Mission Nombre de Dios - St. Augustine, Florida Oldest Church (CATHOLIC) in the U.S.A.ESTABLISHED IN 1565 ~ AFTER THE SPANISH CATHOLICS SLAUGHTERED ALL THE NORMAN PROTESTANT HUGUENOTS THERE IN 1562 ~ A group of Norman Huguenots under the leadership of Jean Ribault in 1562 established the small colony of Fort Caroline in 1564, on the banks of the St. Johns River, in what is today Jacksonville, Florida. The colony was the first attempt at any permanent European settlement in the present-day continental United States, but the group survived only a short time. In September 1565, an attack against the new Spanish colony at St. Augustine backfired when the French ships were hit by a hurricane on their way to the Spanish encampment at Fort Matanzas. Hundreds of French soldiers were stranded and surrendered to the numerically inferior Spanish forces led by Pedro Menendez. Menendez proceeded to massacre the defenseless Huguenots, and the Spanish wiped out the Fort Caroline garrison. ~ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenot Site of the First Settlement The site of the first permanent European settlement in the United States is seen here from the grounds of Mission Nombre de Dios. The Mission Nombre de Dios historic site in St. Augustine, Florida, commemorates the founding of the first permanent Christian church in the United States. A massive steel cross on the grounds, believed to be the tallest in the country, looks out over the site where Pedro Menendez de Aviles planted the first permanent settlement in the United States in 1565. Although there had been earlier attempts, St. Augustine was the first community to permanently take root and continues to thrive today. The site of the actual first settlement has been located by archaeologists both on todays mission grounds and at the adjacent Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. In 1565, these were the site of the Timucuan village of Seloy. When Pedro Menendez de Aviles arrived in Matanzas Bay that year with orders to expel the French intruders at Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River, he landed first at Seloy. From the chief and inhabitants of the village, Menendez de Aviles obtained information on the location of the French fort and guides who could lead him overland to attack it. He threw up a hastily-built fort of his own in the Indian village. On September 8, 1565, the day the Spanish arrived, Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, the fleet chaplain, offered a Mass of Thanksgiving from a rough altar erected on the shore at Seloy. It was a significant moment in the Christian history of the United States, as from that day to this the Catholic Church has remained a vital part of St. Augustine. The establishment of the city in 1565 can rightly be considered the date of the founding of the first permanent Christian church in the United States. The rustic altar of the first Mass is recreated today on the mission grounds. Mission Nombre de Dios (Name of God in Spanish) was a fixture on the landscape of St. Augustine well into the 18th century. At its height, the mission was the mother of a chain that stretched beyond the Chipola River to Missions San Nicolas and San Carlos in the Florida panhandle and north even into Virginia. These doctrinas or mission centers offered education and religious instruction to thousands of Native Americans while also serving as social centers and military rallying points. Not only did they fulfill their mandate to bring the Indians to Christianity, they also offered a bulwark of protection against the southward expansion of the English. At the St. Augustine site, the centerpiece of the mission was the chapel and shrine of Nuestra Senora de la Leche y buen parto (Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery). Established by the early 1600s, this was the first shrine to the Virgin Mary in the country Virtually all of Floridas early chapels were built of wood, clay daub and thatch, but by the 1700s, the chapel at Mission Nombre de Dios was of coquina stone. A natural rock formed by the concretion of sea shells, this rock was mined on nearby Anastasia Island and used in the construction of much of old St. Augustine, including the massive Castillo de San Marcos. In 1728, when British troops led by Colonel John Palmer laid siege to St. Augustine, Spanish troops used the cannon of the Castillo to shell the chapel. The Carolina troops led by Palmer had taken up positions on the mission grounds and the Spanish soldiers were forced to bombard the chapel to prevent its use by their enemies. The chapel was rebuilt in 1875 and restored again in 1914 to repair hurricane damage. It is open daily and seats about 30 people. The grounds of Mission Nombre de Dios are located at 27 Ocean Avenue in St. Augustine and feature walking paths, the 208 foot Great Cross, the chapel, cemetery, interpretive signs and a gift shop. Open daily, the site is free to visit.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 04:32:57 +0000
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