Spanish missions in Georgia

The Spanish missions in Georgia comprised a series of religious outposts established by Spanish Catholics in order to spread the Christian doctrine among the Guale and various Timucua peoples in what is now southeastern Georgia.

A plaque showing the locations of a third of the missions between 1565 and 1763

Beginning in the second half of the 16th century, the Kingdom of Spain established a number of missions throughout Spanish Florida in order to convert the Native Americans to Christianity, to facilitate control of the area, and to prevent its colonization by other countries, in particular, England and France.^[1] Spanish Florida originally included much of what is now the Southeastern United States, although Spain never exercised long-term effective control over more than the northern part of what is now the state of Florida from present-day St. Augustine to the area around Tallahassee,^[2] southeastern Georgia, and some coastal settlements, such as Pensacola, Florida. A few short-lived missions were established in other locations, including Mission Santa Elena in present-day South Carolina,^[3] around the Florida peninsula, and in the interior of Georgia and Alabama.^[4]

Missions

Main article: Missions in Spanish Florida

This table includes doctrinas, missions that normally had one or more resident missionaries, but does not include visitas, which never had a resident missionary, and had less substantial church buildings where services were conducted by visiting missionaries.

Spanish missions in the present-day US state of Georgia

Mission Name	Location	Province or Region	Documentation of when missions were active is incomplete. Years listed in this column may not represent either the earliest or the latest year in which a mission was in use.}}	References
Espogache[a][b]		Guale	1605–?	[5]
Guale[a]	31.62534, -81.17348[6]	Guale	1568–1570	[7]
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Tolomato[b][c]		Guale	1587–1597, 1605–?	[8]
Ospo or Talapo[a]		Guale	1595–1606	[9]
San Augustín de Urihica		Northern Utina	1630-1657	[10]
San Buenaventura de Guadalquini (moved to St. Johns River as Santa Cruz de Guadalquini)	31.13393, -81.39363[11]	Guale/Mocama	1606-1684	[12]
San Diego de Satuache	31.89, -81.20083	Guale	1616–1675	[13]
San Felipe de Alabe[d]		Guale	1616–1655	[14]
San Felipe (on Cumberland Island)		Mocama	1675–1678	[15]
San Joseph de Sapala or San José de Zapala ( Sapelo Island)	31.51544, -81.24218[16]	Guale	1616–1684	[17]
San Lorenzo de Ibihica		Ibi	1612–1630	[18]
San Pedro de Atulteca or San Felipe de Athulteca[e]		Guale	1616–1695	[19]
San Pedro de Mocama (Cumberland Island)	30.75415, -81.47263[20][21]	Mocama	1587–1655(?)	[22]
San Pedro y San Pablo de Puturiba(to)		Guale	1597(?)–1604(?)	[23]
Santa Catalina de Guale (St. Catherines Island, Sapelo Island and Amelia Island, in succession)	31.62534, -81.17348[6] (on St. Catherines Island)	Guale	1595–1597, 1602–1702	[24]
Santa Clara de Tupiqui (Sapelo River)		Guale	1595–1597	[25]
Santa Cruz de Cachipile	30.66337, -83.20622 [26]	Arapaha	1655–1657	[27]
Santa Isabel de Utinahica		Unknown[f]	1616	[28]
Santa María de los Angeles de Arapaha		Arapaha	1630–1657	[29]
Santiago de Oconi (near the Okefenokee Swamp)		Oconi	Early 16th century - 1655	[30]
Santo Domingo de Asao[g] or Santo Domingo de Talaje[h]	31.36433, -81.41751[31] (on the mainland)	Guale	1595(?)–1680s	[32]
Tupiqui[a][b]		Guale	1569–1570	[7]

See also

• History of Georgia
• Missions in Spanish Florida
• Viceroyalty of New Spain — Spanish colonial North America
• Spanish Louisiana — colonial region

Notes

1. Place name. Mission name unknown.
2. Espogache, Tolomato, and Tupiqui were neighboring towns in Guale which seem to have merged, or to have hosted the mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in sequence.
3. Some residents of the mission may have moved to La Natividad de Nuestra Señora de Tolomato near St. Augustine.
4. San Felipe may have merged with San Pedro de Atulteca.
5. The Atulteca mission had moved to Cumberland Island by 1675, then to Amelia Island by 1695.
6. Santa Isabel was located somewhere in the southern part of the Altamaha River basin, northeast of the mission at Santa Cruz de Tarihica.
7. Originally by the Altamaha River on the mainland, Santo Domingo moved to St. Simon's Island by 1675.
8. Asao and Talafe were distinct towns that were later merged. Both names of the mission were used at various times.