There are 195 countries today: 193 member states of the United Nations and 2 observer states, the Holy See & Palestine.
Of that 195, only one country is named after Jesus Christ – can you guess which?
El Salvador.
The story of El Salvador begins with Spanish Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado. On the 6th of June in 1524, he and some 5,500 soldiers crossed the Paz River into what is today the Ahuachapán Department to find it abandoned.
He declared the new territory for New Spain as such: Provincia De Nuestro Señor Jesus Cristo, El Salvador Del Mundo meaning Province of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the World. The name was subsequently shortened to what we see today.
El Salvador also holds another first: they have the only nation capital named after Jesus also!
Alvarado also founded the the Villa de San Salvado shortly before May of 1525, becoming today the country’s capital city of San Salvador meaning Holy Savior. His nephew also happened to found the country’s 3rd most populous city, San Miguel meaning Saint Michael.
The rich Catholic history of El Salvador is evident today: a majority of the country today are practicing Roman Catholics.
Photo credit: hyotographics / Shutterstock.com
[…] – Fr. Z’s Blog The Pornography Pandemic of 2020 – Albert Gedney at Catholic365 The Only Country Named After Jesus – Can You Guess Which? – Billy Ryan at uCatholic Lawsuit: Bishop John Jenik ‘Trafficked’ Teen To Abuser – […]
[…] the Holy See and Palestine), there is only one named after Jesus Christ. Know which one it is? El Salvador! We all know that there are many Catholic-named places of the world but I didn’t realize we […]
Saint Joseph, terror of demons, cleanse this site from insensitive mischievous abuse. Saints Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, Louis-Marie de Montfort, pray for us. Amen.
Can you write more on the 7 deadly sins
very rare do you ever see it
and how the different everyday little things we do falls into all 7.
I always forget one
anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice, pride, sloth