"Christopher Columbus Origins" Topic

Christopher Columbus was a Sephardic Jew from Western Europe, new study finds

Fox News: link

Hmm, Now what will the Catholic Knights of Columbus do?

Was that his genetic ancestry, or his religion?

I would guess it was his genetic ancestry. Jews of any kind were not exactly welcome in Spain during that time period. After all, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

As a KofC member, nothing. Columbus was a Catholic. Just because some DNA linked him somewhere has no effect on his faith. Vivat Jesu!

Former 3rd Degree KofC , and Columbian Squire here.
From reading history, Columbus sure acted Catholic. He had enough enemies at Court to expose him if he practiced the Jewish faith.

I would agree that regardless of his genetic make-up, he was a Catholic, by all appearances. That said, however, given the growing objections to all things Columbus, I wonder what this new information will do to his tattered legacy, given what may be considered modern neo-anti-semitism.

I have spent a lot of time in Genoa and have many friends there. I have always been struck by how his memory is revered in his "hometown." They have maintained a portion of the city wall, I have been told, because Columbus' home is adjacent to the saved section. I enjoy referring to Columbus as a Spaniard to my friends from Genoa. It is always good for a laugh.

My age addled mind recalls that there was a theory advanced several years ago that maintained that Columbus' family was actually Spanish and that they had migrated to Italy before the birth of the great explorer. Does anyone else recall this?

There have been several theories proposed over the years. Being a linguistics guy, I am most familiar with the ones that examine that evidence. The strongest arguments support the theory that he was a native Catalan speaker, based on his surviving writings and correspondence, as well as those not only contemporary to him but directly connected to him. It is fairly conclusive that he wasn't a Castilian speaker, and the evidence is very strong that he wasn't a native Genoese speaker, nor of any of the Ligurian languages. Arguments that he was a native Portuguese speaker seem to me to be weaker and frankly contrarian.

Crucially, none of this precludes him from having Jewish DNA or being Jewish. It also doesn't negate a connection to Genoa on its own. Unfortunately such a well-known and controversial figure draws a lot of people trying to prove something rather than learn something, so oftentimes bits of credible evidence get wildly extrapolated. A great example of this is the theory that Columbus was part of a notorious band of Catalan pirates who had to "disappear" in order to evade Castilian justice. After laying low he then reinvented himself as Genoese and, rather cheekily, went to that same Castilian court to seek sponsorship.

Just to be clear, I was just joking.

For a people who take so much pride in replacing royalty with politicians 200 years ago, youse Yanks really do seem to like adopting the trappings of royalty- orders of knighthood, queens of prom's, chivalric ranks, heraldry of a sort,etc.

We kinda have a love/hate thing going with all of it.