Easter Reflection: Ponce de León, Space, & Christian Heritage in America
In addition to commemorating Christ’s resurrection, for Americans, the Easter season also marks the discovery of the land we now call home.
This Easter, 512 years ago, Ponce de León first sighted the Eastern Coast of Florida. On that day he is quoted to have said, “Thanks be to Thee, O Lord, Who hast permitted me to see something new.”
Ponce and his crew were Spanish Catholics, and exactly one week after Easter, on Divine Mercy Sunday, they became the first Christians to ever set foot in the present-day United States when they landed in the vicinity of Melbourne Beach. They christened the land “La Florida” in tribute to Spain's Easter celebration, Pascua Florida, or “Feast of Flowers.”
While there are no surviving records of the day’s events, Spanish voyages to the new world were often commissioned with priests, and some have speculated that a Mass would have been given on the land before Ponce and his crew set sail to their final destination of Hispaniola.
From the time of the discovery until the mid-18th century, there were several missionary trips conducted by the Spanish to bring Christ to the Native Americans of La Florida (La Florida was used to refer to the entire continental American territory at that time). Most ended in failure, and many ended in the martyrdom of the Christian Missionaries.
Ponce de León himself was killed in 1521 during a failed missional settlement attempt. At the voyages commission, King Ferdinand V instructed the expedition: “Treat [the Indians] as best you can… seeking in every possible way to convert them to our Holy Catholic Faith.” The 1521 failure would be the first of 6 failed settlement attempts by the Spanish Crown until the founding of St. Augustine by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565.
It is interesting to reflect half a millennium later that the landing site of these early Christian pioneers would come to be known as the Space Coast, and that the very same beaches would be home to a new generation of pioneers who would carry their spirit of exploration and discovery to the stars.
