Famous Spanish People in History: Spain's Heroes Who Shaped a Nation

Before His Ascension, Christ commanded His Apostles to preach the Gospel to all nations. St. James the Greater sailed to Spain, the furthest west country at the time, fulfilling this call. Despairing at his slow progress, he was visited by Our Lady—marking the first Marian apparition. Fitzhenry recounts, “The Blessed Virgin stood before him upon a pillar supported by angels, and encouraged St. James by revealing the great faith Spain would have in the future.” Today, this site is home to the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza, Spain.

After returning to Judea, St. James was martyred, and his relics were returned to Spain. In the 9th century, he revealed their resting place by guiding a hermit with a star to the site—now the famous pilgrimage destination, Santiago de Compostela.

In 841, during the Battle of Clavijo, St. James appeared on a white steed, leading the Christians to victory. "St. James and strike for Spain!" became the nation’s battle cry. I probably don't need to tell you as it almost goes with out saying that St. James is the patron of Spain.

Spain was long believed to be the ends of the earth, and it seemed impossible to travel west to reach the east. Yet, in 1492, Queen Isabella of Spain made this vision a reality when she supported Christopher Columbus in his groundbreaking voyage. While Columbus is often credited with discovering the New World, it was Queen Isabella’s unwavering faith and support that enabled his journey and shaped the course of history. One of the best works that I have read about Christoper Columbus is Fr. Hardon's book, The Catholic Discovery of America.

Isabella, the Catholic Queen, has been grossly and unfairly depicted by modern historians. One of the most famous Spanish people in history, this heroic damsel finished the battle that Pelayo started. At the Battle of Granada, she successfully destroyed Muslim strength in Spain. Granada was the last Muslim stronghold to fall, marking the culmination of a long struggle to reclaim Spain from centuries of Muslim aggression. Isabella brought all of Spain together, finishing what the heroes before her had started—driving the Infidel from the homeland. She had enough energy afterward that she was the only monarch who listened to Columbus' outrageous idea of sailing around the world. (Remember, Spain was at the end of the map.)

In The Jesuits, Malachi Martin dedicates a few pages to describing the Siege of Granada. He writes, "Paradise, which Muslims believed Allah allowed faithful Muslims to enter after death...would supply all that the arid, burning sands and steppe of the desert had always denied their Arabian ancestors: green, luxuriant vegetation, meadows carpeted with unimaginably beautiful flowers; clean, clear, fresh ever-leaping fountains; cooling breezes; balmy shade beneath kindly palm trees; plentiful food; sweet pleasures with beautiful women; slaves galore to attend to their every whim and wish; no cold nights or boiling hot days, but perpetual lightsomeness, instead; and the undisturbed strains of desert music played by angels on heavenly lyres." For the Moor, Granada was Paradise on earth, or the nearest thing to it. The leave-taking from that earthly Paradise was heart-rending and later inspired much pathos and poetry. "Woe is me! Granada!" the Muslims cried as they turned away.

The place along the river where the Moors stopped to look at Granada, now with the Christian Crusader flag flying over its walls, is called by Spaniards "The Last Sigh of the Moor". Martin reflects on the significance of this location, saying, "The safety of the Kingdom, its pride and beauty, was tied to such places by folklore and religious fervor as well as love of Spain."

In his same book, The Jesuits, Malachi Martin shares the following, "Inigo was a mere babe in arms the day that Boabdil (Moorish leader) and his family gave that long last look at their beloved Granada. When he grew a little older and could understand, his family must have repeated to him the last words of sighing regret that floated in a loud wail back to the ears of the victorious Christians in the Court of Lions." Does this sound similar to Fitzhenry's "as a boy growing up in Vivar, it is certain that young Rodrigo would have been familiar with this story"? Or again, further down the page in El Cid he relates "another remarkable tale that Rodrigo would surely have known..."

We see again, in separate works the theme of Spanish storytelling. Martin continues, "Magdelena relieved her loneliness by telling the two-year-old Inigo fabulous tales of the New World. The stories about how the Sacred Crusade had won the Kingdom's safety against the Moor, how this knight or that soldier and faithfully served His Most Christian Majesty, leader of God's armies, were now expanded to include the empire and the whole world."

This little boy to whom his family had lovingly told stories of great deeds grew up to be a wild, distracted courtier. He was finally pinned down by Providence which forced him to read the lives of the saints to pass the time where "he underwent what is known in the language of religious experience as a profound conversion."