Prince of Peace St. Augustine Video

Pedro Menendez de Aviles arrived off the coast of Florida on 28 August 1565, the Feast Day of St Augustine. 11 days later, he and his 600 soldiers and settlers came ashore at the site of the Timucuan Indian village of Seloy with banners flying, trumpets sounding. On these Mission grounds, dedicated 400 years later (1965), the oldest continuously occupied European established city, and oldest port, in the continental US was founded. The Great Cross (not seen here), made of stainless steel and rising 208 feet above the marshes of Matanzas River, stands as sentinel over the Mission. Prince of Peace is a votive church dedicated to prayers that God would deliver the world from atomic warfare. She is composed mostly of coquina stone (a natural rock formation consisting of limestone and small particles of broken seashells which form strong building material). Fr Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales took a cross and went to meet Menendez, singing the hymn: Te Deum Laudamus. Menendez then named the site Nombre de Dios and set Fr Lopez in charge of the Mission, thus becoming the first pastor of St Augustine, the first parish priest in this land. Quoted, with modifications, from http://www.oldcity.com/history-information.cfm and http://www.missionandshrine.org/great_cross.htm.