Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine
Encyclopedia
The Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine is a diocese
of the Catholic Church's Latin Church
in the U.S. state of Florida
. Part of the Ecclesiastical Province of Miami
, it covers much of North Florida, including the cities of St. Augustine
, Jacksonville
, and Gainesville
. The bishop's seat is the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine. Pope Benedict XVI
has appointed Felipe de Jesus Estevez
to succeed Victor Galeone
as Bishop of St. Augustine, coinciding with Gaelone's retirement on April 27, 2011.
St. Augustine
is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the continental United States. The city was part of other dioceses until March 11, 1870, when the Diocese of St. Augustine was created. It covered most of the Florida peninsula until the 1950s, when Florida's expanding population necessitated the creation of new dioceses.
tried to evangelize the Indians. He had been accompanied by four priests.
Martin Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales became first parish priest of St. Augustine, the first established parish in the United States. Pending the arrival of regular missionaries, Menéndez appointed soldiers he deemed qualified to give religious instructions to the Indians.
The Jesuits were the first to arrive. Three were sent by St. Francis Borgia in 1566 and ten in 1568. The few who survived the martyrdom of their brethren were recalled in 1572.
In 1577, the Franciscans arrived. In 1597, a young chief, smarting from a reprimand, instigated a general massacre of the missionaries.
In 1609, several Indian chiefs sought baptism at St. Augustine. Evangelizing became easier afterwards. This lasted past the middle of the century. In 1634, the Franciscan province of St. Helena, with mother-house at St. Augustine, contained 44 Indian missions, 35 missionaries, and 30,000 Roman Catholic Indians. By 1674, evidences of decline begin to appear. Bishop Calderon found his episcopal jurisdiction questioned by the friars. Although he confirmed many Indians, he complained of their religious ignorance.
Relations between the colonists and natives worsened. The colony was menaced by the growing English power to the north. In 1704, the blow fell. Moore's raid burned, plundered, destroyed, and enslaved the natives at the Mission San Luis de Apalachee
.
Efforts at re-establishment partially succeeded. By 1720, there were six towns of Roman Catholic Indians and several missions. Persistent conflict between the Spanish and English colonies reduced these to four missions with 136 people by 1763. The cession to England in 1763 resulted, not merely in the final extinction of the missions, but in the complete obliteration of Florida's ancient Roman Catholicity.
. Its church records, dating from 1594, are preserved in the archives of the present cathedral. The first recorded episcopal visitation was made by Bishop Cabeza de Altamirano in 1606. In 1674, Bishop Gabriel Diaz Vara Calderon visited the Floridian portion of his diocese; he conferred minor orders on seven candidates, and during an itinerary of eight months, extending to the Carolinian confines, confirmed 13,152 persons, founded many mission churches, and liberally supplied others. The permanent residence of Bishops-Auxiliary Resino (1709–10), Tejada (1735–45), and Ponce y Carasco (1751–55) at St. Augustine, shows that despite the waning condition of the colony and missions at this period, the Church in Florida was not deprived of episcopal care and vigilance. Bishop Morell of Santiago, exiled from his see during the English occupation of Havana (1662–63), remained four months at St. Augustine, confirming 639 persons. When Florida in 1763 passed under English rule, freedom of worship was guaranteed, but the illiberal interpretation of officials resulted in the general exodus of Roman Catholics, so that by 1765, the bi-centenary year of the Church in Florida, a few defaced church buildings presented the only evidence of its former Catholicity. Five hundred survivors of the New Smyrna colony of 1,400 Roman Catholics, natives of Mediterranean lands, settled at St. Augustine in 1776 and preserved the Faith alive through a trying epoch. In 1787, Florida became subject to the newly constituted See of St. Christopher of Havana, and the following year Bishop Cyril de Barcelona found the church at St. Augustine progressing satisfactorily under the care of Fathers Hassett and O'Reilly, who had arrived on the retrocession of Florida to Spain in 1783.
In 1793, Pius VI established the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas
, appointing the Right Rev. Luis Peñalver y Cardenas, with residence at New Orleans, as first bishop. After Bishop Peñalver's promotion to the Archbishopric of Guatemala in 1801, no successor having been appointed, Louisiana, which was annexed to the United States in 1803, came under the jurisdiction of Bishop Carroll of Baltimore in 1806, the bishops of Havana reassuming authority over Florida until the appointment of the Rev. Michael Portier
in 1825 to the new Vicariate of Alabama and Florida. Bishop Portier undertook single-handed the work of his vast vicariate, not having a single priest, until at his request, Bishop England of Charleston sent Father Edward Mayne to St. Augustine in 1828. In 1850, the See of Savannah was created and included that part of Florida which lies east of the Apalachicola River; this was constituted a separate vicariate in 1857 under the Right Rev. Augustin Verot
as vicar apostolic and erected into the Diocese of St. Augustine in 1870, with Bishop Verot, who had occupied the See of Savannah since 1861, as first bishop. Bishop Verot's unwearied activity and zeal in promoting religion and education soon bore fruit; schools were opened by the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy in 1858, but the outbreak of the Civil War frustrated all hopes of success. In 1866, the Sisters of St. Joseph
were introduced from France, and despite the most adverse conditions, they had several flourishing schools and academies in operation before many years. The era of progress inaugurated by Bishop Verot continued under the administration of Bishop John Moore
(1877–1901), whose successor, the Right Rev. William John Kenny
, was consecrated by Cardinal Gibbons 18 May 1902, in the historic cathedral of St. Augustine. The Catholic population of the State, including 1750 coloured Catholics, is (1908) about 30,000. The Diocese of St. Augustine, wholly included within the State, contains about 25,000 Catholics; there are 49 priests with 40 churches and several missions, and 2897 young people under the care of religious teaching orders. That portion of the State situated west of the Apalachicola River forms part of the Diocese of Mobile
since 1829; the Catholic population is about 5000, there are five churches with resident priests and 6 Catholic schools with 807 pupils; Pensacola, founded 1696, is the Catholic centre.
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
of the Catholic Church's Latin Church
Latin Church
The Latin Church is the largest particular church within the Catholic Church. It is a particular church not on the level of the local particular churches known as dioceses or eparchies, but on the level of autonomous ritual churches, of which there are 23, the remaining 22 of which are Eastern...
in the U.S. state of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. Part of the Ecclesiastical Province of Miami
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami
The Archdiocese of Miami is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America. Its ecclesiastic territory includes Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties in the U.S. state of Florida. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see for the Ecclesiastical Province of Miami,...
, it covers much of North Florida, including the cities of St. Augustine
St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...
, Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, and Gainesville
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...
. The bishop's seat is the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine. Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
has appointed Felipe de Jesus Estevez
Felipe de Jesús Estévez
Felipe de Jesús Estévez is the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine in Florida beginning Tuesday, June 1, 2011. He was formerly the Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami.-Early life:...
to succeed Victor Galeone
Victor Galeone
Victor Benito Galeone is the Bishop Emeritus of St. Augustine, Florida. He was ordained and installed as the ninth Bishop of St. Augustine on August 21, 2001, and retired on Wednesday, April 27, 2011. He was succeeded as Bishop of St...
as Bishop of St. Augustine, coinciding with Gaelone's retirement on April 27, 2011.
St. Augustine
St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...
is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the continental United States. The city was part of other dioceses until March 11, 1870, when the Diocese of St. Augustine was created. It covered most of the Florida peninsula until the 1950s, when Florida's expanding population necessitated the creation of new dioceses.
List of bishops
- Augustin VerotAugustin VerotBishop Augustin Verot was the third Bishop of Diocese of Savannah, and the first Bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine....
, P.S.S.Society of Saint-SulpiceThe Society of Saint-Sulpice is a Catholic Society of Apostolic Life named for Eglise Saint-Sulpice, Paris, in turn named for St. Sulpitius the Pious. Typically, priests become members of the Society of St. Sulpice only after ordination and some years of pastoral work. Uniquely, Sulpicians retain...
(1857–1876) - John MooreJohn Moore (bishop of St Augustine)Bishop John Moore , was born in County Westmeath, Ireland and moved to Charleston, South Carolina at the age of 14. He served as Bishop of St. Augustine from 1877-1901...
(1877–1901) - William John KennyWilliam John KennyWilliam John Kenny was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of St. Augustine from 1902 until his death in 1913.-Biography:...
(1902–1913) - Michael Joseph CurleyMichael Joseph CurleyMichael Joseph Curley was an Irish-born clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. Originally a priest and bishop in the Diocese of St...
(1914–1921) - Patrick Joseph Barry (1922–1940)
- Joseph Patrick HurleyJoseph Patrick HurleyJoseph Patrick Hurley was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of St. Augustine from 1940 until his death in 1967. He also held diplomatic posts in Europe and Asia....
(1940–1967) - Paul Francis TannerPaul Francis TannerPaul Francis Tanner was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of St. Augustine from 1968 to 1979.-Biography:...
(1968–1979) - John J. SnyderJohn J. SnyderJohn J. Snyder was the eighth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine.-Early life and education:John Snyder was born in New York City on October 25, 1925 to John Joseph and Katherine Walsh Snyder. He attended St. Bartholomew and St...
(1979–2000) - Victor GaleoneVictor GaleoneVictor Benito Galeone is the Bishop Emeritus of St. Augustine, Florida. He was ordained and installed as the ninth Bishop of St. Augustine on August 21, 2001, and retired on Wednesday, April 27, 2011. He was succeeded as Bishop of St...
(2001–2011) - Felipe de Jesus EstevezFelipe de Jesús EstévezFelipe de Jesús Estévez is the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine in Florida beginning Tuesday, June 1, 2011. He was formerly the Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami.-Early life:...
(2011-present)
High schools
- Bishop John J. Snyder High SchoolBishop John J. Snyder High SchoolBishop John J. Snyder High School is a private Catholic high school in Jacksonville, Florida. It is located in and administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine. It is named for John J. Snyder, bishop of the diocese from 1979 – 2000.-History:...
, Jacksonville - Bishop Kenny High SchoolBishop Kenny High SchoolBishop Kenny High School is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational Catholic high school in Jacksonville, Florida. It is located in and administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine...
, Jacksonville - St. Francis High SchoolSt. Francis High School (Gainesville, Florida)St. Francis Catholic High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Gainesville, Florida. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine.-Background:...
, Gainesville - St. Joseph AcademySt. Joseph Academy (St. Augustine, Florida)St. Joseph Academy Catholic High School is a private Catholic high school in St. Augustine, Florida. It is located in and administered by the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine. The oldest Catholic high school in Florida, it was founded in 1866....
, St. Augustine
History
Having secured Spanish supremacy by defeating the French and planting a permanent colony at St. Augustine in 1565, Pedro Menéndez de AvilésPedro Menéndez de Avilés
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral and explorer, best remembered for founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. This was the first successful Spanish foothold in La Florida and remained the most significant city in the region for several hundred years. St...
tried to evangelize the Indians. He had been accompanied by four priests.
Martin Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales became first parish priest of St. Augustine, the first established parish in the United States. Pending the arrival of regular missionaries, Menéndez appointed soldiers he deemed qualified to give religious instructions to the Indians.
The Jesuits were the first to arrive. Three were sent by St. Francis Borgia in 1566 and ten in 1568. The few who survived the martyrdom of their brethren were recalled in 1572.
In 1577, the Franciscans arrived. In 1597, a young chief, smarting from a reprimand, instigated a general massacre of the missionaries.
In 1609, several Indian chiefs sought baptism at St. Augustine. Evangelizing became easier afterwards. This lasted past the middle of the century. In 1634, the Franciscan province of St. Helena, with mother-house at St. Augustine, contained 44 Indian missions, 35 missionaries, and 30,000 Roman Catholic Indians. By 1674, evidences of decline begin to appear. Bishop Calderon found his episcopal jurisdiction questioned by the friars. Although he confirmed many Indians, he complained of their religious ignorance.
Relations between the colonists and natives worsened. The colony was menaced by the growing English power to the north. In 1704, the blow fell. Moore's raid burned, plundered, destroyed, and enslaved the natives at the Mission San Luis de Apalachee
Mission San Luis de Apalachee
Mission San Luis de Apalachee was a Spanish Franciscan mission built in 1633 in the Florida Panhandle, two miles west of the present-day Florida Capitol Building in Tallahassee, Florida. It was located in the descendent settlement of Anhaica capital of Apalachee Province...
.
Efforts at re-establishment partially succeeded. By 1720, there were six towns of Roman Catholic Indians and several missions. Persistent conflict between the Spanish and English colonies reduced these to four missions with 136 people by 1763. The cession to England in 1763 resulted, not merely in the final extinction of the missions, but in the complete obliteration of Florida's ancient Roman Catholicity.
Formation of Dioceses
St. Augustine began its existence as a regularly constituted parish of the Diocese of Santiago de CubaRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba is a Metropolitan Archdiocese, responsible for the dioceses of Guantánamo-Baracoa, Holguín and Santisimo Salvador de Bayamo y Manzanillo....
. Its church records, dating from 1594, are preserved in the archives of the present cathedral. The first recorded episcopal visitation was made by Bishop Cabeza de Altamirano in 1606. In 1674, Bishop Gabriel Diaz Vara Calderon visited the Floridian portion of his diocese; he conferred minor orders on seven candidates, and during an itinerary of eight months, extending to the Carolinian confines, confirmed 13,152 persons, founded many mission churches, and liberally supplied others. The permanent residence of Bishops-Auxiliary Resino (1709–10), Tejada (1735–45), and Ponce y Carasco (1751–55) at St. Augustine, shows that despite the waning condition of the colony and missions at this period, the Church in Florida was not deprived of episcopal care and vigilance. Bishop Morell of Santiago, exiled from his see during the English occupation of Havana (1662–63), remained four months at St. Augustine, confirming 639 persons. When Florida in 1763 passed under English rule, freedom of worship was guaranteed, but the illiberal interpretation of officials resulted in the general exodus of Roman Catholics, so that by 1765, the bi-centenary year of the Church in Florida, a few defaced church buildings presented the only evidence of its former Catholicity. Five hundred survivors of the New Smyrna colony of 1,400 Roman Catholics, natives of Mediterranean lands, settled at St. Augustine in 1776 and preserved the Faith alive through a trying epoch. In 1787, Florida became subject to the newly constituted See of St. Christopher of Havana, and the following year Bishop Cyril de Barcelona found the church at St. Augustine progressing satisfactorily under the care of Fathers Hassett and O'Reilly, who had arrived on the retrocession of Florida to Spain in 1783.
In 1793, Pius VI established the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, officially in Latin Archidioecesis Novae Aureliae, is an ecclesiastical division of the Roman Catholic Church administered from New Orleans, Louisiana...
, appointing the Right Rev. Luis Peñalver y Cardenas, with residence at New Orleans, as first bishop. After Bishop Peñalver's promotion to the Archbishopric of Guatemala in 1801, no successor having been appointed, Louisiana, which was annexed to the United States in 1803, came under the jurisdiction of Bishop Carroll of Baltimore in 1806, the bishops of Havana reassuming authority over Florida until the appointment of the Rev. Michael Portier
Michael Portier
Bishop Michael Portier was a Roman Catholic bishop and the firstBishop of Mobile. He immigrated to the United States in 1817....
in 1825 to the new Vicariate of Alabama and Florida. Bishop Portier undertook single-handed the work of his vast vicariate, not having a single priest, until at his request, Bishop England of Charleston sent Father Edward Mayne to St. Augustine in 1828. In 1850, the See of Savannah was created and included that part of Florida which lies east of the Apalachicola River; this was constituted a separate vicariate in 1857 under the Right Rev. Augustin Verot
Augustin Verot
Bishop Augustin Verot was the third Bishop of Diocese of Savannah, and the first Bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine....
as vicar apostolic and erected into the Diocese of St. Augustine in 1870, with Bishop Verot, who had occupied the See of Savannah since 1861, as first bishop. Bishop Verot's unwearied activity and zeal in promoting religion and education soon bore fruit; schools were opened by the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy in 1858, but the outbreak of the Civil War frustrated all hopes of success. In 1866, the Sisters of St. Joseph
Sisters of St. Joseph
The title Sisters of St. Joseph applies to several Roman Catholic religious congregations of women. The largest and oldest of these was founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France...
were introduced from France, and despite the most adverse conditions, they had several flourishing schools and academies in operation before many years. The era of progress inaugurated by Bishop Verot continued under the administration of Bishop John Moore
John Moore (bishop of St Augustine)
Bishop John Moore , was born in County Westmeath, Ireland and moved to Charleston, South Carolina at the age of 14. He served as Bishop of St. Augustine from 1877-1901...
(1877–1901), whose successor, the Right Rev. William John Kenny
William John Kenny
William John Kenny was an American clergyman of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of St. Augustine from 1902 until his death in 1913.-Biography:...
, was consecrated by Cardinal Gibbons 18 May 1902, in the historic cathedral of St. Augustine. The Catholic population of the State, including 1750 coloured Catholics, is (1908) about 30,000. The Diocese of St. Augustine, wholly included within the State, contains about 25,000 Catholics; there are 49 priests with 40 churches and several missions, and 2897 young people under the care of religious teaching orders. That portion of the State situated west of the Apalachicola River forms part of the Diocese of Mobile
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile
The Archdiocese of Mobile is a Roman Catholic archdiocese comprising the lower 28 counties of Alabama. It is the metropolitan seat of the Province of Mobile, which includes the suffragan bishopric sees of the Diocese of Biloxi, the Diocese of Jackson, and the Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama...
since 1829; the Catholic population is about 5000, there are five churches with resident priests and 6 Catholic schools with 807 pupils; Pensacola, founded 1696, is the Catholic centre.