![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5-21-26-pilgrimage-route-1024x691.jpg\")
A graphic depicts the 2026 route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which begins May 24 in St. Augustine, Fla., and ends in Philadelphia July 5. (OSV News graphic\/National Eucharistic Congress)<\/p>\nA graphic depicts the 2026 route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which begins May 24 in St. Augustine, Fla., and ends in Philadelphia July 5. (OSV News graphic\/National Eucharistic Congress)<\/p>\n
(OSV News) \u2013 Before the Declaration of Independence was boldly signed in 1776, before pilgrims feasted at what became popularly regarded as the \u201cFirst Thanksgiving\u201d in 1621, there was St. Augustine, Florida.<\/p>\n
The coastal Florida city was founded in 1565 by Spanish Catholic explorer Pedro Men\u00e9ndez de Avil\u00e9s, is celebrated as the longest continually inhabited European-founded city in the U.S., and is home to the United States\u2019 oldest continuously operating parish, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5-21-26-florida-shrine-for-pilgrimage-300x213.jpg\")
A file photo shows the historic chapel of the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine, Fla., with the statue of the nursing and watchful mother of Jesus. (OSV News photo\/St. Augustine Catholic)<\/p>\n
It is also the May 24 starting point for the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, themed \u201cOne Nation Under God\u201d in honor of America\u2019s 250th year.<\/p>\n
The pilgrimage begins on the historic grounds of America\u2019s oldest Marian shrine: the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios, which Bishop Erik T. Pohlmeier of St. Augustine has described as \u201cthe oldest site of continuous Catholic presence in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n
With its founding, St. Augustine became the site of an early Mass in what is now the United States, celebrated in 1565 to commemorate the landing of a Spanish explorer, his crew and Catholic clergy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we focus this year on the Declaration of Independence and the 250th anniversary of that, St. Augustine helps us begin not with politics, but with worship,\u201d said Jason Shanks, National Eucharistic Congress president. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s critically important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both the shrine and the mission, its caretakers say, \u201cstand as living witnesses\u201d not just to the founding of St. Augustine, but also to the practice of the Mass in the United States. The site roots its history in the landing of Spanish Admiral Pedro Men\u00e9ndez de Avil\u00e9s. In 1565, his crew sighted land on Aug. 28, the feast of St. Augustine, and Men\u00e9ndez came ashore Sept. 8. The admiral claimed the land for Spain, \u201cestablishing the settlement that would become the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States,\u201d according to the shrine\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
Soon after landfall, the expedition\u2019s chaplain, Father Francisco L\u00f3pez de Mendoza Grajales, celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving.<\/p>\n
The shrine and mission grounds, known as \u201cThe Sacred Acre,\u201d still yield discoveries, said the shrine\u2019s rector, Father Timothy Lindenfelser.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re constantly doing archaeological excavations. Most recently, we found the foundations of the Franciscan church that was on the property. That was found with burials of Indigenous people around it, and then the kitchen that was connected to it,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery time we do a renovation or do archaeological digs, we\u2019re always finding new things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mission and shrine\u2019s website describes Father Francisco\u2019s Mass as the \u201cfirst Catholic Mass of Thanksgiving in what is now the United States, establishing the first parish and planting the roots of the Catholic faith in the New World.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, \u201cwe do not claim to be the first Catholic Mass in what is today the United States,\u201d said Father Lindenfelser. \u201cThe first that\u2019s documented would have been in Pensacola in 1559. The Spanish established a settlement there, so we know there were priests and Mass was celebrated. But the settlement didn\u2019t last.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kathleen Bagg, the Diocese of St. Augustine\u2019s communications director, elaborated, telling OSV News, \u201cWhat makes St. Augustine historically significant is that the Sept. 8, 1565, Mass of Thanksgiving was connected to the founding of the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States, and to a Catholic community whose presence has continued into the present day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe phrase \u2018first Catholic Mass of Thanksgiving in what is now the United States\u2019 is intended as a historical distinction connected to the founding of St. Augustine, rather than a claim that no earlier Masses had ever been celebrated elsewhere in territories that later became part of the United States,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
If the wording seems intentionally careful, it is because there is some historical wrestling over the location of the first Mass celebrated in what would become the United States of America.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a whole series of Spanish expeditions into Florida and elsewhere in the Southeast, long before Pensacola was established in 1559,\u201d said J. Michael Francis, a history professor and chair of Florida studies at the University of South Florida.<\/p>\n
He noted expeditions led by Juan Ponce de Le\u00f3n \u2014 the first of which made landfall in 1513, probably south of Cape Canaveral \u2014 as well as subsequent expeditions, and the settlement of San Miguel de Guadalupe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been located archaeologically,\u201d Francis told OSV News, \u201cbut it was likely somewhere in present-day South Carolina in 1526. That settlement lasted for less than one year \u2014 but assuredly there were many Masses said at San Miguel. Then you have the 1539 Hernando de Soto expedition, and there were likely dozens \u2014 if not hundreds \u2014 of Masses said between 1539 and 1543 during the course of that expedition.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo,\u201d he emphasized, \u201cthis is where it gets really tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 1565 Mass at St. Augustine, held on the feast of the Nativity of Mary, \u201cis often attributed to an account written by the priest\u201d \u2014 Father Francisco L\u00f3pez de Mendoza Grajales \u2014 \u201cwho allegedly said that Mass. But he never says that in his account. What he says is that on Sept. 8, 1565 \u2014 when Men\u00e9ndez, the founder of St. Augustine, comes ashore \u2014 they greet him singing the \u2018Te Deum laudamus,’\u201d a hymn of rejoicing.<\/p>\n
Father L\u00f3pez, Francis continued, \u201csaid Men\u00e9ndez \u2014 and all of the others with him \u2014 approached him on their knees, and they kissed the cross. \u2026 But he never specifically says, \u2018I said Mass.\u2019 He says there were \u2018other ceremonies.\u2019 There\u2019s another account \u2014 that has been attributed to Pedro Men\u00e9ndez de Avil\u00e9s\u2019 brother-in-law \u2014 in which he says that on that day, Men\u00e9ndez ordered that a solemn Mass be said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what often happens with these kind of stories is that different sources get conflated,\u201d Francis stressed.<\/p>\n
Bagg pointed out what she described as another \u201cimportant historical nuance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile St. Augustine remained continuously inhabited as a city, Catholic parish life was interrupted during the British period (1763\u20131784), when Spanish clergy departed and public Catholic worship ceased until the arrival of the Minorcans and Father Pedro Camps in 1777,\u201d she told OSV News. \u201cEven with that interruption in sacramental life, the broader Catholic presence associated with the founding of St. Augustine and Mission Nombre de Dios remains foundational in American Catholic history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the St. Augustine site remains a place of witness. When the tourist trolleys stop at the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at Mission Nombre de Dios, Father Lindenfelser says visitors often find themselves deeply affected.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people have come back to the faith,\u201d he said. \u201cSome people have for the very first time heard the message of the Gospel, just because they were sitting there \u2014 and one of the chaplains or one of the staff, we come up and talk to them,\u201d Father Lindenfelser said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s still today a great place of evangelization,\u201d he added, \u201cby just being present to those who come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A graphic depicts the 2026 route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which begins May 24 in St. Augustine,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-198879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}