40 
THE STANDARD GUIDE. 
uxor tu<z Uliuni habebit —“Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son.” Christ 
and the Woman of Samaria. A small painting reputed to be by Murillo 
representing the Pope and the Cardinals celebrating mass preparatory to 
the sailing of Columbus. The Madonna del Carmen, the Virgin and Child 
releasing souls from torment, a favorite subject in Spanish ecclesiastical 
art. Maria de la Concepcion, the Immaculate Conception; the Virgin stands 
on a globe with foot resting upon a serpent, typical of her triumph over a 
world fallen through sin. Above the altar of San Cristobal, St. Christopher, 
the patron saint of Havana, is a picture which represents the giant-statured 
Christopher bearing on his shoulders through the flood the Christ Child, 
who holds the world in His hand. In an ante-chamber off from the altar 
is the chapel of Santa Maria de Loretto, a reproduction of the shrine of 
Loretto in Italy. The legend is that when in the year 1295 the Santa 
Casa or Holy House of Nazareth, the birthplace of the Virgin and the 
scene of the Annunciation, was threatened with profanation at the hands 
of the Saracens, it was borne by angels over land and sea and deposited 
at Loretto, which has ever since been one of the famous shrines of 
Christendom. 
The Cathedral has long been popularly known as the Columbus 
Cathedral, because for more than a century it enshrined certain bones 
which were reputed to be the remains of the Great Discoverer. Dying in 
Valladolid in 1508, Columbus was buried in that city; thence his body was 
transported to Seville, and in 1536, in accordance with a provision of his 
will, was borne across the Atlantic to the island of Santo Domingo and 
deposited in the Cathedral of the city of that name. When in 1795 Santo 
Domingo passed into the possession of the French, the Spaniards were un¬ 
willing to abandon the Columbus relics to the keeping of an alien race, and 
provided for their removal to Cuba. Certain bones believed to be those 
of Columbus were taken from the vault before the altar in the Santo 
Domingo Cathedral, and were brought to Havana in the Spanish line of 
battle ship San Lorenzo. They were received with great pomp and cere¬ 
mony, and were deposited in the Cathedral in a niche in the wall of the 
chancel. Afterward they were placed in a magnificent tomb erected in the 
center of the church under the dome, where they remained until the year 
1898, when, upon the evacuation of Havana by the Spanish, they were 
taken back to Spain, and now rest in the Cathedral of Seville. In the 
meanwhile the authorities of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo discovered 
other bones, which they claimed to identify as the real, original and only 
genuine remains of Columbus; and they have built for them in the 
Cathedral a costly tomb of sculptured marble. 
