Florida’s Second Parish II
by Michael Gannon, Ph.D.

The church at Pensacola that artist Dominic Serres depicted in 1743 was destroyed, along with the presidio, by a hurricane in 1752. Five years later, the parish and presidio were relocated to the mainland site where Pensacola stands today. There the new church took the name San Miguel (St. Michael) de Panzacola. Constructed to serve some 700 Catholic colonists and Indians, the church was substantially damaged by a hurricane in 1761, and, two years later, it passed into the hands of the Church of England, since, in the Treaty ending the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the whole of Florida became a possession of the British Empire.

 

This view of the church in Pensacola (center, seen directly under the ship’s pennant.) dates from 1743.

To the Spanish Catholic population King George III pledged to guarantee the free exercise of their religion if they chose to remain in Pensacola, but the Spaniards, not trusting the British to observe that pledge, elected to evacuate. Leaving only one of their countrymen behind, some 600 soldiers, civilians, convicts and Christian Indians took ship to Veracruz in New Spain (Mexico). Fewer than one-half of the 108 Indians made it safely to their new pueblo of San Carlos de Chachalacas in Tempoala. All but 39 died during the sea and land passage.

During the 21-year period of British rule that followed, Pensacola was not distinguished for its religious vigor. Frequently the town was without a licensed minister of the Church of England, and no church building was ever erected for Anglican worship. Nor was any effort made to evangelize nearby tribes.

Under the terms of a treaty dated 1783, this one concluding the American Revolution, Florida east and west was transferred back to Spain. In West Florida the retrocession was a mere formality, since, in May 1781, armed forces from Spanish Louisiana allied with George Washington’s patriot army had captured British Pensacola and, with it, the whole of West Florida. Restoration of Catholic authority in the colony followed at once. On May 11, one day after the British surrender, a Capuchin (regular) priest, Cirillo Antonio Sieni, better known as Cirillo de Barcelona, who accompanied the victorious Spanish army, celebrated the conquest with a Te Deum. Prior to the military campaign, the bishop of Santiago de Cuba had appointed Father Cirillo his vicario, or vicar forane, over West Florida.

With that authority Cirillio canonically erected in Pensacola the Parish of St. Michael the Archangel, which has lasted from that day to this without interruption. Though not the first parish in Florida, St. Michael’s became by today Florida’s oldest parish in continuous existence (St. Augustine in the east was not reconstituted a parish until October 1784). There being no suitable church structure in the presidio, Cirillo blessed an old two-story wooden almácen, or warehouse, to that purpose. The building, which stood on the beach near the plaza, had a brick foundation and floor measuring 85 feet in length, and 34 in width. The first pastor appointed to the restoration parish was Capuchin Father Pedro Vélez.