The Original Mission Church

Settlers of St. Augustine moved twice before finally settling south of the plaza in 1572. Franciscan friars arrived in 1573 and later established the first Mission of Nombre de Dios here, now recognized as the first Catholic mission established in the continental United States. The mission stood on what are now the Fountain of Youth grounds, and the mission area eventually expanded south into the La Leche Shrine area. Friar Antonio de Escobedo was the Franciscan friar assigned to construct the first Mission of Nombre de Dios. The site of the Mission Church of Nombre de Dios was lost until 1934, when a gardener planting trees discovered human burials, leading Walter Fraser to contact the Smithsonian Institution, whose archaeologists excavated more than a hundred burials before the remains were later re-interred. Efforts to convert the Timucua to Christianity began near the former Spanish St. Augustine settlement after 1577, and the Timucuan town of Seloy, just north of the Spanish city, was renamed Nombre de Dios by the Spanish; in 1587 the first mission was established there and given the same name. A 1593 map by Hernando de Mestas shows the Mission of Nombre de Dios as several buildings at the water's edge surrounded by fields, and a severe smallpox outbreak in 1654-1655 probably prompted the abandonment of this location.

St. Augustine, Florida · United States