Columbus lands in Haiti and plants the cross

When, on 6 December 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of Haïti, he planted there the cross of Jesus Christ. A vast field then opened to the Catholic apostolate on this land called the first, in the new world, to enjoy the benefits of civilization and the grace of the Gospel. The Church did not fail in the noble task that lay upon it, of working for the salvation of these peoples buried until then in the darkness of the grossest idolatry. While the Spaniards rushed toward those distant shores in search of gold, its missionaries, braving hardship and death, flew in search of souls. Less than twenty years after the discovery of Hispaniola, the Holy See founded bishoprics there. Since then, Spanish, French or independent, Haïti has always remained Catholic. Under Spanish domination the episcopal sees were not filled, and the entire island was under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Santo-Domingo, primate of the Indies, who voluntarily abandoned his archdiocese in 1830 to withdraw to Havana. This archbishopric had been founded in 1547 by Pope Paul III. When, at the end…

Rouzier tells this under the entry HAÏTI: the general article.