Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine: The Oldest Parish in the United States
I recently learned that (apparently) I was the only person living in Florida for more than five years who had never visited St. Augustine. Serena set out to remedy that by arranging a long weekend for us in the historic city a few weeks back. And if you’ve been keeping up to date, I’ve already published a few posts with photographs of the historic city, one of the city’s main attractions, the Castillo de San Marcos and live music at the Colonial Oak Music Park. This post takes a look inside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine.
Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine
On the northern edge of the Plaza de la Constitución, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine stands as the oldest Catholic church in the city and the oldest parish in the United States. Though the parish began in the 1500s, the Cathedral’s permanent home wasn’t built until 1797. It became a cathedral in 1870 and a minor basilica in 1976.
In the mid-1560s, Spanish settlers immediately established a shrine of the Catholic Church, the religion essential to the Spanish monarchy. The original parish, however, was short-lived when St. Augustine was pillaged and burned to the ground (including the parish church) in 1586 by the English corsair Francis Drake.
In 1605, another church was built, and for 95 years, it stayed intact before again burning down in 1702 during a failed English attempt on the city by Carolina Governor James Moore. St. Augustine would go without its church for over 90 years with multiple attempts to rebuild it all failing even after the king of Spain sent a large amount of money to rebuild the church in 1707.
From 1763 to 1784, Florida fell under British rule (I seriously did not know that!), and reconstruction was forgotten. Catholicism began to die out in Florida after the English arrived until a new workforce of laborers from Greece, Italy, and Minorca (a small island off the coast of Spain) arrived to the area after fleeing harsh working conditions on Scottish land-owner Dr. Andrew Turnbull’s 100,000 acre plantation in New Smyrna. This new population of “Minorcans” reinvigorated the religion, and after Spain regained the colony in 1784, a new sense of pride in the citizenry led to the large-scale construction of the current church from 1793 to 1797.
On April 12, 1887, the old Spanish structure burned once again(!) Reconstruction was begun with donations from wealthy American industrialist Henry Flagler and funds raised in a national appeal. The congregation hired the visiting New York City architect James Renwick Jr. (designer of the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington, D.C., and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York), who rebuilt and enlarged the church with a rectangular-cruciform layout and a European-style transept.
In 1965, artist Hugo Ohlms, a German immigrant, was commissioned to create murals for the church. Working from his garage, he painted massive panels on plywood, fitted together like a puzzle. These works adorn the ceilings, choir loft, and Marian Shrine, with the loft mural focusing on St. Augustine’s Catholic heritage and the Minorcan immigration of 1777.
In 1976, the church received the honor of being named a Cathedral Basilica. Visitors to St. Augustine Cathedral can see the church restored to look as it did in the late 1700s. Most of the Baroque façade is original to that period. Inside, oil paintings that are copies of those located in the Vatican’s Pauline Chapel are on display (painted mainly by artist Hugo Ohlms). Victorian stained-glass windows and marble altars are on view throughout the Cathedral.
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine is open from Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm, there is no cost to enter the cathedral. Enjoy the photographs…
All photographs taken with my new/old Pentax K-1 using the Pentax-D FA 21mm F2.4 ED Limited and Pentax-FA* 85mm F1.4 lenses