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PDF versionOn this day: Christopher Columbus
by Gerelyn Hollingsworth on Oct. 12, 2011
On this day, in 1492, after 70 days at sea, Christopher Columbus stepped out of his boat and onto an island in the Bahamas.
On the previous evening, "when, according to invariable custom on board of the admiral's ship, the mariners had sung the Salve Regina, or vesper hymn to the Virgin, he made an impressive address to his crew. He pointed out the goodness of God in thus conducting them by soft and favouring breezes across a tranquil ocean, cheering their hope continually with fresh signs, increasing as their fears augmented, and thus leading and guiding them to a promised land."
--The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, by Washington Irving, 1828. Search term: Salve Regina. Page 107, ff.
"They continued their course until two in the morning, when a gun from the Pinta gave the joyful signal of land. . . . The land was now clearly seen about two leagues distant, whereupon they took in sail, and laid-to, waiting impatiently for the dawn.
"The thoughts and feelings of Columbus in this little space of time must have been tumultuous and intense. At length, in spite of every difficulty and danger, he had accomplished his object. The vast mystery of the ocean was revealed; his theory, which had been the scoff of sages, was triumphantly established; he had secured to himself a glory durable as the world itself."
"It was on Friday morning, the 12th of October, that Columbus first beheld the New World. As the day dawned he saw before him a level island, several leagues in extent, and covered with trees like a continual orchard. Though apparently uncultivated, it was populous, for the inhabitants were seen issuing from all parts of the woods and running to the shore. They were perfectly naked, and, as they stood gazing at the ships, appeared by their attitudes and gestures to be lost in astonishment. Columbus made signal for the ships to cast anchor, and the boats to be manned and armed. He entered his own boat, richly attired in scarlet, and holding the royal standard; . . .
"As he approached the shore, Columbus, who was disposed for all kinds of agreeable impressions, was delighted with the purity and suavity of the atmosphere, the crystal transparency of the sea, and the extraordinary beauty of the vegetation. He beheld, also, fruits of an unknown kind upon the trees which overhung the shores. On landing he threw himself on his knees, kissed the earth, and returned thanks to God with tears of joy."
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How much of the subsequent
How much of the subsequent horror was due to inadvertent transmission of disease and how much to the inhumane treatment and exploitation of the inhabitants? In a decade or two, a whole people was as extinct as Neanderthal. It is shocking to see the coexistence of such piety with such cruelty. How should I meditate on this? What does it mean?
I don't think you should try
I don't think you should try to force topics for meditation. Just let them arise from your subconscious. Some thoughts and even dreams may surprise you.
(In 1992, on the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus's arrival, I went to the grocery store. The checker announced my total: "Fourteen ninety two.")
Bergreen's new book about Columbus looks good: http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/Book-Reviews/2011/1009/For-Columbus-Day-m...
Love one another. Make
Love one another.
Make reparation.
Sell all that you have and give it to the poor who survive.
God bless Columbus for his
God bless Columbus for his courage and his vision in seeking a new path to the riches of India. Had he not, it is very likely that I would not be sitting here, typing this, in the United States, the greatest nation in the history of the planet.
Providence is truly good!
By those who are Native
By those who are Native American, this day is seen as having a complexion different from that seen by one with a European perspective.
I am personally so descended, but also have a Catholic faith derived from the co-opting tactics of the Jesuits in Quebec and Northern New England, a tactic radically different from the confrontational approach of the Puritans and of Columbus.
Columbus was an adventuresome sort with a somewhat radical, but by no means unique perspective on the planet. He showed personal courage in undertaking this voyage, and exemplified Catholic faith as giving courage to attempt the unknown.
However, as a colonial administrator he was an enslaver, the worst kind of exploiter of the local, non-European populations, in that regard having an approach to the 'indigenous' that was more Puritan-like than Jesuit-like. The combination of European diseases and European abuse and exploitation nearly exterminated the Caribbean peoples.
When admiring or excoriating Columbus, it is well to recognize him as a flawed human being who did great things and did abominable things. He was certainly not unique in his later acts, but nevertheless ran in effect the 16th Century version of Nazi slave labor camps.
We should look to him for understanding of human nature, for insight into how easy it is to oversimplifying our opinions of others alive and dead, for a guide to not judging people today according to one facet of their many-faceted characters.
FWIW, I am also a Past Grand Knight. I choose to regard the Knights' high regard for Columbus through the eyes of an Eastern parish priest seeking to do something for his socially disadvantaged, discriminated-against parishioners. Fr. McGivney likely had not the slightest idea of Columbus as also the worst kind of colonial governor. At this point the Knights are unable to undo their own history of use of the name. They too are not one-faceted.
Neither should we be.
Agree that no one should
Agree that no one should regard only one facet of Christopher Columbus or of the Knights of Columbus.
I've never known anyone who did so. It's pretty obvious, even to children, that the Admiral of the Ocean Sea and the KofC have their good sides and their bad sides.
(The 4th Degree Knight of Columbus I knew best loathed the humiliating initiation rituals and was disgusted that priests as well as laymen submitted to the assaults on human dignity. Still, he stayed in the organization for 25 years, bowled with them in church basements, etc.)
then Anderson turned the KofC
then Anderson turned the KofC not into a financial rsource for indigent Catholics but a Republican GOPAC with full submission of its mighty publications and respected name to the oligarchcal Republican project, deceiving millions, and for his pains, oh good and faithful servant, has been named to the board of the equally deceptive Vatican Bank whose cleansing was planned by the First (the Greater) Pope John Paul upon the evening of his still mysterious death, never a topic broached by his successor, the Lesser, nor corrupted cofffers cleansed.
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