Untitled - Digitizing America

And so it seems likely that the first person to
preach our faith in this country was a layman.
The travels of Don Hemando de Soto during the
1540's left bodies of hundreds of the martyred
faithful along river banks and wooded trails, but no
permanent settlements.
America's first recognized martyr was a saintly
Franciscan. Father Juan de Padilla, who had suffered
with Francisco Vasquez de Coronado the
miseries and disappointment of fortune-hunting
journeys over ourwestern states, stayed behind to
do mission work among the Kansas redmen. He
had great success in converting the Quivira lndians,
but was unaware that when he moved on to
Christianize others they would consider his association
with their enemies as traitorous.ln 1542,
he was ambushed and murdered, the arrows of
martyrdom repeatedly piercing his body as he
knelt on the Kansas prairie, facing his assassins.
ln 1549, Father Luis Cancer de Barbastro, convinced
his missionary endeavors would prove
fruitful if he could reach lndians not previously
assailed by Spanish weapons, set out, accompanied
by three other Dominicans, on an unarmed
voyage from Vera Cruz, Mexico. Unfortunately,
the ship's captain had paid little heed to his landing
orders and brought the missionaries to the borders
of a Floridian lndian village where hatred for the
white man had seethed since former encounters
with armed Spanish soldiers of fortune. A
treacherous plot in which the natives feigned
friendship led to the cruel deaths of Father Cancer
and two of his priestly friends-another typical
chapter in the story of the Spanish pilgrims.
It was the multiplicity of these devastating events
that caused King Philip ll, in 1561, to cease operations
in exploring this part of the New World-a
decision not easily made.
Christianizing The Indians
ing Philip was forced to recant
his decision when French forces threatened
Spanish treasure fleets. ln March of 1565 he
commissioned Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Captain
General of the Indies Fleet, to establish a
Floridian fort incorporating a religious mission.
When Menendez finally located the French base
in September and then established his own, he
named the harbor "St. Augustine." The first pastor
of the future United States, Father Francisco
Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, offered there a Solemn
Mass in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, on this feast day, September 8th,
bringing together Spaniards and lndians in the first
communal Thanksgiving of our country's first
permanent settlement. lt also marked the inception
of the Parish of St. Augustine.
Menendez, while awaiting additional Spanish
Jesuits, traveled the Florida coasts erecting
crosses and leaving behind lay instructors at many
points, particularly those where military outposts
were established.
When more Spanish Jesuits came to the New
World, some attempted to establish Catholicism in
the Chesapeake Bay area while traversing this
region in 1570-72. The early Spanish explorers
called the Chesapeake Bay La Bahia de la Madre
de Dios, the Bay of the Mother of God. A number of
them were murdered by supposedly friendly lndians;
the rest were withdrawn.