Our Story
In late August 1565, a Spanish fleet commanded by Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sighted land on the feast of St. Augustine of Hippo, August 28. In honor of the saint, they named their new settlement St. Augustine.
Just days later, on September 8—the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary—Menéndez and his companions came ashore. At that moment Florida was claimed for Spain, and the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States was founded. Upon landing, Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, chaplain of the expedition, celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving. This was the first Catholic Mass of Thanksgiving in what is now the United States, establishing the first parish and planting the roots of the Catholic faith in the New World.
In 1587 Franciscan missionaries formally established Mission Nombre de Dios. It became the foundation for evangelization throughout Spanish Florida and is recognized as the oldest mission in the continental United States..
Devotion to Our Lady of La Leche
From the beginning, the Spanish settlers carried with them a deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the 1620s they built a small chapel at Mission Nombre de Dios and dedicated it to Nuestra Señora de La Leche y Buen Parto—Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery. Within the chapel they placed a statue of Mary nursing the infant Christ, a tender image that spoke of her love as both mother and protector.
The devotion quickly spread among the native peoples of Florida, including the Timucua, Guale and Apalachee, who saw in Mary’s maternal care a reflection of God’s love for his people. Since the 17th century, countless pilgrims have continued this tradition, turning to Our Lady of La Leche for help in marriage, strength in faith, the gift of children and the safe delivery of mothers in childbirth.
In 2012 the Holy See recognized the importance of this devotion by approving October 11 as the local feast day of Our Lady of La Leche for the Diocese of St. Augustine. It remains the oldest Marian devotion in the United States, alive in the hearts of pilgrims who come here seeking her intercession.
A Sacred Acre
The mission grounds where Father López once celebrated that first Mass have long been regarded as sacred. In 1965, during the 400th anniversary of the city’s founding, a towering 208-foot stainless steel cross was erected here as a permanent witness to the Catholic faith first planted on these shores. Today, the Great Cross rises over the Matanzas River, a beacon of hope and a reminder of the sacrifice of Christ.
The Mission Museum, opened in 2010, helps tell this story with artifacts from excavations, vestments and chalices once used in worship, and even the original casket of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, whose remains were later returned to Spain.
Nearby stands the National Shrine Church, first built and blessed in 1966 as the Prince of Peace Votive Church. It was dedicated at a time of global unrest, as a prayer that God would spare the world from nuclear war. In 2015 Bishop Felipe J. Estévez led its renovation and rededication, adding 2,500 square feet of space and a small chapel honoring the Prince of Peace and Our Lady of Fatima, answering the Blessed Mother’s call for peace.
The grounds also invite pilgrims into prayer through Marian shrines to Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the historic cemetery where soldiers of every race are buried together, the Seven Sorrows of Mary, the rustic altar, the Rosary Garden and statues of Father López and St. Francis of Assisi.
Recognition and Renewal
In 2019 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops designated the site a national shrine. On October 10, 2021, Pope Francis granted a canonical coronation of the image of Our Lady of La Leche, which took place at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine after being delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This once-in-a-lifetime event was a tremendous blessing for the Diocese of St. Augustine, and today the crowned image of Our Lady can be venerated in the historic chapel.
Pilgrims from around the world continue to visit, seeking Mary’s intercession for fertility, healthy children, safe delivery and thanksgiving. Masses, adoration, the rosary garden and other devotional walks invite all who come to encounter Christ’s presence in this sacred place. Here, the faith first planted in 1565 continues to grow in the hearts of the faithful.
A Scholar at the Helm
From 1962 to 1967, Dr. Michael V. Gannon—historian, educator and priest—directed Mission Nombre de Dios. He guided St. Augustine’s 400th-anniversary commemoration in 1965 and supervised installation of the Great Cross on the “sacred acre,” the site where the first parish Mass was celebrated.
In his landmark book The Cross in the Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida, 1513–1870 (1965), Gannon described that Mass as “the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent European settlement in the land”—decades before the Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving in New England.
Known for his wit, Gannon once quipped, “When Plymouth was founded, St. Augustine was up for urban renewal,” underscoring the city’s long Catholic history not always reflected in our history books.
Laicized in 1976, he married and devoted himself to scholarship at the University of Florida, where he served as professor, dean, and ultimately Distinguished Service Professor of History. From 2006 to 2014, he also wrote the column From the Archives for St. Augustine Catholic, sharing insights on the diocese’s heritage. His legacy remains honored through the Michael Gannon Bridge at the Mission and the City of St. Augustine’s Order of La Florida, awarded in 2007.
Among his published works are The Cross in the Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida, 1513–1870 and Rebel Bishop: Augustin Verot, Florida’s Civil War Prelate. He also edited The History of Florida and authored Michael Gannon’s History of Florida in Forty Minutes. These titles are available through the University Press of Florida, major booksellers and libraries.
