Since Maryland was established as a Catholic haven in 1629, I’m pretty sure it’s well known there were Catholics in America well before the 1800s.
A skeleton, a Catholic relic, and a mystery walked into a bar...
Strange article. Plenty of French Catholics came to the new world in the 16th and 17th centuries as explorers, traders, trappers, and priests to convert the Indians.
**Archer, an influential secretary and magistrate “was one of the most prominent of the first leaders at Jamestown,” Horn told me. Historians knew Archer as a rival of Captain John Smith, the explorer who, according to legend, was saved from execution by Pocahontas, the daughter of a Powhatan chief. Smith and Archer were rivals. “And Archer spent a good chunk of time trying to remove Smith from the government council of Jamestown,” Horn told me. Researchers now wonder whether there was more to the antagonistic relationship between Smith and Archer. Could Archer’s motives—as a colonial leader, as a searing critic of Smith’s—have been linked to a secret religious identity?**
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Wow!
An another wow!
**But there are other hints that suggest Archer was indeed a Catholic, and possibly even an important figure to other Catholics. He was buried in a hexagonal wooden coffin with his head pointing east. “Because of the orientation of archer in the grave, his head to the east, this is usually a sign of clerics,” Horn said. “He could have been the leader of a secret Catholic cell and even possibly a secret Catholic priest.”**
Every Protestant in England had at least one "embarrassing" Catholic family member including Anglican bishops and Protestant members of Parliament. The most "embarrassed" were the ones who's family member was a priest, most notably a Jesuit.
The fight about religion centered around the monarch thinking that he or she owned everyone's consciences. It was a tremendous problem. Thomas More said that he was uncomfortable pinning his conscience onto another man's back for fear that he did not know where that person would take it.
Another thing -- Maryland was not set up as a Catholic colony. It was a colony designed to allow everyone to worship according to their own conscience with no interference from the government.
The only law concerning religion was that there were to be no fights that disturbed the peace. Both parties caught fighting about religion would be fined in tobacco.
Maryland was not a theocracy until the Anglican church took over the colony.
Just after the signing of the Constitution and the election of George Washington as the first president, all of the founders and their wives were invited to hear James Wilson give a set of lectures where he explained what they had just done for the country. In Wilson's very first lecture he credited George Calvert, the founder of Maryland, with providing the example of true freedom of religion.
Or maybe it was just a box.
Very interesting.
England had been Protestant for only about 70 years at the foundation of Jamestown. This relic could have been in the family for many years and was still being passed down after England became Protestant.
Plus, there were and are different kinds of Anglicans. In the early 17th Century some Anglicans were Calvinist and would have regarded worshiping with relics idolatry. Other Anglicans were high church who worshiped almost like Catholics but followed Protestant teaching on the Eucharist. King James tended to favor the high church approach to worship.
So, finding a reliquary with this man does not necessarily mean he was a Catholic. Maybe, maybe not.
The way to research the issue would be to go to England and see if any family history could be located that would shed light on the family's political and religious history. In the 17th Century there was a considerable struggle over whether England might revert to Catholicism or if would remain Protestant just what kind of Protestant. The English Civil War was fought over the issue and another King was deposed in the Glorious Revolution.
Christopher Columbus was, of course, Catholic, but many people don’t know he is also recognized for a life of heroic virtue and designated a “Servant of God” (step 1 of 3 on the “path” to sainthood) by the Catholic Church.