With Catholics and Protestants aboard, Leonard Calvert, Cecil’s younger brother, sailed 123 days on the Ark and the Dove and crossed the Atlantic; after sailing through the Chesapeake Bay and into the Potomac River, they landed on St. Clement’s island on March 25, 1634, the feast of the Annunciation. They put up a cross there in honor of our Saviour Jesus Christ. The same day the Catholics gathered on shore for a Mass celebrated by one of the three Jesuit priests aboard, Father Andrew White SJ, who dedicated Maryland to Mary, the Mother of God. This was the first Roman Catholic Mass in the thirteen English-speaking colonies. To this day March 25 is celebrated as Maryland Day by the State of Maryland.
http://maryourmother.net/Maryland.html
Great Maryland history.
And hence the name “Mary-land” too?