Vatican Sends Relic to the First Coast to Mark 450th Anniversary of St. Augustine's Founding

With the 450th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine and the establishment of Catholicism in the United States being celebrated this summer, the Diocese of St. Augustine announced on Wednesday that, after talks with the Vatican and Italy, a relic of Augustine of Hippo, the theologian the city was named after, will be featured on the First Coast. 

Father Thomas Willis, the rector of the Cathedral Basilica (and, back in the late 1980s, a priest at Holy Family Catholic Church in Jacksonville when your humble blogger was an altar boy there), will hold mass on Tuesday welcoming the reliquary, part of the Vatican Treasury, to the diocese. 

“What a wonderful gift this is to have a major relic come to the city, parish and cathedral that bears the name of one of history’s most notable and intellectual people,” said Father Willis on Wednesday. “Augustine of Hippo is known among Christians as the ‘sinner turned saint.’ His story of conversion to God is so relevant to our contemporary era.

“To have this significant relic on loan to the diocese and the Cathedral Basilica during our Jubilee Year, celebrating the 450th anniversary of the founding of America’s first parish, is, indeed, a blessing,” added Father Willis. “I hope that many people will come and make a pilgrimage to the cathedral, ask our patron for his intercession and be renewed in the beauty of the Catholic faith that Augustine taught so well.”
 
The diocese will hold events throughout the summer, including lectures and lessons on Augustine’s life and mass on his feast day at the end of August.