Part 27 (1/2)
And Christopher--_Christum-ferens_--the Christ-bearer? A saint of old was so called because one day he carried the child Christ on his shoulders across a dangerous ford. People called him _Christo-pher_. But what shall we say of the man who carried Christ across the stormy terrors of the unknown sea? Wherever the modern Christopher landed, there he planted the cross; his first act was always one of devout wors.h.i.+p. And now that cross and that wors.h.i.+p are triumphant from end to end, and from border to border, of that New World. The very fairest flower of untrammeled freedom in the diadem of the Christian church is to-day blooming within the mighty domain which this instrument of Providence wrested from the malign sway of error. Shall not that New World greet him as the Christ-bearer? Indeed, there must have been more than an accidental coincidence when, half a century in advance of events, the priest, in pouring the sacred waters of baptism, proclaimed the presence of one who was to be truly a Christopher--one who should carry Christ on the wings of a dove.
CIRCULAR LETTER OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF NEW ORLEANS ON THE CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS CELEBRATION.
From the _Morning Star and Catholic Messenger_, New Orleans, August 13, 1892.
REVEREND AND DEAR FATHER: The fourth centenary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is at hand. It is an event of the greatest importance. It added a new continent to the world for civilization and Christianity; it gave our citizens a home of liberty and freedom, a country of plenty and prosperity, a fatherland which has a right to our deepest and best feelings of attachment and affection.
Christopher Columbus was a sincere and devout Catholic; his remarkable voyage was made possible by the intercession of a holy monk; and by the patronage and liberality of the pious Queen Isabella, the cross of Christ, the emblem of our holy religion, was planted on America's virgin soil, and the _Te Deum_ and the holy ma.s.s were the first religious services held on the same; it is therefore just and proper that this great event and festival should be celebrated in a religious as well as in a civil manner.
Our Holy Father the Pope has appointed the 12th of October, and His Excellency the President of the United States has a.s.signed the 21st of October, as the day of commemoration. The discrepancy of dates is based on the difference of the two calendars. When Columbus discovered this country, the old Julian calendar was in vogue, and the date of discovery was marked the 12th; but Pope Gregory XIII. introduced the Gregorian calendar, according to which the 21st would now be the date. We will avail ourselves of both dates--the first date to be of a religious, the second of a civil, character. We therefore order that on the 12th of October a solemn votive ma.s.s (_pro gratiarum actione dicendo Missam votivam de S. S. Trinitate_), in honor of the Blessed Trinity, be sung in all the churches of the diocese, at an hour convenient to the parish, with an exhortation to the people, as thanksgiving to G.o.d for all his favors and blessings, and as a supplication to Him for the continuance of the same, and that all the citizens of this vast country may ever dwell in peace and union.
Let the 21st be a public holiday. We desire that the children of our schools a.s.semble in their Sunday clothes at their school-rooms or halls, and that after a few appropriate prayers some exercises be organized to commemorate the great event, and at the same time to fire their young hearts with love of country, and with love for the religion of the cross of Christ, which Columbus planted on the American sh.o.r.e. We further desire that the different Catholic organizations and societies arrange some programme by which the day may be spent in an agreeable and instructive manner.
For our archiepiscopal city we make these special arrangements: On the 12th, at half-past 7 o'clock P. M., the cathedral will be open to the public; the clergy of the city is invited to a.s.semble at 7 o'clock, at the archbishopric, to march in procession to the cathedral, where short sermons of ten minutes each will be preached in five different languages--Spanish, French, English, German, and Italian. The ceremony will close with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and the solemn singing of the _Te Deum_. In order to celebrate the civil solemnity of the 21st, we desire that a preliminary meeting be held at St. Alphonsus'
Hall, on Monday evening, the 22d of August, at 8 o'clock. The meeting will be composed of the pastors of the city, of two members of each congregation--to be appointed by them--and of the presidents of the various Catholic societies. This body shall arrange the plan how to celebrate the 21st of October.
May G.o.d, who has been kind and merciful to our people in the past, continue his favors in the future and lead us unto life everlasting.
The pastors will read this letter to their congregations.
Given from our archiepiscopal residence, Feast of St. Dominic, August the 4th, 1892.
FRANCIS JANSSENS, _Archbishop of New Orleans_.
By order of His Grace: J. BOGAERTS, _Vicar-general_.
THE COLUMBUS STATUE IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
Stands at the Eighth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street entrance to Central Park, and was erected October 12, 1892, by subscription among the Italian citizens of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America. From a base forty-six feet square springs a beautiful shaft of great height, the severity of outline being broken by alternating lines of figures, in relief, of the prows, or rostra, of the three s.h.i.+ps of Columbus, and medallions composed of an anchor and a coil of rope. In July, 1889, Chevalier Charles Barsotti, proprietor of the _Progresso Italo-Americano_, published in New York City, started a subscription to defray the cost, which was liberally added to by the Italian government.
On December 10, 1890, a number of models were placed on exhibition at the rooms of the Palace of the Exposition of Arts in Rome, and the commission finally chose that of Prof. Gaetano Russo.
The monument is seventy-five feet high, including the three great blocks, or steps, which form the foundation; and, aside from the historical interest it may have, as a work of art alone its possession might well be envied by any city or nation. The base, of Baveno granite, has two beautiful bas-relief pictures in bronze, representing on one side the moment when Columbus first saw land, and on the other the actual landing of the party on the soil. Two inscriptions, higher up on the monument, one in English and one in Italian, contain the dedication.
The column is also of Baveno granite, while the figure of the Genius of Geography and the statue proper of Columbus are of white Carrara marble, the former being ten feet high and the latter fourteen. There is also a bronze eagle, six feet high, on the side opposite the figure of Genius of Geography, holding in its claws the s.h.i.+elds of the United States and of Genoa. The rostra and the inscription on the column are in bronze.
This great work was designed by Prof. Gaetano Russo, who was born in Messina, Sicily, fifty-seven years ago. Craving opportunities for study and improvement, he made his way to Rome when a mere lad but ten years old. In this great art center his genius developed early, and his later years have been filled with success. Senator Monteverde of Italy, one of the best sculptors of modern times, says that this is one of the finest monuments made during the last twenty-five years. On accepting the finished monument from the artist, the commission tendered him the following: ”The monument of Columbus made by you will keep great in America the name of Italian art. It is very pleasant to convey to the United States--a strong, free, and independent people--the venerated resemblance of the man who made the civilization of America possible.”
On the sides of the base, between the ma.s.sive posts which form the corners, are found the inscriptions in Italian and English, composed by Prof. Ugo Fleres of Rome, and being as follows:
TO CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, THE ITALIANS RESIDENT IN AMERICA.
SCOFFED AT BEFORE; DURING THE VOYAGE, MENACED; AFTER IT, CHAINED; AS GENEROUS AS OPPRESSED, TO THE WORLD HE GAVE A WORLD.
JOY AND GLORY NEVER UTTERED A MORE THRILLING CALL THAN THAT WHICH RESOUNDED FROM THE CONQUERED OCEAN IN SIGHT OF THE FIRST AMERICAN ISLAND, LAND! LAND!
ON THE XII. OF OCTOBER, MDCCCXCII THE FOURTH CENTENARY OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, IN IMPERISHABLE REMEMBRANCE.
Near the base of the monument, on the front of the pedestal, is a representation of the Genius of Geography in white Carrara marble. It is a little over eleven feet high, and is represented as a winged angel bending over the globe, which it is intently studying while held beneath the open hand.
On the front and back of the base the corresponding s.p.a.ces are filled with two magnificent allegorical pictures in bas-relief representing the departure from Spain and the landing in America of Columbus. The latter one is particularly impressive, and the story is most graphically told by the strongly drawn group, of which he is the princ.i.p.al figure, standing in at att.i.tude of prayer upon the soil of the New World he has just discovered. To the left are his sailors drawing the keel of a boat upon the sand, and on the right the Indians peep cautiously out from a thicket of maize at the strange creatures whom they mistake for the messengers of the Great Spirit. Towering over all, at the apex of the column, stands the figure of the First Admiral himself, n.o.bly portrayed in snowiest marble. The figure is fourteen feet in height and represents the bold navigator wearing the dress of the period, the richly embroidered doublet, or waistcoat, thrown back, revealing a kilt that falls in easy folds from a bodice drawn tightly over the broad chest beneath. Not only the att.i.tude of the figure but the expression of the face is commanding, and as you look upon the clearly cut features you seem to feel instinctively the presence of the man of genius and power, which the artist has forcibly chiseled.