American Catholics have a treasury of faith now all but forgotten and hidden away in the countryside of Southern Maryland.  "Mary's Land" was the third English-speaking colony of America and the first colony founded by a charter guaranteeing freedom of religion.  St. Clement's Island, located in the Potomac River in St. Mary's County, Maryland, is the birthplace of both religious toleration and Catholicism in the English-speaking colonies of America.

On March 25, 1634, The Feast of the Annunciation, a small band of persecuted English Christians officially landed on this tiny island, planted a wooden cross, and knelt down to worship.  Father Andrew White, S.J., a noted European priest and scholar, celebrated the first Eucharist on that same day for the many Catholic pilgrims.  Wearing a relic of the True Cross given him by a member of the English royal family, Father White was later to be the first to break the Piscataway language barrier with a grammar and catechism.   His account of the pilgrims' voyage and landing, Relatio Itineris in Marylandiam, recounts the colonists' heroic and miraculous sojourn to freedom.

The events leading up the voyage weave a rich historical tapestry.  Since the English "Reformation", Catholics had suffered and died for their faith in England.  George Calvert, a well-known Anglican statesman, saw the rights of Catholics ever more abased in England in the early 1630's and chose that time to publicly announce his conversion to Catholicism and intention to found a colony based on religious toleration.  It was Father Andrew White who wrote a widely published defense of the founding of a colony based on a charter guaranteeing religious freedom.  It was this charter that was later to become the blueprint for the Maryland Bill of Rights and also an inspiration for the U.S. Bill of Rights.

The fledgling colony of Maryland with its General Assembly composed of both Protestants and Catholics was soon under attack by Puritans who ruled but a few brief years.  The colony was restored shortly thereafter only to fall yet again in the mid-1640's under the tyrannical rule of the Church-State of England.  Father White was captured and returned to England in chains 11 years after his arrival to await trial for openly celebrating Mass, a crime punishable by death in England.  A good attorney convinced the court of his innocence and Father White was banished to Belgium. 

Returning to England as an old man, Father White spent three years in prison and later lived in a private home where he prophesied the date of his death far in advance to be the Feast of St. John The Evangelist.  Sitting down in a chair at sunset on that very day, he closed his eyes and died.  This brilliant academician, political theorist, activist, and missionary had inconspicuously taken up the cross past middle age to help found a colony devoted to the ideal of the separation of church and state and the idea of religious toleration.  In his account of the journey, Father White relates that he consecrated the land to Mary and to the will of God.

For over 80 years, from the late 1600's until shortly after the Declaration of Independence, Maryland Catholics were cruelly persecuted under the rule of the Church-State of England.  The laws rightfully established by the diverse members of the Maryland General Assembly were repealed and the colony was divided into parishes ruled by rectors appointed by the governor.  Catholics were heavily taxed, prohibited from holding office or sending their children to school.  Protestant widows who married Catholics had their children legally taken from them.  Priests disguised themselves as traveling salesmen whose ringing bells could be disassembled to become what were called "saddle chalices" for the celebration of the Eucharist in house chapels.

During this time of persecution, the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was spread via a French prayer book for men.  The devotion spread like fire through the colony.  At the same time, the Great Awakening was taking place in Protestant assemblies who also suffered under the rule of the Church of England.  Even under terrible restraints, conversions to Catholicism were many.  One historian postulates that it was the solidarity between the various denominations as well as their righteous anger that was the true catalyst for the American Revolution.  It was the knowledge of their persecution that caused French Canada to join America in its fight for liberty.   Without French Canada's help, American  independence would have been but a dream.

Now, as the world faces ever-increasing religious intolerance and bigotry toward people of faith, Catholics can return to the roots of their own faith to learn about the sanctity of religious freedom, the heroic sacrifices of our ancestors and the preciousness of our Catholic faith and culture.  Modern day democracy was first given birth at the foot of a cross planted on a tiny island in Southern Maryland on the little celebrated feast of the conception of the Child, Jesus. 

A renewal of the American experiment in democracy can occur if we return to the first principles of freedom, honor, devotion  and respect for the human person that were the motivating ideals of our own democracy.