Maria Josefa Martinez
Maria Josefa Martinez 1800-1823
A gravestone inscription in Spanish provides most of the extant information about Dona Maria Josefa Martinez's life. She was born on October 22nd, 1800, in Pensacola, Florida. She married Don Juan Brosnaham in 1816 and they had three children, Margarita, Clotilda, and Angelina. She died on November 16th, 1823, at the age of 23.
Her otherwise plain grave marker is engraved with a curious symbol, a circle surrounding a cross behind the initials I.H.S. While the cross is the most common symbol of Christianity, the initials are another, if less well known. The letters possess two related meanings. The first is that they are the first three letters of Jesus when written in Greek, while the second meaning references a legend about Constantine in which he saw a different Christian sign in the sky before a battle, causing him to proclaim "in hoc signo vinces," Latin for "in this sign you will conquer." The initials generally represent both meanings simultaneously.
Researched and written by Richard Adams, University of West Florida Public History program.
