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1,500 Catholic ColonistsCame to Florida in 1768Father ClavreuTs History of Catholicity in State Tells of Their Coming Under Leadership of Rev. Dr. Petrus Camps Fjve Years After Spain Ceded Florida to England(From “Notes on the Catholic Church in Florida”, by the late Rev. HenryP. Clavrene.)FROM THE ENGLISH OCCUATION TO THE RETROCESSION TO SPAIN, 1784Havana having been taken by the English in 1763, its restoration to Spain brought about, the same year, the cession of Florida to England, j leaving under the undisputed control j of the latter country the whole of the Atlantic coast from Canada to the Florida keys. When the British landed at St. Augsutine (1764) Florida was practically what the Spaniards had found it two hundred years before, a wilderness, for no attempt had been made to settle the country. England pursued a different policy. The first act of the British governor was to invite, by the proffer of lands, immigrants to settle, barring, however, Catholics. This 1 hostile attitude to a religion professed by all who lived at the time in St. Augsutine, precipitated their departure. They left in a body and with them all vestige of Catholicity disappeared.dated November 9, 1777, and written in Spanish. The translation reads: “On the ninth of November, 1777, the Church of San Pedro has been transferred from Mosquito to the city of St. Augustine, with the same colony of Mahones, who had settled in said locality and the ame rector and missionary. Dr. Don Pedro Camps.”In God's providence, what apparently was to give the church her death blow in Florida only prepared the way for her maintenance and extension. Among those who availed themselves of the proffer of the gov- t ernment was an Englishman, Turnbull. who brought from the Balearic Islands and the coasts of Italy and Greece fifteen hundred people underthe leadership of a priest of theirown nationality—Rev. Dr. PetrusCamps. They landed seventy-five miles south of St. Augustine, at a point called Mosquito Lagoon, known today as New Smyrna, in the month , of August, 1768. After nine years of j incredible hardships six hundred of the survivors of the fifteen hundred left, November, 1777, for St. Augustinewhere they arrived on he ninth day of the same month. _ iThe first care of the worthy priest, j after landing at Mosquito, had been to build a church and provide it with all the necessities for Divine worship, carefully recording every baptism, marriage and burial.A statement written and signed by Father Camps refers to the exodusof the New Smyrna refugees. It is iWhen the New Smyrna refugees arrived in St. Augsutine there were yet standing two churches, the Bishop’s residence and chapel, south of the Plaza, but they remained closed to the worthy priest and his flock. Hence, in order to say Mass for Uiem, Father Camps was obliged to hire a room in some private house in the northern part of the city, which had been assigned to his people. If there to be a thing whichappeals to common sympathy, it is the spectacle of these six hundred refugees who, destitute of all, even of a place of worship, have no alternative but to throw themselves upon the hospitality, I will not say of strangers, but of people manifestly hostile to their faith.Father Camps died at Si. Augustine May 19, 1790. The record of his death, given by Father Michael O’Reilly, who signs liimseL Father Camps’ unworthy successor, informs us that the venerable priest was born at Marcadel on the island of Minorca, and that he was sixty years old at the time of his death. His body was removed in 1800 to a vault in the church, now the Cathedral, where it was found in 1887, when excavations preparatory to the re-building of the church were being made, after the conflagration which destroyed the church in the spring of that year. Governor Zespedes at the time of Father Camps’ death voiced the universal sentiment when, in his official report, he spoke of him as of an apostki absolutely devoted to his people. We learn that Dr. Camps was offered a Canonry in his native land. He was to receive a better reward, having died before the ecclesiastical preferment could be conferred on him. The life of Father Camps reflecting, as it does, the abiding presence of the Holv Ghost in His Church, explains better than words can her undying life in the history of the world. Although the :records of the Church of San Pedro give only the name of Rev. Dr. Camps, it is known from common report that there was another priest acting as his assistant. His name, however, does not appear on the records.RETROCESSION; 1784-1819In 1784, with Catholic Spain once more in power, we see St. Augustine as twenty years before, with its parish priest, a chaplain at the garrison, offiicals and a few settlers, all Catholic. Father Hasset was parish priest and Father Michael O’Reilly assistant and military chaplain. Both were of Irish birth, educated at the University of Salamanca, Spain, and consequently conversant with Spanish and English. This condition had been insisted upon for the sake of the English speaking settlers along the St. John’s and the St. Mary’s rivers. The two churches which existed 20 years before were now in ruins, and Mass was said in a private house until the upper story of the former Episcopal house was turned into a temporary chapel.
Newspaper Details
Monroe Bulletin
Monroe, Georgia, US
Sat, Mar 08, 1930
Page 8
Full Page
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Anonymous
FL, USA 12 Feb 2023
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