The bulletin (Augusta, Ga.) 1920-1957, May 11, 1929, Image 5
MAY it. 1929.
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOIJC LAYMEN'S. ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA.
1,070 Catholic Indians Con
firmed in State Year Be
fore First Permanent Eng
lish Settlement
BY RICHARD REID
In The Commonweal
The record of the Georgia' mis
sions is an inspiring story of the
Franciscans, the Jesuits, the Do
minicans, and the secular clergy.
It links us with the days of Saint
Ignatius Loyola, Sayat Francis Xav
ier, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint
Vincent de Paul, Saint Philip Neri,
Saint Peter Canisius. Indeed, it was
the great Sairt Francis Borgia him
self who sent sons of Loyola to
labor “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” in
the new country.
The English settled Georgia in
1733. Yet one year before the first
permanent English settlement, at
Jamestown, and fourteen years be
fore the Pilgrim Fathers “fell on
their knees and then on the aborig
ines” in the Old Bay State, His
Lordship, Cabeza de Altamirano,
Bishop of Santiago de Cuba, admin
istered the sacrament of confirma
tion in Georgia to 1,070 neophj^tes.
The accompanying article
published some time ago in
The Commonwealth, New
York, and subsequently re
produced in The Bulletin, is
reprinted because of the
many inquiries received re
cently about the early Span
ish missions of this state and
section. Forty-one years be
fore the English settled
Jamestown and fifty-tour
years before the Pilgrims
landed at Plymouth, *Ca.ho-
lic missionaries were labor
ing to Christianize the In
dians in Georgia and the
Southeast, and had missions
here. The visit of President
Coolidge to Georgia in De
cember directed the attention
of millions of people for the
first time to the fact that
Georgia has a history ante
dating that starting with the
coming of General Ogle
thorpe. The Georgia phase of
the Catholic history of the
early days in 'The Southeast
was emphasized in this arti
cle because the Catholic his
tory of Florida in those
pioneer, pre-colonial times is
generally known.
Closing Catholic Schools Would
Bankrupt Public School Systems
Louisville Record Points Out That Present Financial
Crisis in Public Education in Many Cities Was Long Post
poned by Parochial Schools.
First Jesuit Martyr in
Western Hemisphere Met
Death in Georgia at Hands
of Indians Near Brunswick
The early history of Georgia is
eloseiy linked with that of Florida.
Both were governed from St. Au
gustine; there was no clear line
of demarkation between them such
as now exists. Indeed, the name
Florida was applied equally to the
present Georgia. It is common
knowledge that the roots of Florida
are deeply inbedded in Catholic
soil. Ponce de Leon and his Cath
olic companions discovered Florida
on Easter morn of 1513, but their
attempt to found a colony was
abandoned eight lears later. It was
in Florida, at Tampa, that Luis
Cancer de Barbastro, Apostle of
Guatemala, was killed by the sav
age Catoosas—this was a genera
tion before the first permanent set
tlement on the North.American con
tinent, the Catholic St. Augustine
colonized in 1565.
The Catholic history of Georgia
y is hardly less ancient. It is prob
able that Ayllon, who in 1526, but a
score of years after the death of Co
lumbus, planted a short-lived colony
on the coast of South Carolina,
trod Georgia soil. It is certain that
Hernando de Soto crossed the state
"from the Savannah to the Chatta
hoochee” on his ill-fated march
(1539-1542) to his grave of running
waters in the Mississippi. De Soto
was accompanied on his historic
march by "twelve priests, eight ec
clesiastics, and four religious.” With
this expedition and that of Nar
vaez at least fifteen priests lost
their lives in the Southeast. Som^
of them, worn out by the hard
ships of battling their way through
treacherous swamps and dangerous
forests, found their final resting
place in Georgia graves.
By right of exploration the en
tire Southeast was Spain's. For
nearly a century and a half after
the discovery of Florida by Ponce
de Leoil and for a century after
Menendez settled St. Augustine and
colonized Georgia, their Catholic
majesties held practically undisput
ed sway over it. The Spanish, how
ever, were not particularly enthusi
astic about prospects in til is terri
tory. The failure of de Leon, Ayl
lon. de Luna, Villa fane, Narvaez, de
Soto, and other intrepid sons of
Aragon and Castile to plant settle
ments which would take root rather
discouraged King Philip. He
thought there were better lands in
South America, and he decided to
withdraw from the north country.
The French changed his mind for
him by settling Port Royal in 1562
and Fort Caroline, on the St. John’s
River, two years later.
the first books written in an Indian
tongue. After considerable discour
aging work among the fickle In
dians the Jesuits withdrew. Father
Segura and his companions went to
martyrs’ deaths in Virginia; the
others were transferred to the more
promising fields of Mexico and
Cuba.
The labors of the Jesuits were not.
fruitless. The results of their ef
forts and of those of the Domini-’
cans, who had established a mission
on St. Simon’s Island, were merely
lying dormant, to blossom, after
further cultivation by the Francis
cans who succeeded them, in the
early 1570’s. v Under the leadership
of Father Alonzo Reynossa, the pro
totype of the renowned Junipero
Serra, the sons of Saint Francis es
tablished missions in Georgia at
Ossabaw, Santa Catalina, San Si
mon, San Buenventura and San
Pedro Islands, at Tolomato on the
mainland opposite Sapelo Island, at
Santa Maria, and at other points.
our ships. Having in mind the
merciful disposition of your gra
cious majesty, we did not kill the
women and children, but having de
stroyed their provisions and prop
erty and taken away all then-
weapons we left them to starve.”
The world does grow better. What
a wave of resentment such an-act
of “mercy” would arouse through
out the Christian world were it
perpetrated today!
Twelve additional Franciscans
came to Georgia in 1593 to sup
plement their predecessors. Peter
de Avila established the mission of
San Buenventura at Ospo. now
Jekyl Island, the present site of
an ultra-exclusive club. Another
mission is believed to have been es
tablished on the .mainland north of
the Altamaha River. The great
expanse of swamp land between
the islands and the coast-fringe
and the Georgia back country did
not prevent the zealous Francis
cans from penetrating to the in
terior. The Brown Robes soon
came in contact with the powerful
Apalache Indians, whose territory
extended through southwestern
Georgia from the banks of the Su-
wanee in Florida to the Alabama
Apalachicola.
The ^xact location of most of the
old Franciscan missions is unknown,
but occasionally ruins of them are
revealed. The archives of Cuba,
recently examined, indicated the
site of the Franciscan establishment
on the banks of the Altamaha.
Miss Mary Ross, of the University
of California, found the spot and
the ruins; the cells of the monks
were being used as pigpens. The
owners of the property regarded the
relics of the missions as the re
mains of slave cabins built before
the war. Pictures of the ruins of
the Altamaha Mission and of Santa
Maria Mission, near St. Mary’s,
Georgia, appear in the recently is
sued Debatable Land. (Debatable
Land, by Herbert Bolton and Mary
Ross, Berkeley: University of Cali
fornia Press.) What an effect the
reconstruction of the original mis
sions would have on the minds of
that numerous body which is con
vinced that Catholics are newcom
ers, and as newcomers they should
know their place and keep it!
It would be pleasant to record
that the Franciscan missions flour
ished from the beginning, extending
their influence and increasing in
prosperity with each succeeding
generation, but it would not be true.
Yet there is no more brilliant page
in the Catholic history of this con
tinent than that which records the
trials, the triumphs and the reverses
of these followers of Saint Francis
in Georgia.
The missions were also victims
of fickleness on the part of the In
dians ’along the coast in the dying
days of the sixteenth century, long
before Jamestown and Plymouth,
when the friars were recovering
from the raids of Drake and other
buccaneers. . A young Yamassee
chief, a cacique’s son, after a short
period of fervor plunged into scan
dalous excesses and was privately
and later . publicly reproved by
Father Corpa of the Tolomata mis
sion. Enraged, the young brave
gathered some kindred ■ spirits
around him, attacked Father Corpa
in his fchapel in the darkness of
the night, stretching him lifeless
with one blow and then, cowering
the people, started out on a bloody
expedition that gave the church
four other martyrs.
Father Corpa's companions in
death were Father Rodriguez of
Torpiqui, whom the murderers al
lowed to say Mass before execu
tion; Father Aunon and Father de
Badajoz of Santa Catalena, also
killed at the end of Mass, and
whom a friendly Indian chief tried
in vain to save; and Father Velas-
cola of Asao, now St. Simon’s Is
land, the most learned and . most
humble of the missionaries, struck
down with clubs and axes by the
murderous band which met him in
an apparently friendly manner on
his return from a visit to St. Au
gustine. At the present Jekyl Is
land the assassins found Father de
(From the Louisville, Ky., Record)
It was announced through local
newspapers .last week that the
public schools of Louisville would
be closed this year two weeks be
fore the end of the term. The rea
son given is lack of public funds,
the budget allowed the educational
board from the public tax levy-
being insufficient to pay the teach
ers for the full term. The matter
has excited much comment in the
press. We have, not, however, no
ticed any suggestion as to how
much earlier the public schools
would have been closed were it not
for the Catholic schools in our city.
We may- be pardoned this sugges
tion. Roundly speaking, one-
fourth, of the children of primary
school age are enrolled in Catholic
schools. If the public fund is in
sufficient by two weeks to main
tain the public schools for the year
when they instruct only three-
fourths of the school children of
the city, how much sooner would
they have been forced to close if
the children being taught in our
Catholic schools had been attend-
ing the public schools since Sep
tember?
Dtiring the presidential campaign
last fall, the Governor of Kentucky
was reported in the. newspapers as
6tating in public speeches that in
the event the Democratic nominee
was elected president, our public
schools would be closed. In view of
the situation in Louisyille, which in
greater or lesser proportion is du
plicated in other large cities in the
country, it may occur to the Gover
nor of Kentucky that if Catholics
were desirous of closing the public
schools they could adopt no more
effective measure than to cld^e
their own schools and present their
children to the public school au
thorities for the education which
in common with other citizens they
are taxed to pay for.
In New Y’ork, for instance, owing
to lack of facilities, the public,
schools.have for years been running
on part time. At the same time
there are nearly 175,000 children
being educated in Catholic paro
chial schools in New York City. If
the Cardinal Archbishop of New
York wished to bankrupt the
schools of that city, he need only
close the parochial schools. It is
such facts, showing the large con
tribution of the Catholic body to
public education, which, make it
hard to understand how the very
governor of our State could have
the heart even in a political cam
paign, publicly to traduce Catholic
citizens in respect to public edu
cation.
San Felipe on Parris Island,
Catucache further north.
and
The missionaries also achieved
gratifying success among the Apa
lache whose territory centered
around the site of modern Valdosta.
Georgia. This tribe was superior
to its neighbors; evidence never
has been discovered to show that it
offered human sacrifice, a prac
tice of even the intelligent Tim-
uqua. After repeatedly petitioning
for missionaries, their requests
were answered in 1633 and in a
few years the entire tribe from
northwest Florida to eastern Ala
bama, was Christianized. A flour
ishing trade with St. Augustine was
developed. Unjust exactions of the
governor created such discontent
that in 1657 it became necessary
to abandon eight prospering mis
sions in the Apalache territory, but
they were restored later by Bishop
Gabriel Diaz Vara Calderon, of
Santiago de Cuba, who, on a visi
tation of the Southeast, established
several new foundations.
In the meantime the English had
settled Charleston. The Spanish
settlements in Georgia barred their
way to Alabama, and conflict was
inevitable. The Spanish kept fire
arms away from their Indians; the
Carolinians armed and incited
theirs. An attack on Santa Cata
lina in 1680 by 300 Indians headed
by the English was the first of a
series of such troubles; a troop of
On Mother’s Day
By Fr. Jerome, O. S. B.
O-
Awaken! Keep vigil my heart!
She cometh anon to enroll
Remembrance of her which a
yesteryear
Has cadenced with cheer or
pearled in tear.
She cometh for old love's toll.
Awaken! Keep vigil my heart!
And breathe in a MOTHER’S
soul
Sweet breath of your heart-
dawn’s warming glow.
Sweet welcome be wel I a way!
For lo!
She cometh for old love’s toll.
Mother of Fr. Eugene,
O.S.B., Dies in Atlanta
(Special to The Bulletin)
ATLANTA, Ga.—Mrs. Mary A.
O’Donnell, one of Atlanta's *mosi
widely known Catholic women,
mother of Rev. Dr. Eugene, O. 9.
B., formerly of Savannah, now of
Christian Indians was carried off to | Greensboro, N. C., died here May
be sold as slaves. Spain, already
Avila who instead of being sent to dissipating her energies, was not in
eternity after his brother friars, ! a position ; to give her colonies the
The king dispatched Menendez d.e
Aviles to eject the intruders and to
colonize the threatened coast. This
Menendez did in very thorough fas-
ion, blotting his otherwise admir
able record by the massacre of the
defenders of Fort Caroline. The
settlement of St. Augustine by Me
nendez at this time, 1 565, was the
beginning of the continued and he
roic effort to evangelize the Indians
which ended 200 years later when
Georgia, and subsequently Florida,
passed by treaty to English sover
eignty^.
Georgia claims the first Jesuit
.martyr in the western hemisphere.
He was Father Pedro Martinez, one
of three missionaries sent to the
Southeast by Saint Francis Borgia
immediately after the settlement of
Florida. This pioneer was martyred
in 1566 by the Yamassees on Cum
berland Island. Previously Menen
dez had visited Georgia and estab
lished friendly relations with the
Indians of Guale, now St. Cather
ine's Island, near Savannah.
After the death of Father Mar
tinez the province of Florida, in
cluding Georgia, became a Jesuit
vice province with Father Segura
as provincial. Ten more Jesuits
were assigned to the new field; a
school for'Indian boys was started
at Havana. At Guale, at St. Elena,
the Carolina Spanish post among
the Oriste, and elsewhere, the Jes
uits began their civilizing and
Christianizing efforts. Brother Baez
compiled a dictionary and Brother
Domingo a grammar arid catechism,
The difficulties of Christianizing
the Indians were many. The na
tives, when not hostile, were fre
quently fickle. The king’s officers,
soldiers, traders, and adventurers
in the r.ew country at times made
the work of the missionaries harder
by bad example, a condition warned
against in a letter from Pope
Pius V to Menendez emphasizing
the fact that "nothing is more im
portant the conversion of these
Indians and idolaters than to en-
deaver by all means to prevent
scandal Jpeing given by the vices
and immorality of such as go to
those western parts.”
More serious was the hostility of
the English and the depredations
of their buccaneers who repeatedly
attacked and sacked the missions,
undoing in a day the expenditure
of years of unbelievable toil. The
raids of Drake are an example; in
1586 he and his followers destroy
ed the Dominican mission at St.
Simon’s Island, killed the mission
aries, sacked other missions along
the coast, and burned St. Augus
tine. At Ban Domingo they hanged
two Franciscans who came to ne
gotiate.
wits sold into slavery, and a year
later was rescued.
\
In 1602 there were 1,200 Chris
tian Indians among the Timuqua,
who numbered perhaps 20,000.
Three years later seven more friars
came and the Yamassee missions,
destroyed by the young chief's
band, were reestablished. The po-
tano tribe along the Suwanee was
almost entirely Christianized; ef
forts among the lower Creeks were
fruitful; Bishop Cabeza made the
confirmation tour' previously refer
red to, administered the sacrament
to 1,070 at four Georgia missions.
Father Pareja published a Timuqua
catechism in Mexico in 1612 and
a grammar two years later. In the
former year, the Atlantic coast was
included in a new Franciscan mis
sionary province, that of Santa
Elena; and Fray Juan de Capillos,
a Georgia missionary, became first
provincial with headquarters at
St. Augustine. The number of
priests working in the, Southeast
was augmented by the arrival of
twenty-four friars. "Thirty, forty,
and even fifty was the usual corps
of priests in the Florida province”
at this - period. Professor Bolton
writes. It was the golden age of
the Franciscan missions in the old
Southeast. Plymouth Rock was yet
untouched by English settlers!
assistance Vnd defense they need
ed. The Spanish frontier fell back
from Santa Catalina to Sapelo and
the Altamaha. St. Augustine, dis
turbed, entered its stone age. The
Yamassee changed their allegiance
and with English buccaneers
wrecked the Guale missions. The
frontier again receded, this time to
4 after an illness of six weeks.
Mrs. O'Donnell was born in Ire
land, in Mallow County, eighty,
two years ago and came to Atlanta
•in 1866; she passed through the
trying Reconstruction period here,
starting then the social and wel
fare work That she continued
throughout her life. She was an
active member of Sacred Heart
parish, from which her funeral was
held, with interment in Oakland
Cemetery.
In addition to Father Eugene,
Santa Maria, San Juan, and Santa __
Cruz, now Amelia Island. The virs. O'Donnell is survived by thre
king UcmQ'hterK. Mrs W. W. Baldwin
Spanish retaliated by attacking
Port Royal. England refused to
.sanction a countgr-attack. saying
that Charleston had harbored pi
rates and that the Scotch in the
Carolinas had abetted the Yamas
see.
"To us was the good God most
merciful and gracious,” Drake wrote
in 1593 to Queen Elizabeth, "in that
He permitted us to kill eighteen
Spanish, bitter enemies of your
sweet majesty. TVe further wasted
the country and brought it to utter
ruin. Ve burned their houses and
killed their few mules and cattle,
eating what we could of the fresh
beef and carrying the rest aboard
The number of these Catholic
Indians in the Southeast is vari
ously estimated. One authority de
clares that in 1634 the province of
St. Elena, with the motherhouse at
St. Augustine, contained forty-four
Indian missions, thirty-five mis
sionaries, and 30,000 Catholic In
dians. A more conservative, al
though not necessarily more accu
rate estimate, states that in 1655
there were thirty-five Franciscan
missions in Georgia and Florida
with a Catholic Indian population
of 26,000. It is estimated that more
than twenty stations were estab
lished along the Georgia coast and
up into South Carolina by 1650,
and in 1655 Georgia is credited with
five main missions, San Pedro on
Cumberland Island, San Buenven
tura on Jekyl Island, Santo Do
mingo at Talaje on the mainland.
San Jose on Sapelo Island, and
Santa Catalina on St. Catherine’s
Island. In South Carolina there was
In the meantime Carolina and
Florida contended for "The posses
sion of inland Georgia, peaceably
occupied by the Spanish for over
a century. The Spanish, on the
whole, fought a losing fight. At the
dawn of the eighteenth century,
Moore, a former governor of Caro
lina, leading fifty English and LffOO
or more well-armed Creeks, Cataw-
bas, and other un-Christianized
savages, destroyed ten of the eleven
Apalache missions, slaughtered hun
dreds of Christian Indians, and
Spaniards, four priests, including
Father Pareja and Father Mirando
—who were among the many burn
ed at the stake—and carried off
1,400 Christian Indians to be sold
as slaves in Carolina or to be dis
tributed for adoption or torture.
Of the 7,000 Christian Apalache on
ly 400 escaped. Everything on the
peaceful, flourishing missions was
destroyed.
Undaunted, the Franciscan mis
sionaries soon were directing their
energies to the task of restoring
the ruins of their generations of
work. The Yamassee, dissatisfied
with their treatment at the hands
of the Carolinians, made peace with
the Spanish. By 1720 there were
again six towns and seven mis
sions of Catholic Indians in the
devastated area inland; six years
later there were still 1,000 Catholic
Indians in Georgia.
daughters. Mrs. W. W. Baldwin,
Mrs. L. H. Deihl and Mrs. Rebecca
Lyons. Pallbearers were A. L.
Deihl. A. A. Arndt, ,T. N. Malone. A.
W. Mehaffey, L. C. Green. John
Campbell, .T P. Flynn. Thomas F.
Hastings, "William Riordan ajid C.
P. Murphy.
SENATE REJECTS
RESOLUTION
WASHINGTON, D. C.—Senator
Heflin’s resolution rebuking per
sons ho accused of interfering with
his right of free speech was re
jected April 30 by a vote of 70 to
14. The senators supporting the
resolution were Harris. George,
Black Tyson, Blease, Trammell,
Thomas of. Oklahoma. Simmons.
McKellar, Fletcher, Robinson of
Indiana and Sackett of Kentucky.
In 1733 Georgia was founded as
a buffer colony between Carolina
and the Spanish settlements: the
grant ended at the Altamaha River.
The English desired the territory
between the Aaitamaha. and the St.
John’s, to be regarded as a kind of
no man’s land^ Despite the efforts
of the English government to
maintain peace by forbidding the
Georgians to settle below ihe Al
tamaha, the colonists often ignor
ed the boundary.
England was engaged in a war
with France at ihe time, and de
sired Spain's neutrality. The task
of remaining neutral became too
great for Spain; she entered the
war, in 1671, on the side of the
French. The subsequent victory of
the English sealed the doom of the
Georgia missions; the neutral ter
ritory between the Altamaha and
the San Juan rivers, including
practically all of what is now
known as South Georgia, was lost
to Florida. The history of the
Franciscan missions in Georgia was
a closed book.
No longer are the Christians of
Georgia Catholic, but that does not
dim the lustre of the priestly ma-
bassadors who first preached Christ
crucified along the placid Savan
nah, the historic Altamaha, and the
storied Suwanee. No other Amer
ican state is more generously sew
ed with that priceless seed of the
church, the blood of martyrs!