A man of great faith, kindness and combativeness, Cortés destroyed idols and strongly fostered the Christianization of the Mexicans.
Newdesk (07/07/2025 15:14, Gaudium Press) Cortés was born in 1485 in a town in Extremadura, in central western Spain, to a noble family, but without fortune.
As a youth, he studied for two years at the University of Salamanca, but because of his military inclinations he decided to pursue a military career.
At the age of nineteen, he sailed to Santo Domingo – now the Dominican Republic – where he was welcomed by the governor. Cortés was a man who was “elegant, strong, of medium height, with large black eyes, cheerful, resolute, zealous in propagating the Faith and convinced that the warrior who fights for Christianity will have the victory”[1].
In 1518, with 10 ships, 18 horses and a few cannon, he commanded 700 men and set sail with the aim of conquering Mexico. In order to provide religious assistance to the members of the entourage and to catechize the Indigenous, he also took priests with him. Each boat carried a flag with a red cross on a background of blue and white flames.
They landed on April 21st, 1519. They were attacked by a group of Natives, but defeated them. Cortés founded a town there, which he named Santa María de las Victoria, and many of the natives were baptized.
Shortly afterwards, he laid the foundations of the city, which was named Vera Cruz since they had arrived there on Good Friday. Cortés ordered all the ships to be burned so that his soldiers would realize that they had to fight to the last drop of blood with no option for retreat.
Cloud of shining whiteness
Penetrating the country, Cortés attracted several chieftains who were enemies of the Mexican King Montezuma, convinced them to eliminate idol worship and human sacrifice, and made them and their people receive Catholic teachings.
In one town, he erected a Cross on top of a hill and recommended that the ‘Caciques‘ venerate it, but they remained inert. Then a thick cloud of shining whiteness covered it and it transformed into a column. Many Mexicans were converted and, as they passed in front of it, knelt down. Sorcerers tried to tear the Cross down and break it, but as they approached they panicked and fled.
Informed of these facts, Montezuma began to fear Cortés who, in November of 1519, entered the capital of Mexico. The King received him with reverence and offered him a palace to stay in with his companions. He greeted him, saying that the Spaniards were sent by the gods.
In response, the Conqueror claimed that there was only one eternal God, creator of Heaven and Earth, and that the Mexicans prostituted their souls by worshipping demons, unclean spirits.
He spoke out against human sacrifices, the meat of which was served on the tables of even Montezuma himself. As well as being a cannibal, he was so enslaved by sensuality that he had countless concubines.
Cortés had a chapel built in the palace where they were staying, with an altar surmounted by a painting depicting Our Lady. Mass was celebrated every day and the Rosary was prayed together.
With an iron bar, he destroyed huge idols
The Conqueror wrote a letter to Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire – who was also King of Spain – informing him that the idols worshipped by the Mexicans were much bigger than a large man and made in the following way:
They placed living, healthy people on altars and, opening their chests, ripped out their hearts, mixed the blood that oozed out with a mass of ground vegetables and gave it the shapes of huge statues.
One day, Hernán Cortés, accompanied by two Spaniards, went to a place where huge idols were being worshipped. He sent for 40 other countrymen to help him. Before they even arrived, he climbed up the steps, grabbed an iron bar and, with a huge leap, destroyed the idols in the presence of the stunned sorcerers.
One of the Spaniards present wrote that the leap was the effect of a supernatural action, in other words, divine grace. ‘That was the culminating moment of the conquest’[2] of Mexico.
Cortés imprisons Montezuma
A warrior, on Montezuma’s orders, led an attack on a Spanish garrison in Vera Cruz, killing some soldiers. Cortés demanded that the leader and his companions be punished.
As soon as the culprits arrived in the capital, the Conqueror put handcuffs on the Mexican King’s wrists and ordered them to be burned in front of the royal palace. He then removed the shackles from Montezuma, who nonetheless remained imprisoned.
Shortly afterwards, the Monarch was killed by his vassals, who elected Guatimozin as his successor and attacked the Spanish headquarters.
Cortés ordered them to retreat. After six days of marching, they came across a crowd of Mexicans who attacked them, but were defeated by the Spanish.
This victory, won in July of 1520, was decisive because they then gathered a large number of loyal Natives, with whom Cortés formed a valiant troop and returned to the capital of Mexico. Guatimozin defended it for three months, but Cortés reconquered it on August 13th, 1521, and 200,000 Mexicans came under his banner.
One million baptized and 20,000 idols burned
Cortés greatly favoured the apostolate among the Mexicans. At his request, Charles V sent twelve Franciscans to Mexico who landed there in May of 1524.
In the towns they travelled through barefoot, the bells rang, the Natives carried crosses and the Spaniards knelt and kissed their hands.
When they arrived in Mexico’s capital, Cortés welcomed them with veneration, kissing their hands and being imitated by his soldiers. Guatimozin and his fellow Indigenous were present. One of these friars baptized the Native Saint Juan Diego, to whom Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared in 1531.
That same year, Friar Juan de Zumárraga – the first Bishop of Mexico – wrote: The Franciscans “have already baptized more than a million of these unbelievers, caused 500 temples to be demolished and more than 20,000 idols to be burned”.“[3]
Having been calumniated by people in Spain, Cortés travelled to his homeland in 1528, but failed to achieve his goals. Two years later, he returned to Mexico where he was well received by Spaniards and Mexicans alike. However, the authorities appointed by the Royal power rejected him.
In 1540, he returned to Spain and had faced new disappointments. Charles V even claimed that Cortés was not the conqueror of Mexico …
Staying in Castilleja de la Cuesta, near Seville, he died on December 2nd, 1547 at the age of 62.
By Paulo Francisco Martos
from Noções de História da Igreja
[1] WEISS, Johann Baptist. Historia Universal. Barcelona: La Educación. 1929, v. IX, p. 8.
[2] MADARIAGA, Salvador de. Hernán Cortés. Espanha: Espasa Calpe, 2008, p. 240.
[3] DARRAS, Joseph Epiphane. Histoire Génerale de l’Église. Paris: Bareille et Fèvre. 1884. v. 34, p. 186.
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
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