"Florida which has been bedewed in the East and in the West, in the North and in the South with the purest blood of the Martyrs!"
--Bishop Augustin Verot, Florida's first resident bishop, August 1858
There are fifty-four martyrdom events under investigation. Some events have one martyr and some have many. All were killed in the evangelization of the region of our nation’s land known as la Florida. It is a seamless story that began in 1549 with the courageous landing of the Dominicans in Tampa Bay – and ended in 1761 in Pensacola as three Apalachee Indians were killed trying to protect the Eucharist.
There are three things you should know before you read about these holy men, women and children.
1. This list is not final as research is ongoing. Each proposed martyr’s cause must be supported in light of the formal and material elements of martyrdom and the strength of the testimony of the witnesses to the martyrdom. The documentary evidence must be verified and certain. The historians must then testify to the Tribunal concerning each proposed martyr.
2. The Church requires that all documents remain sealed while the martyrdoms are investigated. Therefore, there are uncited quotes pending verification by the historians; the documents and their sources may not be released until the Church has completed her investigation.
3. A note about the “anonymous martyr”: The Church may canonize an individual whose name is unknown, if he or she and the martyrdom is otherwise known. However, if the ‘anonymous martyr’ is known by a number or name only, this is not enough information for the Church to canonize. There are many people who died for the Faith in la Florida, especially the Apalachee people, who will not be in the cause. The reason is that they are “anonymous”
I The Protomartyrs
Although diocesan priests ministered in Florida from an early date, the protomartyrs were members of three great religious orders: the Dominicans, the Jesuits, and the Franciscans. The Dominicans, who had long been active in New Spain, were rebuffed when they attempted to establish a peaceful mission near Tampa Bay in 1549. The Jesuits, who were recruited by the adelantado Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the founder of St. Augustine, had a brief, bloody, but glorious tenure in Florida (1566–1572). Their missions stretched around the peninsula of Florida and even up to the Chesapeake Bay. The first Franciscans arrived in Florida in 1573, and over the next two centuries they tirelessly ministered to the indigenous population throughout northern Florida, eventually building a string of missions that stretched from St. Augustine to Pensacola. But in 1597 five Franciscans on the coastal islands of present-day Georgia perished for the faith as a result of a native uprising.
III East Florida: Early Attacks
Concentrated attacks on the Franciscan missions in the eastern part of la Florida led to several martyrdoms in the latter part of the seventeenth and the first decade of the eighteenth century. Two of these martyrs were Franciscan priests: Fr. Luis Sánchez, who was killed in one of the southernmost Franciscan missions, and Fr. Agustín Poncé de Leon, a native of St. Augustine. The other martyrs in this group were native converts, killed because they would not renounce the faith. Some of these attacks resulted from the growing English presence to the north and by the growing demand for slave labor. Slave raiders saw the Franciscan missions as prime targets.
V Pensacola: Early
Evidence indicates that Franciscans and laypersons died as martyrs in and around Pensacola in the first decade of the eighteenth century. These missionaries were proclaiming the Gospel to the Mobila Indians.
VI St. Augustine: Middle
During the second and third decades of the eighteenth century several Franciscans and native converts suffered martyrdom in or around St. Augustine at the hands of hostile native tribes. Noteworthy is the presence of two 3rd order Franciscans, who were attacked and killed while teaching catechism in a chapel.
VII Nombre De Dios (St. Augustine): Palmer Invasion
Three martyrdom events are associated with the raid of Col. John Palmer, a member of the Carolina House of Commons, who in March 1728 attacked the Yamasee town of Nombre de Dios, located on the northern edge of St. Augustine. Palmer killed thirty Yamasee and took fifteen prisoners. He also set fire to the chapel and the convent.
VIII St. Augustine: Olgethorpe
These events involve attacks to the Catholic missions in and around St. Augustine, where many native converts had sought refuge from other regions of la Florida. Some of these events are associated with the siege of St. Augustine conducted by James Oglethorpe of the newly-founded colony of Georgia. These excruciating incidents reveal the depth of the Catholic faith among many native peoples in Florida.
IX St. Augustine: Late
These two events indicate that hostility to Franciscan missionary activity persisted well into the latter half of the eighteenth century.
The last reports of martyrdom emerge from Spanish missionary activity in the far western panhandle of Florida and in present-day Alabama.
Marcos, Mateo, and Prudencio, 1703, Apalachee Province
Names: Marcos, Mateo, and Prudencio (Apalachee)
Roberto (Yamasee)
Date: July 22, 1740
Place: chapel of Our Lady of La Leche, St. Augustine
The English under Oglethorpe, “this enemy of Spain and of our Catholic religion and of our faith”, and their allies the Creeks attacked the shrine of Our Lady of la Leche on July 22, 1740. They were beaten back, but not before they burned and desecrated the shrine.
Two Yamassee Indians Eladio and Roberto were found dead of musket wounds within the chapel. Their blood had made a pool on the dirt floor. These Indians had been given the honor and responsibility of caring for the shrine.
“…both of them baptized and of great faith and veneration to the same Virgin Our Lady, and that both of them helped the religious when they celebrated the Masses there, and that they taught the Catechism to the other Indians… They fulfilled all their duties and carried them out and accomplished them with much zeal and great dedication and care, because the said holy image of the Blessed Virgin of the Milk and of the Good and Happy Childbirth was greatly venerated by all, since she was very miraculous and took care of her children at all times and in all things…
…But these two Indians, Eladio and Roberto, as it seems, died before the altar of the said chapel and the holy image of the Virgin Our Lady of the Milk and of the Good and Happy Childbirth, when they were trying to stop the enemies that were ruining and burning everything, and the only resort they had for this was to shoot arrows at the Creek Indians, so they armed themselves with their bows and the arrows they had in their quivers and shot their enemies, and as a result of this defense, five of the said Creek Indians died from the arrows [that were shot at them], and these arrows could still be seen in their bodies. And due to this defense they made, the two of them were killed when they were fighting against the Creeks in order to defend the image of Our Lady the Virgin…and that the Indians Eladio and Roberto died as a result of having been shot by the Creek Indians, it can be known that they died in defense of their faith, when with great zeal they wanted to avoid the destruction of the holy image of the Virgin, which was destroyed by the bullets of the English.”
Six witness testified to their martyrdom by “the Holy Cross and the Gospels.”