Queen Isabel’s sponsorship of the exploration of the Atlantic by Christopher Columbus led to the discovery of the New World, perhaps the single most significant historical event of the second millennium.
Isabel's decision required vision and sacrifice. Every monarch of the age had countless petitions coming to them. Columbus had been spurned elsewhere. But Isabel listened. Despite opposition from her own court she supported his voyage and when the discovery of the new lands was reported Isabel understood the spiritual opportunity and responsibility. Royal decrees from 1493 show her priority was evangelisation.
When Columbus returned from his second voyage with Indians as slaves Isabel was indignant, saying no one had permission to make slaves of her subjects. She had the Indians freed and on 29th July 1496 became Godmother to the first who were baptised.
In 1501, Queen Isabel instructed Nicholas de Ovando, Governor of Hispanola, “We desire that the Indians should be converted to our Catholic faith and their souls saved, since this is the greatest good one can wish for, so for this reason the Indians should be informed of everything about our Faith.”
And so it is that today more than half the world’s Catholics live in countries evangelised from Spain, the greatest evangelisation in Church history since the apostles. The Spanish evangelisation reached almost all of South America, Central America, Mexico, the Southwest USA and later the Philippines. Religious orders born from Isabel’s reforms included the Jesuits, who reached, notably, China, India, Japan, Canada and elsewhere.
Thanks to Isabel’s support of Columbus, the two hemispheres of the globe were united for the first time in international exchange of ideas and goods.
[Image: Christopher Columbus lands in Hispaniola, October 1492]
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