THE FIRST CATHOLIC KNIGHT.
James David Coleman, Supreme President of the Catholic Knights of America, in an address to the members of that body, September 10, 1892.
History tells that the anxious journey was begun by Columbus and his resolute band, approaching Holy Communion at Palos, on August 3, 1492; that its prosecution, through sacrifices and perils, amid harrowing uncertainties, was stamped with an exalted faith and unyielding trust in God, and that its marvelous and glorious consummation, in October, 1492, was acknowledged by the chivalrous knight, in tearful gratitude, on bended knee, at the foot of the cross of Christ, as the merciful gift of his omnipotent Master. Then it was that Christopher Columbus, the first Catholic knight of America, made the gracious Christian tribute of grateful recognition of Divine assistance by planting upon the soil of his newly discovered land the true emblem of Christianity and of man's redemption—the cross of our Savior. And then, reverently kneeling before the cross, and with eyes and hearts uplifted to their immolated God, this valiant band of Christian knights uttered from the virgin sod of America the first pious supplication that He would abundantly bless His gift to Columbus; and the unequaled grandeur of our civil structure of to-day tells the manifest response to those prayers of 400 years ago.
BY FAITH COLUMBUS FOUND AMERICA.
Robert Collyer, a distinguished pulpit orator. Born at Keighley, Yorkshire, December 8, 1823.
The successful men in the long fight with fortune are the cheerful men, or those, certainly, who find the fair background of faith and hope. Columbus, but for this, had never found our New World.