Requiem Mass for Confederate Veterans 26-APR-2010

On April 26th 2010 (Florida Confederate Memorial Day)

There will be a Requiem Mass said for Confederate veterans

who proudly served their Country during the War of Northern Agression.

LOCATION:   Saint Michael The Archangel Roman Catholic Church

                        1950 Bartram Road.  Jacksonville, FL 32207

TIME:             08:00AM  

Historically, the South has never been known as a bastion of Catholicism. But what most historians have overlooked for going on the past century and a half, were the contributions made by Catholics on behalf of The Confederate States; most notably, Pope Pius IX.

Jefferson Davis, all though he was Protestant, attended Catholic school (Dominicans) as a youth in Kentucky. Young Davis even expressed a desire to convert. But the good Fathers denied his request out of respect for the Davis family. Evidently, his first contact with Catholicism wouldn't be his last.

Twenty of the Confederacy's fighting generals were Catholic. 

Among them General P.G.T Beauregard, who ordered the barrarge on Fort Sumter; General James Longstreet of Gettysburg and Chickamauga fame; and Gen. Joseph Finegan, the victor at one of the few major battles fought in Florida. Most that at least dabble in the history of The War Between The States have heard of the all Catholic New York 69th. But how many knew that The South had Catholic Brigades as well? The 6th Louisiana Tigers fought with valor in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The 10th Tennessee fought with equal elan at Chickamauga, Chattanooga and Atlanta.

Not only on the battlefield had Catholics well represented The South. Bishop Patrick Lynch of Charleston, South Carolina was the Confederate Ambassador to The Papal States. Infact,

The Papal States was the only nation to ever formally exchange ambassadors with the Confederacy.