History2

From 1829 to 1854 the Jacksonville mission area was visited by priests from St. Augustine and Savannah. Among the priests who served the area during that time were Edward Francis Mayne (1829-1834) and Benedict Madeore and Edmond Aubril (1843-1854). In 1847 a small fram church was erected on the northeast corner of Duval and Newnan Streets, a city lot that was acquired for the sum of "one penny" from Issiah David Hart, developer of the city of Jacksonville. The church was dedicated under the title of the Immaculate Conception, thus anticipating the definition of that dogma as an Article of Paith by Pope Pius IX in 1854. Father Aubril from St. Augustine, under whom the Jacksonville mission church was built, placed a large painting of the Blesed Virgin, a gift from the French Government, over the altar.
Before construction of the first mission church, visiting priests had celebrated Mass periodically on improvised altars in private homes. In fact, it is a safe assumption that the Catholic Mass was celebrated here even before the white man came to settle. Historians recall that Father Pedro Martinez, leader of the first band of Jesuits who arrived from Spain in 1566 to work among the North Florida Indians, was slain by hostil natives on nearby Fort George Island. Weathered remains of a sandstone chapel said to ahve been used by the martyred priest may still be seen that Fort George.
From the foundation of the first parish in St. Augustine by Menendez and his expedition, there followed 200 years of evangelical sacrifices by more thatn 300 Franciscan and Jesuit priests in order to establish misison outposts from the Florida Keys to the hills of Northern Georgia. Missions were formed in Lafayette, Suwannee and Alachua Counties. The area comprising Wakulla, Leon and Jefferson Counties, then the center of a large Indian tribe known as the Apalachee, had 20 missions alone. The period from 1606 to 1675 became known as the Golden Age of Florida Missions. More than 26,000 Indians converted to Catholicism and 38 mission posts were firmly established during that time.
On December, 8, 1857, the Immaculate Conception Church, graduating from the role of a mission church, was formally established as a parish. Father William John Hamilton became the first pastor of the new parish, presiding from 1857 to 1861. Father Hamilton, a native of Ireland and a graduate of All Hallows College in Dublin was ordained at age 24. He was assigned to the Diocese of Savannah where, upon arrival, he was ordered to Jacksonville. At the time, the population of Jacksonville was slightly more than 2,000 and the new church's congregation was proportionately small. In 1858 the parish purchased land for St. Joseph's Cemetary at a cost of $10. It is now known as the Old City Cemetery. In that same year, a lot on the southwest corner of Newna and Church Streets was purchased for $150.
Father Hamilton's arrival in Jacksonville coincided with action by the Holy See in Rome, which separated Florida east of the Apalachicola River from the Diocese of Savannah assigning it an independent status as mission territory. The state nwo was in a position to receive a resident vicariate-apostolic. However, canonical designation as a diocese would not come until March 11, 1870. Given teh assignment on February 1, 1856 was Father Jean-Pierre Augustin Marcellin Verot, a FrenchSulpicaian priest. Two years after his ordination he had arrived at St. Mary's College in Baltimore where he had served as a professor of mathematics and science for 22 years. He had then requested duty in pastoral work and was assigned to a small church in nearby Ellicott City. While there, he was appointed by Rome as Florida's frist vicar-apostolic and in 1870, he was consecrated first bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine. He recieved the mitre and official powers in ceremonies at the Cathedral in Baltimore, April 25, 1858. On May 22, accompanied by Father Madeore who had come up from St. Augustine, Verot left for a new life in Florida. On the evening of June 1, 1858, a happy crowd greeted him as he arrived at the wharf in St. Augustine.
On May 14, 1859, Verot sailed for France in search of priests for service in the new vicariate. It was his first visit home in 29 years. He succeeded in recruiting seven secular priests. With these additional priests to run them, new missions operating from the mother church in St. Augustine wer eestablished at Moccasin Brance, Pellicer's Creek, and Roger's Settlement. Samson and Palm Valley were attended from St. Joseph's Church in Mandarin and Amelia Isand ws under the guidance of the Fernandina Church.In September, 1860, Father Henry Peter Clavreul, one of the prists whom Bishop Verot had recruited in France, arrived in Jacksonville