6 Interesting Catholic Thanksgiving Facts You
Need to Know
by Dr Taylor Marshall
W
hen you’re sitting down for that wonderful feast on Thursday,
here are 6 interesting Catholic Thanksgiving Facts you can share with
your family. Print them out and read them aloud over some pumpkin (or
pecan) pie!
The history books will tell you that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated
by the Protestant pilgrims of Massachusetts in 1621. Not so. There was
the Catholic Thanksgiving of 1565 in Florida and another Catholic
Thanksgiving of 1589 in Texas.
1. The first American Thanksgiving was actually celebrated on
September 8 (feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin) in 1565 in St.
Augustine, Florida. The Native Americans and Spanish settlers held a
feast and the Holy Mass was offered. This was 56 years before the
Puritan pilgrims of Massachusetts. 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 chaplain Fr. Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales chanted the
Te Deum and presented a crucifix that Menendez ceremoniously
kissed. Then the 500 soldiers, 200 sailors and 100 families and
artisans, along with the Timucuan Indians celebrated the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass in gratitude to God.
2. The second American Thanksgiving happened on April 30, 1598,
when Spanish explorer Don Juan de Oñate requested the friars to
say a Mass of Thanksgiving, after which he formally proclaimed “La
Toma”, claiming the land north of the Rio Grande for the King of
Spain. The men feasted on duck, goose, and fish from the river. The
actors among them dressed and presented a play. All this took place
twenty-three years before the Pilgrims set sail from England on the
Mayflower.
3. Puritan pilgrims all started with Richard Clyfton who was a Church
of England parson in Nottinghamshire in the early 1600s. Clifton
sympathized with the Separatists of that era. Separatists were
Calvinistic non-conformists to the doctrine and liturgy of the Church
of England. The Hampton Court Conference held by King James I
(1604) condemned those who would not conform to the more
outwardly Catholic usages in the Church of England (e.g. robes,
candles, bowing the head at the name of Christ, processions). The
result was that Richard Clyfton was “defrocked” and stripped of his
clerical status in the Church of England. Shortly thereafter Richard
Clyfton went to Amsterdam and was followed by his disciples: the
Pilgrims.
The Puritan pilgrims were violently anti-Catholic. They left England
because they thought that the Church of England was too
Catholic. These Puritans were strict Calvinists. The pilgrims also
opposed celebrating Christmas, dancing, musical instruments in
church, and even hymns as papistical.
4. Squanto, the beloved hero of Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock, was
Catholic! (Here’s my full article on the Catholicism of
Squanto.) Squanto had been enslaved by the English but he was
freed by Spanish Franciscans. Squanto thus received baptism and
became a Catholic. So it was a baptized Catholic Native American
who orchestrated what became known as Thanksgiving.
Catholic Squanto teaches the lame English Puritans how to play limbo.
“How low can you go?!”
5. So while Thanksgiving may celebrate the Calvinist Separatists who
fled England, Catholics might remember the same unjust laws that
granted the crown of martyrdom to Thomas More, John Fisher,
Edmund Campion, et al. are the same injustices that led the Pilgrims
to Plymouth.
6. And let everyone remember that “Thanksgiving” in Greek
is Eucharistia. Thus, the Body and Blood of Christ is the true
“Thanksgiving Meal”.
And don’t forget to raise your wine glass and recite the wonderful
limerick of Hilaire Belloc:
“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There’s always laughter and good red wine.
At least I’ve always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!”
― Hilaire Belloc
Squanto, the Catholic Hero of the Thanksgiving
by Dr Taylor Marshall
Do you remember Squanto, the Native American who assisted the Puritan
Pilgrims at the “first Thanksgiving”?
Well, Squanto, our beloved hero of Thanksgiving, was Catholic!
His true name was Tisquantum, yet he is affectionately known to us as
“Squanto.”
In 1614, Squanto was captured by a lieutenant of John Smith (remember?
from Pocahontas). This shameful lieutenant attempted to sell Squanto
and other Native Americans into slavery via Spain. However, some
Franciscan friars discovered the plot and acquired the captured Native
Americans, Squanto included. During this time, Squanto received
instruction in the Catholic Faith and received holy baptism.
As a freeman, Squanto traveled to London where became a laborer in the
shipyards. Here he became fluent in English. Eventually, Squanto was able
to return to his Native Land, New England, in 1619 – five years after he
had been kidnapped. He returned only to discover that his people were
being decimated by the recently imported European diseases.
Since he was fluent in English, Squanto became well-known and valuable
to the new English Pilgrims settled at Plymouth. As an English speaker,
Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to fertilize the ground, grow corn, and
the best places to catch fish.
Squanto eventually contracted one of the European diseases. Governor
William Bradford described Squanto’s death like this:
Squanto fell ill of Indian fever, bleeding much at the nose, which the
Indians take as a symptom of death, and within a few days he died.
He begged the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the
Englishman’s God in heaven, and bequeathed several of his things to
his English friends, as remembrances. His death was a great loss.
So remember Squanto today and perhaps share this bit of history during
your Thanksgiving feast. Let us pray for Squanto, and may he pray for us.