that used to be called poor, is now the most wealthy of kingdoms. I ought to be judged as a captain who for so many years has borne arms, never quitting them for an instant. I ought to be judged by cavaliers who have themselves won the meed of victory; by knights of the sword and not of title-deeds.”

What queen, what woman, could read such words and remain indignant.

When the Admiral walked through the street of Cadiz in chains, a murmur of pity and indignation swept through the town. The tide of public sentiment was turned in his favor; he was a martyr to the officiousness of bureaucrats. Consequently when he appeared in the presence of the King and Queen at Granada, the battle was more than half won. It was at this period that he used to go about, according to Las Casas, dressed somewhat like a Capuchin. Of the legend that Isabel wept when she saw him, and the the Admiral was so touched by her sympathy that he fell on his knees and burst into sobbing, there is no contemporary evidence, nor does Columbus's son Hernando mention it in his biography. The earliest reference to it appears to be that of Herrera.

Once more Columbus had triumphed over his enemies. Not only did he escape punishment, but he was publicly vindicated and retained all his titles and privileges. Nevertheless, the King and Queen appear to have decided that it was no longer wise to entrust him with administrative duties. In his place they sent Nicholas de Ovando to Hispaniola with the title – no doubt to spare Columbus's feelings – of temporary governor. (William Thomas Walsh, Isabella of Spain: The Last Crusader, published originally by Robert McBride and Company in 1930 and republished by TAN Books and Publishers in 1987, p. 449-452.)

Mr. Walsh movingly described Christopher Columbus’s acceptance of the cross in his own life after he had gone to great effort to plant the Holy Cross of the Divine Redeemer in a world he never recognized or accepted as new to the Holy Faith:

Columbus went, and once more failed gloriously. Shipwrecked for eight months among hostile Indians on the Island of Jamaica, sick, betrayed, denied entrance to the port that he had discovered – he still kept his unconquerable spirit, and once cannot read his letters, as the Queen did, without feeling that the world lost an epic poet of the first rank when he elected to live in action what he might have written on parchment. Here is his description of a storm:

“I had already made four leagues when the storm commenced and wearied me to such a degree that I absolutely knew not what to do; my wound reopened, and for nine days my life was despaired of. Never was the sea seen so high, so terrific, and so covered with foam; not only did the wind oppose our proceeding onward, but it also rendered it highly dangerous to run in for any headland, and kept me in that sea which seemed to me a sea of blood, seething like a cauldron done day and one night burning like a furnace, and emitting flashes in such a fashion that each time I looked to see if my masts were not destroyed these flashes came with such alarming fury that we all thought the ship must have been consumed. All this time the waters from heaven never ceased; not to that it rained, for it was like a repetition of the deluge. The men were at this time so crushed in spirit that they longed for death as a deliverance from so many martyrdoms. Twice already had the ships suffered loss in boats, anchors, and rigging, and they were now lying bare with sails.”

And this is his description of a vision that he had in his sickness, when he was on the point of despairing:

“I toiled up to the highest part of the ship, and with a quivering voice and fast-falling tears, I called upon Your Highnesses' war-captains from each point of the compass to come to my succor, but there was no reply. At length, groaning with exhaustion, I fell asleep, and heard a compassionate voice address me thus: 'O fool, and slow to believe and to serve thy God, the god of all! What did He do more for Moses, or for David His servant, than He has done for thee? From thine infancy He has kept thee under His constant and watchful care. When he saw thee arrived at an age which suited His designs respecting thee, He brought wonderful renown to thy name throughout all the earth, and thou wert obeyed in many lands, and didst acquire honorable fame among Christians. Of the gates of the Ocean Sea, shut up with such mighty chains, He delivered to thee the keys; the Indies, whose wealthy region of the world, he gave thee for thine own, and empowered thee to dispose of them to others, according to thy pleasure. What more did He do for the people of Israel, when He brought them out of Egypt? Or for David, whom from a shepherd He made to be king in Judea? Turn to him, and acknowledge thine

error – His mercy is infinite. Thine old age shall not prevent thee from achieving any great undertaking. Abraham was above a hundred years when he begat Isaac; and was Sarah youthful? Thou criest out for uncertain help. Answer! Who has afflicted thee so much and so often, God or the world? The privileges and promises God hath said, after receiving thy services, that His meaning was different, and to be understood in a different light; nor does He inflict suffering, in order to make a show of His power. His acts answer to His words; and He performs all that He promises, and with interest. Such is His custom. Thus have I told thee what thy Creator hath done for thee, and what He doth for all men. Even now He partially shows thee the reward of so many toils and dangers incurred by thee in the service of others. I heard all this, as one almost dead, and had no words to reply, and could only weep for my errors. He that spoke to me, whoever he was, concluded by saying, 'Fear not, but trust; all these tribulations are written in marble, and not with cause.'

This untutored man had genius of the highest order. His most commonplace utterances had a quality that is found only among a few writers of surpassing power, and especially among writers belonging to the most richly endowed of all races, the Jews. To better the mighty cadences and the emotional sincerity of his prose, one must go back to Isaias, the Book of Job, the Apocalypse of Saint John, the letters of Saint Paul. (William Thomas Walsh, Isabella of Spain: The Last Crusader, published originally by Robert McBride and Company in 1930 and republished by TAN Books and Publishers in 1987, p. 453-455.)

Chritopher Columbus was responsibe for making it possible for there to be a thriving Catholic culture in Central and South America within a very short period of time. Saints, both from abroad and those born in the Americas, emerged to propagate the true Faith.

Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo, the first Archbishop of Lima, Peru, founded the first seminary in the newly discovered hemisphere and was a tireless defender of the rights of the native peoples against the Spanish conquerors and colonists. Saint Rose of Lima was a Third Order Dominican who was born six years before the centenary of Columbus's arrival, the first native born saint of the Americas. Her friend, Blessed Martin de Porres, served the poor with tireless love as a Dominican brother in Peru. His friend, Blessed John de Massias, came from Spain to the New World to settle eventually in Peru, where he served as a Dominican lay brother, praying the Rosary every day, especially to release the Poor Souls from Purgatory. Saint Peter Claver came from Spain in 1610 to minister to the Negro slaves who had been brought to Cartagena, Colombia, from various places in Africa, baptizing over 300,000 souls during his priestly service in the New World.

In other words, Christopher Columbus was responsible for planting the seeds of the replication in the Western Hemisphere at the beginning of the second half of the Second Millennium what had grown organically in Europe during the First Millennium: Christendom. Catholicism resonated throughout Latin America within a hundred years of Columbus's landing on the island of San Salvador in 1492. Deep devotion to the Mother of God, who had favored the region with her miraculous apparition to Juan Diego, spread throughout the major cities and into the smallest, most remote mountain villages. People lived and worked for the honor and glory of the true God as He has revealed Himself solely through the Catholic Church. They were mindful of frequenting the sacraments and of preparing for a holy death. They raised their children to love the lives of the saints and to strive to imitate them in every aspect of their daily lives.

The Church provided early on for the education of the indigenous peoples (as well as for the colonists and their descendants, many of whom did not want to "mingle" with the Indians). The College of Santa Clara was founded in Tlaltelolco, Mexico, in 1534. The University of Mexico opened in 1553. And the College of San Pablo opened in 1575. The University of San Marcos was established in Lima, Peru, in 1551. The University of Cordoba, which began as the College of Saint Francis Xavier, opened in Argentina in 1611. Other institutions were founded throughout Latin America to foster the natural and supernatural development of the peoples who had been subjected to the superstitions and barbaric practices of demonic "religions" prior to the landing of the first priests with Christopher Columbus in 1492.

Pope Leo XIII issued an Encyclical Letter in 1892, Quarto Abuente Saeculo, on the Quadracentenary of the Genoan (all right, all right: all you from Spain who claim Columbus have had your objections over the years noted; DNA tests are being done at present, believe it or not, to try to ascertain Columbus's true ethnicityand national origins). Christopher Columbus's remarkable voyage from Spain to the island of San Salvador. Here are a few salient passages testifying to the fact that Catholics should be proud of the work of Columbus and to see in it an inspiration to do the very same in our own day, that is, to the Catholicize every single part of our own lives and to shun everything in our popular culture that is hostile to the Catholic Faith (which is, admittedly, pretty much everything):

For Columbus is ours; since if a little consideration be given to the particular reason of his design in exploring the "mare tenebrosum," and also the manner in which he endeavored to execute the design, it is indubitable that the Catholic faith was the strongest motive for the inception and prosecution of the design; so that for this reason also the whole human race owes not a little to the Church.

For we have the record of not a few brave and experienced men, both before and after Christopher Columbus, who with stubbornness and zeal explored unknown lands and seas yet more unknown. And the memory of these, man, mindful of benefits, rightly holds, and will hold in honor; because they advanced the ends of knowledge and humanity, and increased the common prosperity of the race, not by light labor, but by supreme exertion, often accompanied by great dangers. But there is, nevertheless, between these and him of whom we speak, a generous difference. He was distinguished by this unique note, that in his work of traversing and retraversing immense tracts of ocean, he looked for a something greater and higher than did these others. We say not that he was unmoved by perfectly honorable aspirations after knowledge, and deserving well of human society; nor did he despise glory, which is a most engrossing ideal to great souls; nor did he altogether scorn a hope of advantages to himself; but to him far before all these human considerations was the consideration of his ancient faith, which questionless dowered him with strength of mind and will, and often strengthened and consoled him in the midst of the greatest difficulties. This view and aim is known to have possessed his mind above all; namely, to open a way for the Gospel over new lands and seas.

This, indeed, may seem of small likelihood to such as confine their whole thought and care to the evidence of the senses, and refuse to look for anything higher. But great intellects, on the contrary, are usually wont to cherish higher ideals; for they, of all men, are most excellently fitted to receive the intuitions and breathings of Divine faith. Columbus certainly had joined to the study of nature the study of religion, and had trained his mind on the teachings that well up from the most intimate depths of the Catholic faith. For this reason, when he learned from the lessons of astronomy and the record of the ancients, that there were great tracts of land lying towards the West, beyond the limits of the known world, lands hitherto explored by no man, he saw in spirit a mighty multitude, cloaked in miserable darkness, given over to evil rites, and the superstitious worship of vain gods. Miserable it is to live in a barbarous state and with savage manners: but more miserable to lack the knowledge of that which is highest, and to dwell in ignorance of the one true God. Considering these things, therefore, in his mind, he sought first of all to extend the Christian name and the benefits of Christian charity to the West, as is abundantly proved by the history of the whole undertaking. For when he first petitioned Ferdinand and Isabella, the Sovereigns of Spain, for fear lest they should be reluctant to encourage the undertaking, he clearly explained its object: "That their glory would grow to immortality, if they resolved to carry the name and doctrine of Jesus Christ into regions so distant." And in no long time having obtained his desires, he bears witness: "That he implores of God that, through His Divine aid and grace, the Sovereigns may continue steadfast in their desire to fill these new missionary shores with the truths of the Gospel." He hastens to seek missionaries from Pope Alexander VI, through a letter in which this sentence occurs: "I trust that, by God's help, I may spread the Holy Name and Gospel of Jesus Christ as widely as may be." He was carried away, as we think, with joy, when on his first return from the Indies he wrote to Raphael Sanchez: "That to God should be rendered immortal thanks, Who had brought his labors such prosperous issues; that Jesus Christ rejoices and triumphs on earth no less than in Heaven, at the approaching salvation of nations innumerable, who were before hastening to destruction." And if he moved Ferdinand and Isabella to decree that only Catholic Christians should be suffered to approach the New World and trade with the natives, he brought forward as reason, "that he sought nothing from his enterprise and endeavor but the increase and glory of the Christian religion." And this was well known to Isabella, who better than any had understood the great man's mind; indeed it is evident that it had been clearly laid before that most pious, masculine-minded, and great-souled woman. For she had declared of Columbus that he would boldly thrust himself upon the vast ocean, "to achieve a most signal thing, for the sake of the Divine glory." And to Columbus himself, on his second return, she writes: "That the expenses she had incurred, and was about to incur, for the Indian expeditions, had been well bestowed; for thence would ensure a spreading of Catholicism."

In truth, except for a Divine cause, whence was he to draw constancy and strength of mind to bear those sufferings which to the last he was obliged to endure? We allude to the adverse opinions of the learned, the rebuffs of the great, the storms of a raging ocean, and those assiduous vigils by which he more than once lost the use of his sight. Then in addition were fights with savages, the infidelity of friends and companions, criminal conspiracies, the perfidy of the envious, and the calumnies of detractors. He must needs have succumbed under labors so vast and overwhelming if he had not been sustained by the consciousness of a nobler aim, which he knew would bring much glory to the Christian name, and salvation to an infinite multitude. And in contrast with his achievement the circumstances of the time show with wonderful effect. Columbus threw open America at the time when a great storm was about to break over the Church. As far, therefore, as it is lawful for man to divine from events the ways of Divine Providence, he seemed to have truly been born, by a singular provision of God, to remedy those losses which were awaiting the Catholic Church on the side of Europe.

To persuade the Indian people to Christianity was, indeed, the duty and work of the Church, and upon that duty she entered from the beginning, and continued, and still continues, to pursue in continuous charity, reaching finally the furthest limits of Patagonia. Columbus resolved to go before and prepare the ways for the Gospel, and, deeply absorbed in this idea, gave all his energies to it, attempting hardly anything without religion for his guide and piety for his companion. We mention what is indeed well known, but is also characteristic of the man's mind and soul. For being compelled by the Portuguese and Genoese to leave his object unachieved, when he had reached Spain, within the wall of a Religious house he matured his great design of meditated exploration, having for confidant and adviser a Religious -- a disciple of Francis of Assisi. Being at length about to depart for the sea, he attended to all that which concerned the welfare of his soul on the eve of his enterprise. He implored the Queen of Heaven to assist his efforts and direct his course; and he ordered that no sail should be hoisted until the name of the Trinity had been invoked. When he had put out to sea, and the waves were now growing tempestuous, and the sailors were filled with terror, he kept a tranquil constancy of mind, relying on God. The very names he gave to the newly discovered islands tell the purposes of the man. At each disembarkation he offered up prayers to Almighty God, nor did he take possession save "in the Name of Jesus Christ." Upon whatsoever shores he might be driven, his first act was to set upon the shore the standard of the holy Cross: and the name of the Divine Redeemer, which he had so often sung on the open sea to the sound of the murmuring waves, he conferred upon the new islands. Thus at Hispaniola he began to build from the ruins of the temple, and all popular celebrations were preceded by the most sacred ceremonies.

This, then, was the object, this the end Columbus had in view in traversing such a vast extent of land and water to discover those countries hitherto uncultivated and inaccessible, but which, afterwards, as we have seen, have made such rapid strides in civilization and wealth and fame. And in truth the magnitude of the undertaking, as well as the importance and variety of the benefits that arose from it, call for some fitting and honorable commemoration of it among men. And, above all, it is fitting that we should confess and celebrate in an especial manner the will and designs of the Eternal Wisdom, under whose guidance the discoverer of the New World placed himself with a devotion so touching. (Pope Leo XIII, Quarto Abuente Saeculo, July 16, 1492.)

A beautiful excerpt concerning Christopher Columbus is contained in a book, Trials and Triumphs of the Catholic Church in America. Columbus was concerned about the honor and glory of God and the saving of souls, which occupied his mind throughout the course of his initial voyage from Spain to the island of San Salvador:

The sun went down flaming into the vast and solitary ocean. Naught but the horizon on its pure azure appeared to the eye. No vapor indicated that land was near, but suddenly--as if by inspiration--Columbus changed his course somewhat, and ordered the helmsman to steer due west. As the caravels came together, all joined, according to custom, in singing the Salve Regina--our familiar "Hail, Holy Queen!"--at the conclusion of which the admiral made them a touching discourse. He spoke of the mercy of that good God who had enabled them to reach seas never cut by keel before. He asked them to raise their hearts in gratitude, and vanquish their fears, that the fulfillment of their hopes was near at hand. That very night, he said, would see the end of their memorable voyage. He finally recommended all to watch and pray, as their eyes would behold land before morning.

At two a.m., by the clock of the Santa Maria, a flash came from the Pinta, followed by a loud report--the signal gun. It was no false alarm this time. Roderic de Triana, a sailor on the Pinta, had sighted land. Columbus, at the sound of the gun, fell on his knees and chanted the Te Deum; his men responded with full hearts. Then they went wild with joy. The admiral ordered the sails to be furled, and the ships to be put in a state of defense, for it was impossible to say what the daylight might reveal.

It was Friday, the 12th of October, 1492. Friday--the day of the Redemption--was always a blessed day for Columbus. On Friday he sailed from Palos, on Friday he discovered America; on Friday he planted the first cross in the New World; and on Friday he re-entered Palos in triumph. At dawn of this fateful day there was seen issuing from the mists, a flowery land, whose groves, colored by the first golden rays of the morning sun, exhaled an unknown fragrance, and presented most smiling scenes to the eyes. In advancing, the men saw before them an island of considerable extent, level, and without any appearance of mountains. Thick forests bounded the horizon, and in the midst of a glade shone the pure and sparkling waters of a lake. Green willows and sunnyavenues gave half glimpses into these mysteries of solitude, and revealed many a scattered dwelling, seeming by its rounded form and roof of dried leaves, to resemble a human hive, from which the curling smoke ascended in the air, greeting the glad sunbeams of that early hour.

When all was ready, the anchors were dropped, orders were given to man the boats, and Columbus, with majestic countenance and great recollection--as one who walked in the presence of God--descended into his own cutter. He was richly attired in the costume of his dignities. A scarlet mantle hung from his shoulders, and he held displayed in his hand, the image of Jesus Christ on the royal flag. The captains of the Pinta and Nina, Martin and Vincent Pinzon, likewise put off their boats, each accompanied by a well-armed detachment, and bearing the banner of the enterprise emblazoned with a green cross.

With mute delight, and all the elastic ardor of youth, the admiral stepped on shore. Scarcely had he touched the new land, when he planted in it the standard of the cross. His heart swelled with gratitude. In adoration, he prostrated himself before God. Three times bowing his head, with tears in his eyes he kissed the soil to which he was conducted by the divine goodness. The sailors participated in the emotions of their commander, and kneeling as he did, elevated a crucifix in the air. Raising his countenance towards heaven, the gratitude of his soul found expression in that beautiful prayer which has been preserved by history and which was afterwards repeated by order of the sovereigns of Castile in subsequent discoveries.

"Lord! Eternal and Almighty God! Who by that sacred word hast created the heavens, the earth, and the seas, may Thy name be blessed and glorified everywhere. May Thy Majesty be exalted, who has deigned to permit that by Thy humble servant, Thy sacred name should be made known, and preached in this other part of the world."

Standing up with great dignity, he displayed the standard of the Cross, offering up to Jesus Christ the first fruits of his discovery. Of himself he thought not. He wishes to give all the glory to God, and he named the island San Salvador, which means "Holy Savior." (Trials and Triumphs of the Church in America, as quoted in Adsum, a publication of Mater Dei Seminary, Omaha, Nebraska.)

The depth to which the Cross of the Divine Redeemer penetrated the soil of the lands of Latin America was such as to arouse the demonic fury of the adversary. This is why one of the immediate aftermaths of the American Revolution was the sending of Freemasonic emissaries to the countries of Central and South America to disseminate propaganda amongst the Catholics there that the Faith was the enemy of "civil liberty."

The first American ambassador to the independent country of Mexico, Joel R. Poinsset, promoted Freemasonry actively in Our Lady's country. Simon Bolivar, the "Liberator," was a Freemason. There were thus intense efforts to root out the Cross of the Divine Redeemer with violence throughout the lands that had been Catholicized some three centuries before. The United States of America was in the vanguard of exporting its "values" as the means of "liberating" supposedly "ignorant" people from the "tyranny" of "the priesthood and the sword." As was the case in Europe, Freemasonry had to attack the Church with violence head-on in Latin America precisely because of the fact that Christendom had arisen there and souls were pursuing sanctity, not political ideologies or capitalist dreams of material wealth, as the means by which they would know an unending Easter Sunday of glory in Paradise.

Sadly, even many American Catholics, some of them professing allegiance to the Immemorial Mass of Tradition, believe that people in other countries are truly "liberated" byadopting "American values." The values of the United States of America, however, are not American. American culture is Catholicism. For there was a thriving Catholic America long before English and Dutch Protestants began settling in the land along the eastern seaboard of what became the United States of America.

The "values" of the United States are hostile to Catholicism.

They embrace religious indifferentism, egalitarianism and cultural pluralism as objective goods upon which can be built and maintained a just social order. They reject the necessity of belief in the totality of the Deposit of Faith that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has entrusted to His true Church as essential for personal and social order.

They reject the necessity of belief in, access to and cooperation with Sanctifying Grace as indispensable in the pursuit of personal virtue.

The "values" of the United States enslave man to his own disordered passions, convincing him that "civil liberty" defines his existence, not liberation from sin through the Sacrifice of the Cross of  the Divine Redeemer, which sacrifice is perpetuated in an unbloody manner at the hands of priests in every offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

There is not one part of our lives that is not meant to reflect the glories of the Catholic Faith. Not one.

There is not one aspect of national life (politics, the administration of justice, economics, education, literature, music, science, entertainment) that is meant to be untouched by the Catholic Faith. Not one.

There is never a moment in which we are called to be silent about the Holy Faith. Not one.

There is never a time in which we are called to refrain from exhorting all of those outside of the Catholic Church to convert.

There is never a time in which we are called to refrain from publicly extolling the Holy Name of the Mother of God.

There is never a time in which we can discuss any issue of public policy without mentioning the cornerstone of the Social Teaching of the Church, the Social Reign of Christ the King.

There is never a time in which we are called to do anything other than what the saints have done: profess the Catholic Faith openly and unapologetically at all times in every we say and do and think.

We must think as Catholics, not as Freemasons or conservatives or liberals or Democrats or Republicans or libertarians or capitalists or socialists or communists or nihilists.

We must pray as Catholics, spending much time before the Blessed Sacrament and pledging ourselves in total consecration to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Christopher Columbus himself, filled with a bit of pride following his initial discoveries and conquests, implored the help of Our Lady to keep him humble, vowing before undertaking his second voyage to name more places in America after various shrines named in her honor in Spain:

But before he could go on his voyage, Columbus had first to fulfill the vows made on board the Nina. In June, therefore, he went to the shrine of Guadalupe [in Spain]. He carried a five-pound wax taper and went clad in the simplest garments. For three hours he knelt in the dusk of the shrine, praying, shedding the pride which had come upon him, in homage to the Virgin. "Blessed Mother," he prayed, "intercede in my behalf. Do not let us fail. Pray for us that we shall be the vessels through which the word of God reaches those across the western sea."

One after another Columbus fulfilled the promises he had made to God. Then he turned to Cadiz, that white city down the coast from Palos, from which the second voyage was to start out.

There in the harbor of Cadiz the ships were being assembled. Once more the Nina was among them. And again the biggest ship was named the Santa Maria. Slowly the fleet grew until there were seventeen caravels in all. Seventeen crews were recruited to man the ships. Doctors, soldiers, craftsmen--200 volunteers eager to search for gold--all came to Cadiz to set sail with the Very Magnificent Lord Don Christopher Columbus.

On the morning of September 24 [in 1493] the fleet sailed out of Cadiz into the no longer unknown west. In Columbus humility vied with pride

Early in the morning of November 3, a lookout sighted land. Columbus immediately named the new island Dominica and called together all hands to offer up a prayer of thanksgiving. The crews sang hymns in their gratitude for an easy, rapid passage across the ocean.

Then there began a journey of exploration among man islands. Columbus named then--at first with devotion to the Virgin Mary and her shrines--Santa Maria de Guadalupe, Santa Maria de Monserrate, Santa Maria de la Nieve, Santa Maria la Antigua; then with other names he thought fitting--Santa Cruz, The Virgins, St. John the Baptist. (August Derleth, Columbus and the New World, Vision Books, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1957, pp. 140-142.)

Christopher Columbus made sure that we would know that which Our Lady herself ratified twenty-eight years after that second voyage of Columbus in the year 1493: The Americas Belong to Our Lady. We must never forget this fact. We must proclaim it openly. Every country on this face of this earth must acknowledge Christ as King and Mary as its Immaculate Queen.

October 12, which is the true Columbus Day, is a time for us to reflect on the fact that the Church herself sought to convert the souls of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from their pagan and barbaric practices so as to have access to the life giving treasures found in the sacraments, teaching us that we must have the same zeal for souls in our own day despite the fact that the counterfeit church of conciliarism has rejected "proselytizing" as an offense to the heresy of "religious liberty." We must do exactly what Columbus and the priests who accompanied him did: seek the good of souls by praying and acting for the conversion of all men and women everywhere to the true Church founded by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself upon the rock of Peter, the Pope.

We must continue the work of Columbus with every beat of our hearts, entrusting all to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, praying as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit!

Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Juan Diego, pray for us.

Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo, pray for us.

Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us.

Blessed Martin de Porres, pray for us.

Blessed John de Massias, pray for us.

Saint Peter Claver, pray for us.

Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Venerable John Neumann, pray for us.

Saint Francis Solano, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.

Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.

Saint John Lalande, pray for us.

Saint Gregory Lalemont, pray for us.

Saint John de Brebeuf, pray for us.

Fray Junipero Serra, pray for us.

Father Miguel Augstin Pro, pray for us.

The Mexican Martyrs, pray for us.

Saint John Lalande, pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.

Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us.

Blessed Martin de Porres, pray for us.