Older History
-
-
A King and a Pope
King Philip V notifies Pope Clement XI in 1704 about the Apalachee Indians martyred, “You may recognize and take comfort in knowing how those Indians, so recently converted and brought to our holy faith, gave their lives for the name of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, in imitation of the glorious martyrs of the Church, and that they merit in their time the name and veneration of such martyrs.”
From an early date poets, artisans, chroniclers, religious superiors, a duke, a king, governors, and bishops had commemorated the saintly deaths of the Florida martyrs, and some had even anticipated their canonization. Yet despite these precious testimonies and the occasional prodding by a small number of historians to recognize this proud part of our American tradition, the story of the Florida martyrs lay largely dormant for centuries.
Bishop Verot’s Devotion
“Florida, which has been bedewed in the East and in the West, in the North and in the South with the purest blood of martyrs!” - St. Augustine’s first bishop, Bishop Augustin Verot, Pastoral Letter 1858The Extraordinary Effort of Archbishop Gannon
Not until the 1930s and the efforts of John Mark Gannon, Bishop of Erie, was a formal effort undertaken for their canonization. This effort has slowly matured into the present cause. In 1939 John Wynne, S.J., who had been Vice-Postulator for the cause of the North American martyrs and was then Postulator for Kateri Tekakwitha, sent Bishop Gannon a letter that contained a list of 106 “bold martyrs on the soil of our country” (Wynne to Gannon, 6/24/1939). Bishop Gannon was surprised: “I never knew there were so many American martyrs until I received your enclosure. Why something has not been done in this matter before, is a mystery to me . . . I am fascinated with it all and will be glad to cooperate with you in any way I can” (Gannon to Wynne, 6/26/1939).
LEARN MORE ABOUT BISHOP GANNON’S EFFORT
Bishop Gracida and Msgr. Kerr further the cause
Bishop Rene Gracida. 
Msgr. William KerrPensacola-Tallahassee’s first bishop, Bishop Rene Gracida, with the unanimous support of all the Florida bishops took steps toward the beatification of the Florida martyrs. Bishop Gracida traveled to Rome and met with the Postulator General of the Franciscans, and appointed Msgr. Kerr, professor of history at Florida State University, to be the Vice Postulator.
Bishop Gracida said that he “had an obligation to the State of Florida and the United States of America to make the history of the martyrdom of the native Catholic population of our Diocese known to the rest of our nation.” Bishop Gracida also purchased land with the hopes of building a shrine to honor Florida’s martyrs.
These early efforts developed into the beatification cause today!
-