The Great Cross

Over 450 years ago, Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles came ashore to claim space for Spain and the Catholic Church, but he wasn’t technically the first to land in what is now St. Augustine.

The expedition’s fleet chaplain was a man named Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales who landed on the Timucuan Indian village the day before Menendez arrived. Father Lopez greeted him with a large cross at a site now known as the Mission Nombre de Dios where he welcomes you with open arms. He is recognized as being the priest who held the first Mass and founded the first mission in the permanent settlement in what would become the United States.

This event is commemorated with an unmistakable 208-foot tall stainless steel cross located in close proximity to the Shrine of Our Lady de la Leche, the oldest Marian shrine in the US. Artist Dr. Ivan Mestrovic created the bronze statue of Father Lopez wearing priestly vestments standing eleven feet tall with the Great Cross standing high in the background.