First Mass

April 16, 1528

Photos

Documentation

• HMDB
• Father Jerome. "The First Bishop of Florida." The Florida Historical Quarterly 40, no. 3 (January 1962): 295–300.

Notes

In April 1528, The Spanish explorer Panfilo de Narvaez arrived here with 5 ships and 600 men in a quest for gold and power. Also with him were those who sought to spread Christianity, including eight diocesan and five Franciscan priests. One of those priests, Fr. Juan Xuarez, OFM, had received an appointment as Bishop of Florida. A few days after their arrival, Fr. Xuarez celebrated Easter Mass ashore on the morning of April 16th. After another ten days in the area which included several violent encounters with the native Tocobaga peoples. Narvaez along with half of the crew (including 5 priests) headed north on land in what would prove to be an ill-fated expedition. Eight years later in 1536, a mere four survivors made it to Mexico. The title "Bishop of Florida" attached to Fr. Xuarez requires a caveat: he was Bishop-elect, never consecrated. Emperor Charles V, exercising the patronage privilege granted to Spain by the bulls of Pope Julius II, nominated Xuarez to the see -designated in period documents as the "Bishopric of the Palms River and La Florida" - but the Papal bulls confirming the appointment never arrived before Narváez's expedition departed. A surviving letter from Charles V to Xuarez, dated Burgos, February 15, 1528, and preserved in the Archivo General de Indias (Seville, Indiferente General, Legajo 421), addresses him as bishop-designate and authorizes him to administer diocesan revenues and act as protector of the Indians in the interim. Historians have disputed the appointment for decades — some dismissing it as legend — but the Seville letter, first published in English translation in 1962, settles the nomination itself even as it confirms Xuarez died in 1528 or shortly after without ever receiving formal consecration.