First American Thanksgiving - the true story

Note from Ed.: While digesting the Thanksgiving turkey, I came across an article on Traditio (the Traditional Roman Catholic Network) website, from which I learned something I should have known, but didn't. Here, with a few edits, is the story of The First American Thanksgiving, celebrated on 8 September 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida.

That's right! 55 years before the Protestant Puritan Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, a Roman Catholic Mass and Te Deum were celebrated in St. Augustine, Florida, on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Don Pedro Menendez came ashore amid the sounding of trumpets, artillery salutes, and the firing of cannons to claim the land for King Philip II and Spain. The ship's chaplain, Fr. Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, chanted the Te Deum, the Church's great hymn of Thanksgiving, traditionally attributed to St. Ambrose of Milan, and presented a crucifix which Don Pedro ceremoniously kissed.

After that, 500 soldiers, 200 sailors and 100 families and artisans, along with the Timucuan Indians who inhabited the region, celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in gratitude to God, after which a thanksgiving feast was shared by the Indians and the Spaniards.

The second American Thanksgiving occurred on April 30, 1598, when Spanish explorer Don Juan de Onate requested the Franciscan friars to offer a Mass of Thanksgiving, after which he formally proclaimed "La Toma" (The Capture), claiming the land north of the Rio Grande for the King of Spain. The men feasted on duck, goose, and fish from the river. Some of the Spaniards dressed in costume and presented a play.

Even at Plymouth Rock in the Massachusetts Colony, where the Pilgrims later landed in 1620, Squanto, the Indian who organized their first Thanksgiving, was a Catholic. He had been enslaved by the English, but was freed by Spanish Franciscans and subsequently received the Catholic Sacrament of Baptism.

We should also be clear (the author of the Traditio article writes) on the identity and character of the Puritan Pilgrims. They are usually portrayed in American history books as innocent victims of religious persecution, who simply wanted to find a place in which they could worship according to their own predilections. Nothing could be further from the truth!

The Puritans were English, who hated the Church of England because they claimed it was "too Catholic". So much so that they became vandals, destroying many of the great churches of England, most of which were Catholic churches stolen by King Henry VIII in a fit of anger because Pope Clement VII confirmed the doctrine of Christ in Scripture that men cannot divorce their legitimate wives.

The Puritans were Calvinists -- Protestant extremists -- who would put people in the stocks for celebrating the Nativity of Christ, for using musical instruments in church (even though such usage is documented in the Bible), and for singing hymns (even though the Bible records that Jesus Himself sang hymns). Even as they hated the Anglicans, the Puritans hated Catholics more and persecuted them viciously when they could.

Finally, American Catholics should remember that the word "Thanksgiving" is also Catholic, from the Greek "Eucharistia", referring not to Turkey, but to the Heavenly Bread, the Catholic Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.