The Return of the Registers
by Michael Gannon, Ph.D.

The earliest existing parish registers of Saint Augustine, dating from 1594 to 1763, are the oldest documents of American origin north of Mexico. Taken to Cuba when Florida was ceded briefly to Great Britain (1763-1784), they were discovered in the archives of the Cathedral of Havana by Augustin Verot, first Bishop of Saint Augustine, in the summer of 1871. It was an extraordinary find.
 

Bishop William Kenny was instrumental in retrieving the earliest existing parish registers of Saint Augustine from the Cathedral of Havana, Cuba.

Locating that documentary treasure was one thing; getting it back to St. Augustine was another. Havana church officials were reluctant to let the volumes go. Bishop erot died five years later without any success in retrieving them. Two of his successors in office, Bishops John Moore and William J. Kenny, continued the negotiations. The historical importance of the records was verified by the leading U.S. Catholic Church historian of the time, John Gilmary Shea, who traveled to Havana during Bishop Moore’s episcopacy to consult the then fragile and unprotected pages for names of early pastors.

Finally, in 1906, Bishop Kenny succeeded in bringing the registers home. But, as it turned out, the 14 volumes found by Bishop erot did not constitute the full registry collection. Overlooked was a 15th volume. How its existence came to light and how its return to St. Augustine was facilitated makes for a story of quirky coincidences, starting with the work of Dr. E.A. Beck, an entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

IIn the summer of 1938 Dr. Beck inspected the archival holdings of the Cathedral of St. Augustine. There he became acquainted with the parish registers. He announced his intentions to fumigate the libraries of both the cathedral and St. Joseph Academy. Alas, he had run out of chemical spray and so had to wait for his order to arrive. During that interval he made a quick visit to the cathedral archives in Havana. While rummaging among the document bundles there he chanced upon a parchment-covered volume of partially worm-eaten paper pages with the title: Libro de Bautismos Españoles de la ciudad de San Agustín (Book of Spanish Baptisms of the City of St. Augustine). On his return to St. Augustine, Dr. Beck excitedly announced his find.

How many decades would the Diocese of Saint Augustine have to wait in order to recover that 15th volume? Less than one year, thanks to the serendipitous visit to St. Augustine in January 1939 of Bishop George J. Caruana, papal nuncio to Havana. The Bishop of Saint Augustine, Patrick Barry, asked Bishop Caruana’s help in regaining the 15th volume. The nuncio did take the matter up with the archbishop of Havana and arranged for an American priest going to Miami on board the SS Florida to hand-carry the documents to the Florida bishop’s brother, Msgr. William Barry. The courier was a priest of the Diocese of Richmond named Father Richard B. Washington, a linear descendent of Lawrence Washington, brother of George. Father Washington handed the documents over to Msgr. Barry on Feb. 22, 1939 – G.W.’s birthday.