St. Augustine Founder's Day Celebration

On September 12th, the Historic Florida Militia, in partnership with the Mission Nombre de Dios and the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park, will commemorate Founders Day with reenactments on these historic sites.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

10 a.m. | Menendez and crew land at Mission Nombre de Dios grounds, FREE
11 a.m. | Catholic Mass at Rustic Altar on Mission grounds, FREE (bring a folding chair)
12 p.m. | Procession from Mission to Fountain of Youth, FREE
1 p.m. | Reenactment of the First Thanksgiving meal at Fountain of Youth, Regular admission and St. Johns County residents admission applicable.
1– 5 p.m. | Encampment and weapons demonstrations at Fountain of Youth, Regular admission and St. Johns County residents admission applicable.

A recreation of Pedro Menendez de Aviles’s landing on the shores of what has become Saint Augustine begins at 10 AM at The Mission Nombre de Dios with a 16th-century reenactment. The Landing ceremony will include Menendez naming the new Spanish settlement in honor of Saint Augustine.

ABOUT FOUNDER’S DAY
Founder’s Day commemorates the anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine, our nation’s oldest permanently occupied city, discovered more than 50 years before the English came ashore in Jamestown or the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.

On September 8, 1565, Don Pedro Menéndez de Avíles and a group of nearly 1,200 Spaniards landed on the city’s shores and named the new settlement St. Augustine in honor of the saint on whose feast day they sighted land. Father Francisco López celebrated the first Mass of Thanksgiving on its shores, and today, St. Augustine is home to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, the first parish of a permanent European settlement, and the oldest Marian shrine in the U.S.,  the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche.