Religious Capital

It was Wednesday, October 1, 1958, when the first Gilead graduates arrived in Medellín to spearhead the evangelizing work. Although the dictatorship had ended and Jehovah’s Witnesses were already established in the other major cities of the country, Medellín was different. At the time, it was renowned as the religious capital of Colombia. Nevertheless, the missionary couples welcomed their new assignment. After a year in hot, tropical Barranquilla, they were delighted with the mild, springtime climate of Medellín and were pleased to find a clean city with an abundance of colorful flowers, including many orchids.

Richard and Virginia Brown were one of those missionary couples. Richard, now coordinator of the Colombia Branch Committee, describes how the missionaries felt: “The accounts we had heard about the city’s being notoriously religious were eloquently confirmed. Black-robed priests and nuns seemed to be everywhere​—along the streets, in the stores, on the buses. The city was full of churches, chapels, and religious schools. In our limited Spanish, we made attempts at informal witnessing, only to be rebuffed by disapproving looks.

Antioqueños, a Staunchly Roman Catholic People

Now, on to internationally renowned Medellín in the province of Antioquia, 45 minutes by air and inland from Cartagena. Spanish Basques and Asturians settled this region during the second half of the 16th century. Their descendants today are a proud and energetic people, staunchly Roman Catholic, with a reputation for being shrewd and thrifty but friendly and, above all, loquacious.