The Mission of Nombre de Dios traces its origins to the founding of the City of St. Augustine in 1565. It was here that Pedro Menendez de Aviles knelt to kiss a wooden cross presented to him by the chaplain of his expedition, Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, on September 8, 1565. It was on these grounds that Father Lopez would celebrate the first parish Mass and begin the earliest missionary work and Spanish settlers would begin the devotion to Our Lady of La Leche that continues into the present.

Information provided by Florida Department of State.