When Catholics first came to this land that would become the United States, whether Irish (6th century), Norse (11th century), Scottish (14th), Spanish and French (16th), they came first with a missionary motive, and second as explorers and settlers. Though the leaders of numerous expeditions were themselves of the latter two categories, they always brought missionary priests/religious with them, primarily Franciscans, Dominicans, and members of the Society of Jesus (commonly known as Jesuits). When Catholic explorers came here they would always claim the land for Christ the King and His Blessed Mother and plant a cross demonstrating such. For example: the monks with the Prince Henry St. Clair expedition did such in 1398 after they landed at today's Louisberg Harbor in Cape Breton Island; Ponce de Leon with his missionary Dominican Friars on the Gulf Coast side of Florida in 1521; Esteban Gomez with his missionary priest in 1525 near today's White Haven, Maryland (he gave the original name to the Chesapeake Bay: Immaculate Conception Bay at that time); Lucas de Ayllon with two Dominican priests and one lay brother near today's Georgetown, South Carolina in 1526 (and then proceeded to establish the first European settlement in America following Columbus' expeditions: San Miguel de Guadalupe); Jacques Cartier in 1534 on today's Prince Edward Island, which he originally named St. Jean Island; Father Marcos de Nizzo with his missionary expedition in 1539 in today's New Mexico, who after erecting his large cross, then built an altar and offered the first known Holy Sacrifice of the Mass west of the Mississippi; Hernando de Soto's expedition (including twelve missionary priests) in 1540 along today's Florida panhandle, and many more after. But even more significant than planting a cross and claiming the land for Our Lord was when the very Sacrifice of Our Lord and Savior was sacramentally made present in this land we call America. When this occurred, then the redeeming Precious Blood of Christ was made present in this land. In a number of today's states it is not known when exactly the first Mass was offered. For example, when St. Brendan and his monks came to America in the 6th century (sometime during the reign of Pope John III, 561-574) and landed in New Hampshire, it is certain Holy Mass was offered, since at least St. Brendan was himself a priest. But when exactly, we do not know. Also, in Florida there were a number of attempts to establish missions in the early 1520s, but the local natives were too violent and hostile and those missions were either left unfinished or abandoned. Did any of the missionary priests offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on land before the mission was completed, or did they continue to offer Mass on the ship as was the custom until the mission was completed? We are not sure. Another example is Louisiana. It also is not know whether or not missionary priests with the Cabeza de Vaca expedition offered Mass while traveling west along the coast through Louisiana, for some sacred vessels were lost when their ship was wrecked. If they were able to, then the first Mass there would have been offered sometime around 1529-30. If they did not (other than a "dry Mass"), then the first Mass was most likely offered a century and a half later in 1682. Nevertheless, this listing is provided for those states where we do know when the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was first offered. As will be clearly shown, this was a land of Catholics long before any Protestant -English or French- established any settlements.
STATE YEAR WHO Rhode Island: 1398 Monk with the Prince Henry St. Clair settlement Alabama: 1519 Missionary priests on the Alonso de Pinada Expedition Maryland: 1525 Chaplain for Estaban Gomez expedition Virginia: 1526 Fr. Antonio Montesino, O.P. (De Allyon expedition) South Carolina: 1526 Fr. Montesino (St. Michael de Guadalupe) Mississippi: 1529 Priests on Cabeza de Vaca expedition Florida 1539 Missionary priests on De Soto expedition Arizona: 1539 Franciscans on Coronado expedition New Mexico 1539 Fr. Marcos de Nizzo, O.F.M. Texas 1540 Fr. Juan Padilla, O.F.M. (Coronado expedition) Kansas 1542 Fr. Juan Padilla, O.F.M. North Carolina 1566 Fr. Sabastian Montero (Carolina missions) Maine: 1570 Fr. Andrew Thevet, O.F.M. California 1602 Carmelite friars on Vizcaino expedition Tennessee: 1607 Fr. Francesco Parejo (from San Joseph de Sapala mission) Vermont 1615 Franciscan missionary from Quebec New York 1620s Jesuit missionaries under direction of Fr. John de Brebuf. S.J. Michigan 1660 Fr. Rene Menard, S.J. Wisconsin 1660-01 Fr. Rene Menard, S.J. Illinois 1673 Fr. Jacques Marquette, S.J. Minnesota 1680 Fr. Louis Hennepin, O.F.M. Louisiana 1682 Fr. Zenobius Membre (La Salle expedition) Indiana: 1686 Fr. Claude Allouez, S.J. (near present site of Notre Dame) Missouri: 1702 Fr. John Mermet, S.J. (near mouth of Ohio River) Oregan 1775 Fr. Miguel Campa, O.F.M. Kentucky: 1776 Fr. Stephen Badin (Bardstown) Utah 1776 Fr. Silvestre de Escalante, O.F.M. South Dakota 1795 Missionary priest on John Mackey expedition North Dakota 1795-96 (same as above) Iowa: 1832 Fr. John McMahon (Dubuque mission) Wyoming 1840 Fr. Pierre de Smet, S.J. (July 5th, at mouth of Laramie River)
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Catholic Foundations, Part I
Catholic Foundations, Part I
We do not limit our view of history to a nationalist one (whether English, Spanish, French, etc), but to a confessional one (i.e., Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Free-masonic, Socialist, etc). You see, other than the inclinations resulting from man's fallen nature, it is beliefs that more fundamentally drive men to do what they do, not their blood or nationality. So even if an English man does something, saying he does it because he is English, is still doing it firstly because of his belief in his concept of England, or his English blood, or whatever. Actions reveal (or expose) one's beliefs much more so than one's nationality or blood-line.The real history of America tells us a story different from the national mythology that has been and still taught in our schools, text books, the "History Channel," etc. It is a story of a land that, before any Protestant came -English or otherwise- was solemnly consecrated to Christ the King and His Blessed Mother by Catholic explorers and missionaries. In fact, Catholics had arrived on these shores nearly one thousand years before Protestantism even existed!
America was a land with Catholic activity from east to west and from north to south long before the Pilgrims came (1620), long before Jamestown was settled in 1607; and even long before the failed Roanoke settlement in 1587. It was a land in which many Catholic missionaries would overcome great odds and dangers and convert countless native American Indians to the True Faith, and where, by 1776, more than one hundred of these missionaries had shed their blood for Christ and His Kingdom at the hands of either the natives, or English Protestants, or Huguenots.
Here are some quick facts to whet your appetite in preparation for this blog-series.
DID YOU KNOW...
- that when Lief Ericson and his crew landed in Nova Scotia around the year 1002 (I presume you already knew this, right?) that he brought two missionary monks with him? (Ericson converted to the Catholic Faith in the year 1000 during the reign of Pope Silvester II.) And did you know that the local native Indians he encountered had told them of white, bearded men in the interior, who wore black robes and carried beads and crosses in procession telling them that "God had visited men"? Ericson wrote about it for our prosperity in his work the Vinland Saga.
- that before Jamestown was settled in 1607 there were already more that 60 (yes, that's SIXTY!) mission/settlements by Catholics established in not only what is now Florida and New Mexico, but in Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and New England? (See this map of early settlements in Georgia.)
- that by the time the Pilgrims landed in 1620 there were more than 85 mission/settlements established by Catholics in what is now the United States? This includes almost half-dozen settlements in New England before the Pilgrims came.
- that by the time the Pilgrims came more than 50,000 (yes, that's fifty-thousand!) American Indians had converted and been baptized in the Catholic Faith?
- that before Jamestown was settled more than two-dozen Catholic missionaries had already been martyred for the Faith? The first being Fr. Juan Padilla in 1542 in.... Do you know where? ... In what is now Kansas. Yes, he was that far in the interior proclaiming the Gospel to the locals and paid for it with his life. (We will cover the details of this and other martyrdoms in future articles.)
Mission/Settlements Before Jamestown (1607)
Florida: 27 - Apalachee Mission, 1539, to San Francisco Patano, 1607 (eight more by 1620)Alabama: 1 - Santa Cruz, 1560 (one more by 1620)
Georgia: 20 - Mission of Guale, 1568, to Mission of Yoa, 1606 (four more by 1620)
South Carolina: 4 - San Miguel de Guadalupe, 1526, to Mission of Escamacu, 1570
North Carolina: 2 - Mission of Guatari, 1566, and Mission of Joada, 1574
Virginia: 1 - Mission Axacan, 1570
Maryland: 1 - temporary settlement (three months) by the Esteban Gomez expedition, 1525
Rhode Island: 1 - Prince Henry Saint Clair settlement at today's New Port, 1398
New Hampshire: 1- St. Brendan expedition, circa 565
Maine: 2 - French settlement under Fr. Andrew Thevet, 1570, to St. Croix, 1604 (one more by 1620: Holy Savior, 1612)
New Mexico: 14 - Albuquerque, 1541, to San Miguel de Santa Fe, 1605 (seven more by 1620)
FACT: Catholics were the first to establish settlements on more than three times as many states as Protestants (35 to 13 - Alaska and West Virginia not included).
Where Catholics Settled First
State Settlement Year Catholic Protestant
New Hampshire St. Brendan expedition c. 565 * 1626-Rye (Portsmith)Rhode Island Name Unknown(New Port) 1398 * 1636-Providence
Maryland Estaban Gomez expedition 1525 * 1631-Kent Island
South Carolina San Miguel de Guadalupe 1526 * 1670-Charleston
Florida Appalachee Mission 1539 * 1565-Pirate Base
Alabama Nanipacna (Santa Cruz) 1559 * 1763
North Carolina Guatari 1566 * 1587-Roanoke)
Georgia Guale 1568 * 1733-Savanna
Virgina Axacan 1570 * 1607-Jamestown
Maine Fr. Thevet 1570 * 1625-Pemaquid
New Mexico San Juan 1590 * 1846
Arizona San Bernadino 1619 * 1850
Illinois Utica Mission 1639 * 1763
Michigan Sault Ste. Marie 1660 * 1759
Wisconsin Holy Ghost Mission 1665 * 1783
Vermont Isla La Motte 1666 * 1690-Addison
Texas Sacramento Mission 1675 * 1821
Tennessee Fort Prudhomme (Memphis) 1682 * 1735? (1769)
Indiana South Bend Mission 1686 * 1763
Minnesota Fort Frontenac 1686 * 1783
Louisiana Mississippi Mission 1699 * 1803
Arkansas Little Rock 1699 * 1804
Mississippi Biloxi 1699 * 1763
Missouri St. Louis (trading post) 1699 * 1783
Nebraska Posts on South Platte 1718 * 1820-Fort Atkinson
Ohio Sandusky 1751 * 1788-Marietta
California San Diego 1769 * 1812-Bodega Bay
Nevada Beatty Mission 1774-5 * 1849-Genoa
Colorado San Pablo 1774 * 1859-Denver
Iowa Dubuque 1788 * 1830
South Dakota Pawnee House 1794 * 1807
Oklahoma Chouteau Post 1796 * 1817-Fort Smith
Montana James Mackey trading post 1796 * 1809-Fort Union
North Dakota Pembina (trading post) 1797 * 1851
Idaho Pend d'Oreille Post 1809 * 1810
Where Protestants Settled First
State Settlement Year Protestant Catholic
Massachusetts Plymouth 1620 * 1750
New York Fort Orange 1623 * 1655
New Jersey Fort Nassau 1625 * 1672
Delaware Near today's Lewes 1631 * 1750
Pennsylvania Post on Delaware River 1633 * 1710
Connecticut Hartford (or Wethersfield) 1634 * 1755
Kentucky Harrodsburg 1774 * 1775
Washington Spokane 1810 * 1839
Oregon Astoria 1811 * 1839
Hawaii Missions 1820 * 1824
Kansas Fort Leavenworth 1827 * 1836
Wyoming Fort Laramie 1834 * -
Utah Goodyear (Ogdon) 1841 * -
In Catholic Foundations, Part II, we will continue with some more "trivial" facts before we really get to the meat of our historical examination.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
In the Beginning...
Introduction
This is an unabashedly Catholic blog. I accept entirely the claim made by the historical man, known in English as Jesus the Christ, that He, and He alone, is The way, The truth, and The life, and that no one can come to God the Father in Heaven except through Him (cf. The Gospel of St. John, Chapter 14, verse 6ff); that He is equal to the Father (John 10:30)), for He is God made man (Matthew 1:23); that He established His Church, structured upon His heavenly kingdom (Matthew 6:10; Ephesians 2: 19-21), as the instrument of salvation (Acts 2:47) to teach with His authority (Mat. 18:18), and that to reject this church is reject Christ Himself (Luke 10:16); that His One True Church is the Catholic Church, with its seat of teaching and governing authority in Rome (for biblical and historical proof of this, go here and obtain my small book, The Roman Catholic Church).
Yet, this is a blog on history, particularly, American history and the often suppressed facts of this land's Catholic foundation -long before the pilgrims and the establishment of Jamestown. Can one (Catholicism) compliment the other (American history)? Absolutely! You see history itself began with an act of God the Creator: "In the beginning [of time -of history] God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Therefore, not only are religion, theology, and faith concerned with God, but so is authentic history -since the Almighty Himself got it started, often intervened, and then actually entered it and set it on a new course.
Even more specific, authentic history centers on Christ our Lord: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things were made by Him and there is nothing that was not made by Him... and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:1, 3, 14). The real nature of history will be completely misunderstood (and its presentation mortally distorted) if it is separated from Our Lord Jesus Christ, for we must "have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16) when studying it.
Therefore, for a properly formed Catholic, history is understood as the unfolding of God's will in time and the record of how men and nations conformed to that will or resisted it. It is thus seen as the unfolding in time of the war between the Kingdom of God on earth, which is found only in the Catholic Church, and the kingdom of Satan. Though spiritual in nature, this war has as its battle ground the very hearts and minds of us mortals here on earth and is manifested in numerous ways in and through religious movements, philosophical movements, social movements, political movements, revolutions, etc. Thus we will examine American history, its civilized origins, its political origins, major events, including its wars, in light of the Catholic Faith and Catholic principles.
History Basics
Let me start with the fact that history affects each and every one of us to varying degrees. This includes both the events themselves, and their consequences, as well as what has been recorded, written, published, and handed down to succeeding generations in classrooms everywhere. The latter has as much an effect upon our sentiments, sympathies, prejudices, and loyalties as much, if not more, than the actual consequential results of historical events. The truth of this last sentence proves that history is involved in not simply passing on facts of the past, but the actual formation of both one's mind and emotions/affections/feelings, etc., because it results in some form or another of sentimental and/or intellectual loyalty. Loyalty to what? Well, to what ever the historian, author, teacher, publisher, school union, government, or whoever, wants to promote and propagate - a particular world-view, or philosophy, a political school of thought, a political party, a sociological school of thought, etc. Thus, history (and "social studies") has been used as a tool to garner, or we could even say, "evangelize," children and adults to come to some type of mind-set, or some position. This can be either positive or negative. It's function in schools definitely involves social conditioning.
Ask any American (or yourself) what he believes to be the greatest virtue, and, like any "good" American, he will answer -"freedom." Now, check your catechism and look up "virtues." I'll tell you what... I'll save you the time and effort and inform you now that no catechism, no manual of dogmatic or moral theology anywhere lists freedom as a virtue. Why not? Because freedom is no such thing. Freedom is a condition, or a status; it is a consequence or a result. But it is not a virtue. If you, Dear Reader, are a Catholic, and thought that "freedom" was the answer, then recognize that you have been conditioned to think more as an American than as a Catholic. If this just happened to you, hopefully you are disturbed by this fact.
We Have Been Cheated
You see, much of the American history that has been taught in the vast majority of schools and common texts came from a Protestant-English viewpoint. To be more exact, American history had been primarily taught from a White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) viewpoint. And this has more often than not been anti-Catholic. Yet today, or rather, for the last generation or more, much history being taught comes from a blend of Marxism (or Naturalism -condemned by the Church in the 19th century), and it's child known as "political-correctness," and the viewpoint of a new paganism that appears to worship nature and holds that the beliefs of all pagan cultures are equal to, if not better than, Christianity. These erroneous views reject the truth concerning Original Sin, the Fall, and thus man's fallen nature, and therefore are blinded to the proper understanding of man's nature and the nature of politics. Unfortunately, these view points have permeated even the history texts used for Catholic schools since at least the 1950s, but even earlier in pockets of progressive regions (i.e. California, New York, New England, etc).
Most unfortunate is the fact that Catholics in American have been cheated from knowing the true history of this land by being given false notions as to its origins and false notions concerning the reasons for, and forces behind, major historical events. We have even been taught myths about major events such as what is popularly known as the "Civil War," and the causes of the two World Wars. This means that Catholics (all Americans, in fact) have received for the most part a distorted and even false history of their American past. The real heroes, and the real villains, have often not been properly identified, some being left out completely. We've been taught a national mythology of supposed great deeds by adventurous pilgrims and courageous forefathers. All of whom rejected the social Kingship of Christ and the One Church He established to teach all nations all that He taught. This blog, as I have done in a number of books, sets out to correct such myths and distortions of American history.
Details provided here will most likely result in some "eye-opening" and "jaw-dropping" moments for you, my dear readers. Stay tuned...
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