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
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
founded in 1565 in
St. Augustine, Florida, 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:
*Sa ...
. It is part of the
Diocese of St. Augustine
The Diocese of St. Augustine is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory of the Catholic Church, located in the U.S. state of Florida. It is a suffragan diocese in the Ecclesiastical Province of Miami, covering much of North Florida, including t ...
and is likely the oldest extant mission in the
continental United States
The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
. 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 landed with a band of settlers to found
St. Augustine. 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 eleme ...
on the grounds.
The formal
Franciscan
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, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
mission was founded at the landing point in 1587, perhaps the first mission in what would become the
continental United States
The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
. 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 v ...
group, and was at the center of an important
chiefdom
A chiefdom is a form of hierarchical political organization in non-industrial societies usually based on kinship, and in which formal leadership is monopolized by the legitimate senior members of select families or 'houses'. These elites form a ...
in the late 16th and 17th century.
First the
Jesuits
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, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
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
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madrid is one of Spain's fourteen metropolitan archbishoprics. Since 28 August 2014 the archbishop of Madrid has been Carlos Osoro Sierra.
Although Madrid has been the seat of the Spanish Crown since 1561, the d ...
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 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, weddings, funerals, and Mass on special occasions. It is "dedicated to prayers that God would spare the world from atomic warfare."
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
A shrine to the Virgin Mary (or Marian shrine) is a shrine marking an apparition or other miracle ascribed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or a site on which is centered a historically strong Marian devotion. Such locales are often the destinatio ...
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 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, 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.
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
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (US ...
elevated the shrine to
national shrine status. It was scheduled to receive a
canonical coronation
A canonical coronation ( la, Coronatio Canonica) is a pious institutional act of the pope, duly expressed in a bull, in which the pope bestows the right to impose an ornamental crown, a diadem or an aureole to an image of Christ, Mary or J ...
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 identi ...
.
Other features
Mission Nombre de Dios's grounds include archaeological excavations, a historic cemetery, Marian Shrines to
Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Our Lady of Perpetual Help (also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Succour) is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a 15th-century Byzantine icon with an alleged Marian apparition. The icon is believed to have o ...
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.
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