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.