Jesuit Martyrs of Virginia with Father Andrew Fisher

This marker located on Colonial Parkway on the way to the Jamestown Settlement Museum from Williamsburg attests to the brave attempts of Jesuit priests, brothers, and a novice from Spain to bring the knowledge and love of Christ to the  Powhatan natives. 

A few weeks ago, Bob and I were in Richmond and  Williamsburg. I had heard of the Jesuit martyrs from the Spanish history of our new home state, Florida.

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Virginia is a state where we lived 28 years and have come to love it. We enjoy returning to visit family and friends. I was excited to learn of the marker which acknowledges the brave Spanish missionaries who for the love of Christ attempted to settle in Virginia in 1570  -  37 years before the English arrived in Jamestown!!!

For those of you who read this blog and are from Virginia or pass through the state, I encourage you to learn more about the Spanish missionaries who sought to bring the Catholic faith to the New World. It is a bit of history that has been obscured but gradually is being brought to light. 

Ponce de Leon had discovered Pasqua La Florida in 1513 for Spain. Many visit the Fountain of Youth in St. Augustine, Florida, attracted by the age-old story of his search for rejuvenating waters. What they find is an attraction devoted to the recognition of Ponce de Leon's brief stay on the land known as the village of Seloy, home to the Timucuan natives, and now part of the city of St. Augustine. Ponce de Leon never formed a permanent settlement for Spain in this northeast quadrant of Florida. He left with his crew and attempted unsuccessfully to land and settle the western side of Florida.

Between 1513 and 1565 the Spanish tried many times to establish a permanent settlement in Florida. In 1565, Pedro Menendez, a naval officer of the highest rank, was asked by King Philip II to rebuke the advances of France in the northeast quadrant of Florida, a land claimed by the Spanish with Ponce de Leon's arrival in 1513. Menendez was to secure the land for Spain, establish a permanent settlement, and bring the Catholic faith to the indigenous people.

Menendez with his crew of sailors, their families, and five priests landed in the harbor of St. Augustine. Fr. Lopez the senior priest offered a Mass of thanksgiving upon the arrival of Pedro Menendez and his company on September 8, 1565 along with some Timucuan natives who attended the Mass. At the end of the Mass of Thanksgiving, Menendez invited all to a meal of Thanksgiving. A date which entitles St. Augustine to the claim of the first Thanksgiving meal!

The establishment of a permanent settlement on this land today known as St. Augustine, Florida, was no easy feat. There were many obstacles in the way to a successful settlement. The land was sandy and inhospitable to agriculture. The knowledge and skills necessary for cultivating the land were still to be learned. Many of the natives initially helpful were angered by the treatment of some of the Spanish soldiers towards them. Relations between the natives and the Spanish as a result of this mistreatment became uneasy.

Menendez realized he needed more priests than the few that came with him to minister to the soldiers and their families and to evangelize the natives. He first reached out to Fr. Francis Borgia, S.J., the Superior General of  the Jesuits in Spain. It was this request for additional missionary priests that inspired Fr. Segura and others in 1568 to come to Pasqua La Florida a land whose claim was thought to reach from the tip of Florida to Nova Scotia and westward. 

It was to the upper coastline where the Chesapeake Bay flowed out to the Atlantic and the Powhatan natives lived that Jesuit Fathers Baptista Segura and Luis Quiros with Brothers Gabriel de Solis, Juan Baptista Mendez, Gabriel Gomez, Pedro de Linares, Cristobal Redondo, and novice Sancho de Zaballos traveled. A young teenager from St. Elena Island named Alonso de Olmos begged to come with them. Don Luis was their guide, a Powhatan native who had in 1561 been captured and taken to Spain and Mexico. Embracing the Catholic faith, Don Luis seemed to be the ideal guide to show the Jesuits the way and smooth relations with the natives. 

I will let Fr. Andrew Fisher, pastor at St. Ambrose Catholic Church, Annandale, Virginia, tell you the rest of the story. You can click on this link to hear an enthralling adventure, Fr. Andrew Fisher

                                         The feast of St. Augustine is August 28. It is a special day

                                   for the city of St. Augustine, Florida. I hope many of you will 

                                   come and visit St. Augustine which has the first Catholic parish in

                                  the United States and the oldest Marian Shrine, Our Lady of La Leche. 

                                                            St. Augustine, Pray for Us!