Note 227 — Chapter V · 1493-1506.

St. Christopher, it is said, after he was baptized by the bishop of Antioch, took up his abode in a desert, near a rapid stream, over which he carried travellers on his back. While bearing, one day, a child across the swollen flood, he discovered that it was the Christ, hence his name Christophorus, the Christ-bearer.

Speaking of his father’s name, Ferdinand Columbus remarks: “As St. Christopher is reported to have received that name because he carried Christ over the deep waters with great danger to himself, whence came the name of Christopher, and as he conveyed over the people whom no other could have carried, so Admiral Christophorus Colonus, imploring the assistance of Christ in that dangerous voyage, went over safely himself and his company, that those Indian nations might become citizens and inhabitants of the church triumphant in heaven.”—Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo. cap. i.