Thursday, November 12, 2009

First Christian Wedding in North America Was Catholic?

Well I guess it was.

Things like this make the JamesTown tourist folks nervous :)

Catholic documents in oldest US city preserved
By RON WORD (AP) – 22 hours ago
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Some of the oldest records from European settlers have come home to the oldest permanent city in what is now the United States.


The Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine has reacquired records from the church at the time and they are now being kept and studied in a newly renovated archive building.

Among the artifacts is a marriage record written by a priest marking the wedding of a Spanish soldier. It's dated in 1594, about 26 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

Other treasures include the records, headboard, and a piece of the coffin belonging to Pedro Menendez de Aviles (ah-'VEE-lays), the Spanish Navy admiral who founded St. Augustine in 1565.

The diocese is working to digitize all the records so they can be further studied
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1 comment:

Mary Ellen said...

I think that was my wedding certificate...I've been looking everywhere for it. ;-)