The Spanish Missions in Florida
From 1549 to 1763, the Kingdom of Spain sent Catholic missionaries to Florida. Here is their history.
CONTENTS
2. Early Exploration in Florida=
3. Jesuit Missionary Efforts in Florida
4. Franciscan Missionary Efforts in Florida
- The Missionaries were coworkers of Murdering Conquerors
- Their Motives were Insincere
- A Lack of Respect for the Indigenous People
1. The Colonial Government
The Spanish missions were organized and structured. That was in marked contrast to the French missions, which were more loosely set up for nomads.
In those days, the two most powerful Spanish rulers were Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452–1516) and Isabella I of Castile (1451–1504). When they married in 1469, the two most powerful leaders in Spain were united.
In 1482, Pope Sixtus IV (1414–1484) gave Isabella and Ferdinand nearly absolute power over the Catholic church in Spain. They could appoint bishops and canons, for example.
Later, in 1508, Pope Julius II (1443–1513) extended their power to the New World as well.
That shifted the identity of the clergy. Instead of being clerics working for the Catholic church, they were now employees of the Spanish government.
The Spanish Empire had an administrative organ for the Americas and those territories it governed. It was called the Council of the Indies. It was a ruling civil power whose permission was needed for just about everything done in New Spain.
For example, the Council of the Indies was the approval entity for everything from liturgical candles to letters to Rome.
If the representative of the Council of the Indies was warm to the Catholic church, then the work of the Catholic church advanced. But if the representative was cold to the Catholic church, then the work of the Catholic church stalled.
2. Early Exploration in Florida
King Ferdinand heard rumors of undiscovered lands to the northwest of the island of Hispaniola. He urged an explorer-conquistador named Ponce de León to discover them. In 1513, Ponce de León landed on Florida.
In May 1539, an explorer and conquistador named Hernando de Soto led an expedition of more than 620 men to central Florida.
In 1549, a Dominican missionary named Father Luis de Cancer de Barbastro led a missionary team dedicated to the conversion of the Indigenous Peoples of Florida. His plan was peaceful. However, he was guided to an area where de Soto and others had inflicted violence on the Indigenous Peoples. There, Barbastro was clubbed to death by Tocobaga natives.
Florida was important to King Ferdinand of Spain. That was because he was eager to receive his annual shipment of silver from Vera Cruz in Mexico. But those shipments were in danger in the Bahama Straits, where English and French pirate ships tried to steal the silver. If Spain could control Florida, then the silver shipments would be safe.
In 1564, a group of French Calvinists called Huguenots, led by Jean Ribault, built Fort Caroline on the St. Johns River in northeast Florida.
3. Jesuit Missionary Efforts in Florida
King Philip II of Spain (1527-1598) wanted to get rid of the French Calvinists.
He commissioned a Spanish admiral, explorer and conquistador named Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to drive the French out of Spanish Florida. Also, he was to provide missionaries to the native peoples.
Menéndez led an armada to Florida. He established the city of St. Augustine. Then he led an army that attacked Fort Caroline. He killed all the male Huguenots and destroyed the fort. Then he asked the Jesuits to send missionaries.
On June 28, 1566, three Jesuits set sail from Seville to Florida. They were Father Pedro Martinez, Father Juan Rogel, and Brother Francisco Villarreal. Their goal was to aid in the colonization of New Spain as well as to convert the Indigenous Peoples to Roman Catholicism.
They arrived on September 14, 1566. Shortly after landing, Father Martinez got separated from the group and was killed.
The survivors found their way to St. Augustine. From there, they began an evangelistic campaign. They especially targeted the Calusa Peoples. Their preaching was so effective that people wanted to be baptized.
However, the Jesuits’ insistence upon monogamy did not go over well. Nor did their comments about devil worship.
In any case, their early successes among the Calusa Peoples ended in 1568 when Father Rogel left.
A new missionary team arrived, with Juan Baptista de Segura (1529–1571) acting as Provincial. They found the morale of the people in St. Augustine to be very low. That was due to a constant fear of attack plus a shortage of food that left them in a state of hunger.
The missionaries shifted their focus from southern Florida to northern Florida and southern Georgia. Those regions were home to the Guale People.
Some of the missionaries thought Segura was incompetent as a leader.
In 1570 the missionaries met an Indigenous Person named Don Louise. He was very open to both the Catholic faith as well as Europeanization.
Upon that encounter, a contingent of missionaries left for Chesapeake Bay. Don Louise acted as their guide.
However, upon arrival, Don Louise rejected the Catholic faith and convinced the tribe to avoid the Spanish people.
In 1571 one of the missionary priests went to the Indigenous People to beg for alms. He was killed. Then the rest of the missionary contingent was killed.
Later, relief workers arrived and found the bodies.
In those days, the Jesuit leader was Francis Borgia (1510–1572). In 1571 he determined that the Jesuits did not have the resources to maintain a presence in New Florida. Worldwide, they were simply stretched too thin.
Borgia called his team to withdraw from New Spain. By 1572 they were gone.
These early Jesuit outreach efforts were not successful. Five Jesuits were killed. Their departure left a vacuum, although that vacuum was later filled by the Franciscans.
4. Franciscan Missionary Efforts in Florida
A year after the Jesuits withdrew from New Spain, Franciscan missionaries arrived. Their goal was to minister to the military personnel.
But in 1584 they began an outreach to the Indigenous Peoples. Unfortunately the outreach group had internal problems and it soon collapsed.
In 1586 Diego de Reinoso recruited a second team of Franciscan missionaries. Their goal was pioneer outreach to the Guale Peoples.
Often the success of missionaries in New Spain depended upon a favorable relationship with colony officials. In the 1590s that relationship was successful. In fact, the governor of Florida wanted more Franciscans.
But in late 1596 a revolt by the Indigenous Peoples killed five missionaries. The revolt stemmed partly over the issue of monogamy.
A pattern was emerging in the missionary movement:
- Initial Acceptance
- Resistance to the Rules
- Revolt
In 1600 king Philip III of Spain (1578–1621) thought of abandoning the colony. But the colony wrote optimistic reports to him, asking for patience. The friars convinced the king, and they launched new initiatives.
One of those initiatives was an outreach to the Ais People of eastern Florida. By 1610 there were 22 Friars working among 6,000 Christian Indigenous Peoples.
From 1610 to 1675 the Franciscan missions in Florida were in a Golden Era:
- They launched outreaches to the Timucua People who lived in northeast and north central Florida.
- They launched outreaches to the Apalachee People who lived in the Florida Panhandle.
- They wrote catechisms in the languages of the Indigenous Peoples.
- They had a strong core of friars.
The Franciscan friars were interested in evangelizing the Apalachee People.
Their interest was due to their chronic warefare state. They believed that if the Apalachee People were christianized, the warfare would end and Europeans could colonize their land.
In 1633 the first missionary presence arrived. Ultimately there were more than 30 missionary stations, staffed by more than 20 friars, serving 20,000 baptized Apalachee people and 50,000 catechized Apalachee people.
However, in 1645, a new deputy governor began placing new demands upon the Apalachee people.
A revolt broke out. Three friars were killed, and the deputy governor and his family were killed. In retaliation, the government hung twelve instigators.
With that, the situation quieted for a decade.
Then in 1566, governor Rebolledo ordered the Indigenous People to provide laborers for the building of a stone fort at St. Augustine. The governor also recruited Indigenous People to be troops to defend him against a possible attack by the English.
A short revolt erupted.
By 1656 there were 70 friars among 60,000 christianized Indigenous People.
No Indigenous People were ever trained as friars.
After 1656, there were pressures, both internal and external, to quit the missions. The British Empire set up Charleston in South Carolina in the 1660s. And the French were squeezing Florida from the west.
By 1702, governor James Moore of South Carolina laid seige upon St. Augustine. His goal was to expand the British Empire. He even got the Indigenous People to attack the mission posts.
In 1704 he attacked a town where the local friar encouraged the Indigenous People to resist the attack. Governor Moore allowed his troops to torture the friar to death.
That made it clear to the Spanish government that the British were terrorists.
The surviving Indigenous People fled west to Pensacola, while 12,000 of them were carried north into slavery.
In 1715 Spain was on the loosing side of the French-Indian war. By 1763 Spain let go of Florida in order to retain Cuba.
Then by 1820 Florida was ceded to the United States. But at that point, the Catholic church had nearly vanished from Florida.
5. Our Observations
From the above, we have three observations.
Observation 1. The Missionaries were coworkers of Murdering Conquerors
The Spanish government saw New Florida as ripe with people to be conquered and land to be taken.
With that mindset, they profoundly alienated the Indigenous Peoples. Instead of aiming for peaceful coexistence, the Spanish government provoked a state of war.
The missionaries followed closely behind the conquerors, and were inextricably linked to them. The emissaries of the Lord Jesus Christ were obvious coworkers of murders and conquerors.
Forced into a state of war, the Indigenous People were forced to defend their lives. It should not be surprising that they killed some missionaries. After all, the missionaries were obvious coworkers of murders and a conquering empire.
Observation 2. Their Motives were Insincere
Why did the Kingdom of Spain launch missionary projects in Florida?
Sure, they had a goal of converting the Indigenous People to Roman Catholicism. However, that was subordinated to two larger goals.
The larger goals were to gain control of the area, and to obstruct regional colonization by Protestants.
In other words, the missionaries were working to help the Empire to conquer the people and take their land.
Observation 3. A Lack of Respect for the Indigenous People
The basis for a missionary endeavor is respect for the people.
Respect motivates the missionary to live among the people, to learn their culture, and to imbibe their worldview.
In a milieu of respect, a way will become evident for the people to be led to the Lord Jesus.
But in the Florida missions, it seems clear that there was very little respect.
Rather, the missionaries were working to help the Empire to conquer the people and take their land.
The missionaries expected the people to reject their identity and culture and become Europeanized.
HISTORY – U.S. CATHOLIC
MAJOR ERAS:
- The Spanish Missions in New Mexico: 1540 to 1616
- The Spanish Missions in Florida: 1549 to 1763
- The English Missions in the Mid-Atlantic region: beginning in the 1570s
- Catholics and the American Revolutionary War: 1775–1783
- Archbishop John Carroll: 1774-1815
- Archbishop Leonard Neale: 1815-1817
- Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal: 1817 -1828
- Archbishop James Whitfield: 1828 to 1834
- Archbishop Samuel Eccleston: 1834-1851
- Archbishop Francis Kenrick: 1851–1863
SEE ALSO: References, Church History
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