Bulletins

November 23, 2014

Download the Bulletin as a PDF

Thanksgiving services were routine in what was to become the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as 1607, with the first permanent settlement of Jamestown holding a thanksgiving in 1610.

The first documented thanksgiving services in territory currently belonging to the United States were conducted by Spaniards in the 16th century. More importantly Spanish missionaries were the first to offer Holy Mass in these parts, not just in the continent but even in what we now call the Commonwealth of Virginia.

In 1570 a shrine to Our Lady of Ajacan was dedicated and a year later the first Catholic martyrs met their end in two different massacres: Fr. Luis de Quiros, Baptista Mendez and Gabriel De Solis on 14 February 1571 and Fr. Juan Baptistia De Segura, Cristobal Redondo, Pedro Linares, Gabriel Gomez and Sancho Zevallos on 18 February 1571. All were brothers or fathers of the Society of Jesus.

Cemetary PlaqueOnly a few decades later the Brent family moved to Stafford from the North to escape religions persecution and established the town of Brenton, later known as Aquia. Their cemetery was rediscovered in 1897. A plaque marks the spot:

In the Name of Christ the King To commemorate the first English Catholic Settlers in Virginia: Colonel Giles Brent, Deputy Governor of Maryland 1643; Margaret and Mary Brent who settled at Aquia 1647; George Brent, King’s Attorney General 1686, Member House of Burgesses 1688, who petitioned for and obtained on Feb. 10th 1686 from James II, King of England, a proclamation of religious tolerance for all people settling in the Colony of Brenton. Nearby rest the remains of these Catholic pioneers.

God bless them.
God bless our Commonwealth.
God bless you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fr. Christopher J. Pollard