"In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." From their desks in school, every American has learned this simple and founding fact of their country’s history. Yet how many of them were taught the truth of this man who discovered their continent? Would they recognize this excerpt taken from his notes the day before he landed in the New World?

October 11th, Thursday:
"As is our custom, Vespers were said in the late afternoon, and a special thanksgiving was offered to God for giving us renewed hope through the many signs of land He has provided. I now believe that the light I saw earlier was a sign from God and that it was truly the first positive indication of land."

This famous explorer was not only a Catholic, but he was a fervent and faithful third order Franciscan. And not only that, but at heart he was a true missionary. And it was in fact this driving zeal to see the Faith of Christ spread to all people that caused Christopher Columbus to set sail across the great unknown and discover the other half of the world!

Like so many other chapters and characters of history, the world has spread its lies and defamed the good - most especially those who have loved and followed Christ.

Jesus Himself foretold this when He warned his disciples "If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me first. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world and I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." [St. John 15: 18-19] The devout Christopher Columbus was most certainly one of these privileged souls, chosen from the world by Jesus Christ.

Though he was not of the world, like the Apostles of old, Columbus was sent out into the world, bringing with him their spirit of love and evangelization. Concerning the people of the New World, Columbus wrote:

"I want the natives to develop a friendly attitude towards us because I know they are a people who can be made free and converted to our Holy Catholic Faith more by love than by force."

Yet for all that Columbus did for the good of both the New World and the Old World, in the end - like today - he suffered from the calumny and ill will of the many he gave his life to help. In the end, after he had endured everything from jealousies to public humiliation and arrest, all that Christopher Columbus had as a token and memento of his great adventures and discoveries were the chains with which he had been bound when arrested. But he did not grow bitter in these betrayals. Poor and alone, Columbus kept these chains in a spirit of humility. Like his spiritual father St. Francis of Assisi, he understood the infinitely greater value and wealth to be found in imitating Christ. And as Jesus’ reward for redeeming the whole world was the Cross, it is somehow deeply fitting that His devout servant Christopher Columbus would receive chains as a thanks for uniting one half of this world with the other.