Originally published at The Catholic Thing
The earliest history of the Catholic Church in the United States is decidedly Marian. The first recorded Mass in what is now the United States proper was celebrated at present-day St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. The date was September 8: the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. The English-speaking colonies would have to wait almost seven decades for their first Mass, which was celebrated in what is now Maryland, in the year 1634. The date was March 25: the Feast of the Annunciation.
Of course, the history of Catholicism in the New World goes back even farther. We know Christopher Columbus brought several priests with him on his second voyage, and the first recorded Mass in the New World was celebrated in 1494, on the Feast of Epiphany, in what is today the Dominican Republic. (Consider that the first Mass in the New World was celebrated less than 100 years after the death of Geoffrey Chaucer.)
Epiphany, the Annunciation, the Nativity of Mary – Our Lady was decidedly present for each occasion. It shouldn’t surprise us that, everywhere the Church goes, everywhere the Gospel is proclaimed, everywhere the Mass is celebrated, there is the Mother of God, pointing the way to
