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Columbus Day is not, nor should it be, on any liturgical calendar, but it is of interest to American Catholics because of their role in creating it. In the 1900s, the Knights of Columbus lobbied state legislatures throughout the country to make the anniversary of America’s discovery a holiday; not only did most states acquiesce, but the federal government eventually did as well, first as a national holiday in 1937 and then as a legal holiday (on which banks close) in 1971. Although they were instituted as a fraternal benefits organization, the Knights of Columbus were also keen to dispel anti-Catholic prejudice in the United States. One way to meet this goal was to emphasize America’s debt to Catholic figures, starting with its papist discoverer. Not coincidentally, this fraternity founded by an Irish priest was named not after St. Patrick but after the daring Italian who reached the shores of our hemisphere on a Spanish ship.
Dispelling Myths
The Knights’ strategy of claiming Columbus as a most Catholic of heroes was also a well-aimed counterattack. American historians had tried mightily to turn the famous seafarer into an Enlightenment figure, a secular saint championing scientific progress in the face of a superstitious Church still clinging to outdated ideas of a “flat earth.” As it turns out, Columbus had nothing to do with the flat-earth debate; the story was invented out of whole cloth by Washington Irving in 1828, and later used as anti-Catholic propaganda to “prove” that that clerical religion was inherently hostile to rational inquiry. Queen Isabella’s geographical advisers knew the globe was round; they rejected Columbus’ proposal because they had a much more accurate grasp of its massive circumference, rightly concluding that his plan to reach China via a western route in a matter of weeks was unsound.
Given the prevalence of the anti-Catholic flat-earth myth, it is not surprising that Pope Leo XIII celebrated the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus’ maiden voyage with these stirring (and perhaps overly generous) remarks:
Continued below.
www.newliturgicalmovement.org
Dispelling Myths
The Knights’ strategy of claiming Columbus as a most Catholic of heroes was also a well-aimed counterattack. American historians had tried mightily to turn the famous seafarer into an Enlightenment figure, a secular saint championing scientific progress in the face of a superstitious Church still clinging to outdated ideas of a “flat earth.” As it turns out, Columbus had nothing to do with the flat-earth debate; the story was invented out of whole cloth by Washington Irving in 1828, and later used as anti-Catholic propaganda to “prove” that that clerical religion was inherently hostile to rational inquiry. Queen Isabella’s geographical advisers knew the globe was round; they rejected Columbus’ proposal because they had a much more accurate grasp of its massive circumference, rightly concluding that his plan to reach China via a western route in a matter of weeks was unsound.
Given the prevalence of the anti-Catholic flat-earth myth, it is not surprising that Pope Leo XIII celebrated the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus’ maiden voyage with these stirring (and perhaps overly generous) remarks:
Continued below.
Catholics and Columbus Day
Sacred liturgy and liturgical arts. Liturgical history and theology. The movements for the Usus Antiquior and Reform of the Reform.
