![204 foot cross](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/204_foot_cross.jpg)
Mission Nombre de Dios is a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
mission founded in 1565 in
St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabit ...
, on the west side of
Matanzas Bay
Matanzas Bay is a saltwater bay in St. Johns County, Florida; the entrance to the bay from the South Atlantic is via St. Augustine inlet. Bodies of water that connect to the bay in addition to the South Atlantic are clockwise from the inlet:
*Sal ...
. It is part of the
Diocese of St. Augustine and is likely the oldest extant mission in the
continental United States. The
National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche, the oldest shrine in that region, is located on the mission grounds.
History
The mission traces its origins to September 8, 1565, when Admiral
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (; ast, Pedro (Menéndez) d'Avilés; 15 February 1519 – 17 September 1574) was a Spanish admiral, explorer and conquistador from Avilés, in Asturias, Spain. He is notable for planning the first regular trans-oceani ...
landed with a band of settlers to found
St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afri ...
. Fr Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, OFM, the chaplain of the expedition, celebrated the first Thanksgiving
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
on the grounds.
The formal
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
mission was founded at the landing point in 1587, perhaps the first mission in what would become the
continental United States. The mission served nearby villages of the
Mocama
The Mocama were a Native American people who lived in the coastal areas of what are now northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. A Timucua group, they spoke the dialect known as Mocama, the best-attested dialect of the Timucua language. Their t ...
, a
Timucua
The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The var ...
group, and was at the center of an important
chiefdom in the late 16th and 17th century.
First the
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
and later the
Franciscans
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
ministered to the resident Spanish colonists, and made some efforts to evangelize the local Mocama and
Agua Dulce peoples near St. Augustine. They were particularly successful in the Mocama village known as Nombre de Dios, converting the chief and her daughter. In 1587, at the beginning of the Franciscans' first major missionization push, a mission was founded at Nombre de Dios, served by a resident friar.
Grounds and features
The Great Cross
The Great Cross was dedicated by Archbishop Casimiro Morcillo of the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madrid during the diocesan Eucharistic Congress of October 1966 at the direction of
Archbishop Joseph P. Hurley to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Mission Nombre de Dios. It is made of stainless steel and towers 208 feet above the Matanzas marshes.
Museum
The Mission Nombre de Dios Museum features the original casket of the founder of St. Augustine, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, though his remains are located in
Avilés, Spain. The museum's exhibits also include vestments and chalices from the Diocese of St. Augustine's archives, artifacts found during the archaeological excavations of the mission grounds, and coquina that was part of the original foundation of the chapel. Reproductions of the oldest written European documents in the U.S. and the 1155 document from Avilés, Spain are also in the museum, along with paintings by artist by JoAnn Crisp-Ellert and a diorama of the first parish Mass. The museum opened in 2010 and does not charge an admission fee.
Prince of Peace Votive Church
The Prince of Peace Votive Church was constructed in 1965 and is situated at the San Marco Avenue entrance to the Nombre de Dios Mission grounds. It was built to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the mission's founding.
It is made of
coquina
Coquina () is a sedimentary rock that is composed either wholly or almost entirely of the transported, abraded, and mechanically sorted fragments of the shells of mollusks, trilobites, brachiopods, or other invertebrates. The term ''coquina'' ...
and has a large stained glass window depicting a representation of the Holy Spirit. It also features a replica of the Our Lady of La Leche statue. The church is used for
adoration
Adoration is respect, reverence, strong admiration, or love in a certain person, place, or thing. The term comes from the Latin ''adōrātiō'', meaning "to give homage or worship to someone or something".
Ancient Rome
In classical Rome, adorat ...
, weddings, funerals, and Mass on special occasions. It is "dedicated to prayers that God would spare the world from atomic warfare."
![Front of Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Front_of_Shrine_of_Our_Lady_of_La_Leche_1.jpg)
National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche
The devotion to Our Lady of La Leche was brought over from Spain in the late 1500s,
and the mission grounds served as the site of the
Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche, the first
Marian shrine in the United States.
The centerpiece of the shrine is a statue of the Virgin Mary nursing the infant Jesus, which is a replica of the
Our Lady of La Leche
Our Lady of La Leche (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de La Leche y Buen Parto; "Our Lady of the Milk and Good Delivery") is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a statue of her breastfeeding the infant Jesus Christ. It is said to ...
statue placed in a cathedral in Spain by
Phillip III.
The original chapel was destroyed in 1728 during the British siege of St. Augustine and was rebuilt in 1875 by Bishop
Augustin Verot
Jean Marcel Pierre Auguste Vérot, known commonly as Augustin Verot, (May 1804 – June 10, 1876) was a French-born American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the first bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine in Florida (1870–1876). ...
, though it later suffered damage from a hurricane. The current ivy-covered chapel, which seats about 30 people, was built in 1914 and is a replica of previous chapels built of
coquina
Coquina () is a sedimentary rock that is composed either wholly or almost entirely of the transported, abraded, and mechanically sorted fragments of the shells of mollusks, trilobites, brachiopods, or other invertebrates. The term ''coquina'' ...
.
The shrine is a popular religious pilgrimage site, with many visitors seeking blessings and intercessions for successful pregnancy and delivery.
In October 2019, the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops elevated the shrine to
national shrine status. It was scheduled to receive a
canonical coronation on October 10th, 2020, later rescheduled to the same date in 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
Other features
Mission Nombre de Dios's grounds include archaeological excavations, a historic cemetery, Marian Shrines to
Our Lady of Perpetual Help and
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe ( es, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe ( es, Virgen de Guadalupe), is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus associated with a series of five Marian apparitions, which are believed t ...
, a gift shop, a bell tower, fountains, the rustic altar, mission plaques and historical markers, monuments of the
Seven Sorrows of Mary
Our Lady of Sorrows ( la, Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows ( la, Mater Dolorosa, link=no), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names ...
, and statues of Father López,
St. Francis of Assissi, and
St. Joseph
Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers ...
.
References
External links
Website of the Museum of the Mission of Nombre de Dios
{{Coord, 29, 54, 18.3, N, 81, 18, 57.8, W, type:landmark_region:US_dim:47, display=title
Religious organizations established in the 1560s
Spanish missions in Florida
Florida Native American Heritage Trail
1565 establishments in the Spanish Empire
Museums in St. Johns County, Florida
Religious museums in Florida
Catholic Church in Florida
Colonial settlements in North America
Spanish colonization of the Americas
Pre-statehood history of Florida
Populated places established in 1565
New Spain