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Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Replica 1738 fort in St. Augustine honors first free Black settlement
'Viva Mose!' shouted the crowd of dignitaries, state park rangers and community members gathered at Fort Mose Historic State Park near St. Augustine on a sunny Friday in early May. The chant — translated as 'Long live Fort Mose!' — celebrated the ribbon cutting of a newly constructed replica of a 1738 fort that holds a special place in America's Black history. In 1738, the Spanish governor of Florida chartered the settlement of Fort Mose as a refuge for those fleeing slavery from English colonies in the Carolinas. Over several decades, an estimated 100 Africans made the first legally sanctioned free Black community in the pre-Constitution United States their home and safe haven from British rule. 'The reconstruction stands as a tribute to the courageous men and women who founded Fort Mose in 1738, ensuring their legacy lives on,' said Charles Ellis, the president of the Fort Mose Historical Society. 'By bringing this fort back to life, we enhance our ability to tell the story through on-site events, group tours, lectures and virtual seminars. Because of this, no longer will our fourth and fifth-grade students ask, 'Where is the fort?'' The reconstruction was made possible due to extensive research of the site that began in the 1970s and 1980s with efforts spearheaded by Dr. Kathleen Deagan, a University of Florida professor of archaeology, anthropology and history, and Dr. Jane Landers, a professor of history at Vanderbilt University. Financial support for the project came from public and private sources, including the Florida State Parks, St. Johns County, Florida Power and Light, Wells Fargo, the Jacksonville Jaguars Foundation, the Florida State Parks Foundation and more, who all fundraised a total of $3.2 million to turn this dream into reality. 'The reconstruction of the Fort Mose has been a labor of love, dedication and unwavering commitment which began in 2012,' Ellis said. 'When we broke ground on the reconstruction of Fort Mose, we didn't just build walls. We created a tribute to the resiliency and determination of freedom seekers who made the first legally sanctioned free Black settlement in North America possible.' In addition to exploring an indoor museum with a timeline of Fort Mose and St. Augustine history, visitors can now walk through a full-scale replica of the 39-foot-tall lookout tower that helped residents of the fort monitor for enemy attacks. Reenactors will help illuminate history and help visitors imagine what life was like in the 1730s during special events and tours complete with drills, pageantry and cannon firing. Construction on the replica fort began in January 2024, 30 years after the site was designated as a national historic landmark. Chuck Hatcher, director of the Florida State Parks, said collaboration is what made this project come to fruition. 'Archaeologists, CSOs, volunteers, park staff, division staff, artists and public officials have all worked together to make this project come to fruition,' he said. 'I would like to think if the people who were the original members of Fort Mose were here, they would be proud of what we've done and the representation of what they had.' While there is no blueprint for how to build a replica 1738 fort, the design was put together with the goal of being as authentic as possible while staying mindful of Florida's climate. The palisade walls and structural support beams that hold up the fort are made to look like wood but are constructed of concrete. Now, state park officials and volunteers who helped this project come together are celebrating the story of courage, resilience and freedom that the fort helps tell. 'Nearly 300 years after Fort Mose stood as a beacon to freedom seekers, it will stand again and be a testament to the power of freedom, bravery and the human spirit,' said Kathleen Brennan, president of the Florida State Parks Foundation. 'May this fort last 300 years and beyond to honor those who made their living here and to inspire visitors from all over the world, who will come here to experience what can only be found here at Fort Mose.' Find me @PConnPie on Instagram or send me an email: pconnolly@ Stay up to date with our latest travel, arts and events coverage by subscribing to our newsletters at If you go: Admission to park grounds is free. To enter the visitor center there is a $2 fee per adult. Children under 6 are admitted for free. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m., 365 days a year. Located at 15 Fort Mose Trail in St. Augustine; 904-823-2232;
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Nine derelict boats to be removed from St. Augustine waterways
The City of St. Augustine will begin removing several derelict boats from local waterways beginning on Monday, June 2. The contractor, Flagship Towing, is aiming to remove nine wrecked or unusable boats that have been taking up space in places like Salt Run and the Matanzas River. The project is estimated to take two weeks and will make the waterways safer for other boats and marine life. According to St. Johns County's Derelict Vessel Viewer dashboard, the county has 36 vessels marked either derelict or ready for removal. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] Once all the boats have been removed, they will be relocated, properly destroyed, and disposed of, according to the city. Funding for the project is being provided by the Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) and the St. Augustine Port, Waterway and Beach District. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Pope Leo XIV And St. Augustine's Contributions To Economics
Pope Leo XIV as missionary, Bishop and Cardinal, followed and lived according to St Augustine's ... More teachings. Picture of Cardinal Prevost by Franco Origlia, St Augustine painting by Botticelli at Ognissanti Church, Tuscany, Italy The election of Pope Leo XIV, a member of the Augustinian Order, has renewed interest in the teachings of St. Augustine (354-430). The Order of St. Augustine (OSA), although not formally founded until 1244, drew its inspiration from the rules for monastic life established by the saint. Augustine's numerous works cover mostly theology, philosophy, biblical exegesis, apologetics, and pastoral matters. In some of his writings, though, we can find principles helpful for business and economics. A recent well-researched article by Matthew Becklo captured what I have also heard from various Augustinians: The Pope is 'a man thoroughly drenched in Augustine's theology and spirituality.' Following St. Augustine, he understands that 'the Church isn't striving to create heaven here on earth; instead, it's striving to draw earth up into heaven.' With this caution in mind, what were St. Augustine's views regarding earthly policy? The State Noted Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950) writes in his History of Economic Analysis: 'The accomplished author of De civitate Dei and of the Confessiones—whose very obiter dicta reveal analytic habits of mind— [never] Augustine's view of the state is deeply rooted in his theology, particularly as outlined in his seminal work The City of God (De civitate Dei), where he describes two cities, the City of God and the Earthly City. The first comprises those who live according to God's will and love God above all else. It is eternal and governed by divine justice. Members of the second live according to self-love and seek worldly power. This 'city' is temporal and marked by pride, conflict, and disorder. 'City of God' - from miniature by St. Augustine (translated by Raoul de Presles), 15th century. ... More Upper enclosure represents saint who have been received in heaven. The seven lower enclosures represent those who are preparing themselves, through Christian virtues, for heaven, or who are excluding themselves by committing capital sins. SA: Also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, Bishop of Hippo Regius (present-day Annaba, Algeria). Latin - speaking theologian and philosopher of Roman region, 13 November 354 28 August 430. (Photo by) *** Local Caption *** Augustine's reflections on this Earthly City inform his views on political economy. Dino Bigongiari summarizes Augustine's view of the state thus: '[The immoral] are the ones whose needs have called into the existence the political State. The State is necessary because the people, with all their greed, with all their desires, would otherwise soon have exterminated themselves.' The State helps to maintain relative peace and order in a fallen world, but Augustine never saw it as a means of salvation. Those who follow St. Augustine's writings do not idealize the state. Salvation lies solely with God and the Church; love for God and neighbor must guide political economy. Some brief yet essential passages in Augustine address private property, business profits, economic value, and the relationship between law and justice. To continue, I will briefly elaborate on these ideas. Private Property It makes little sense to speak about private property in the 'City of God,' but here on Earth, we see evils such as conflict, war, and injustice. Private property (as Thomas Aquinas later argued) does not eliminate these evils but does help to mitigate them. Augustine urged detachment from material goods but did not advocate the abolition of private ownership. Private property, he argued, was not divinely ordained but a human construct—created and regulated by humans and the authorities of civil society for practical purposes. 'It is by human right,' he wrote, 'that we say this estate is mine.' God has given the earth to all, but human laws make private ownership useful and tolerable; after original sin, this better accords with humanity's fallen nature. Augustine wrote, for instance, in opposition to a heretical sect called the 'Apostolics': 'The people styled 'apostolic' are those who arrogantly claimed this title for themselves because they refused to admit married folk or property owners to their fellowship, arguing from the model of the many monks and clerics in the Catholic Church. But such people are heretics because they cut themselves off from the Church by alleging that those who, unlike themselves, marry and own property have no hope for salvation" (De haeresibus 40). Closely connected with private property is the reality of business and profit. Business, Augustine wrote, 'is like eating, a morally indifferent act, which can be good or bad depending on the ends and the circumstances." Pedro de Aragón, a 16th-century Augustinian theologian, expounded: 'It is not business, but businessmen, who can do evil.' Augustine stressed that true poverty is in the heart. The Theory of Value There is a chapter in The City of God titled 'The distinctions among created things and their different ranking by the scales of utility and logic.' Augustine's reflections here had an immense influence on later economic thought. In the divine order and in the order of nature, 'living things are ranked above inanimate objects; those which have the power of reproduction, or even the urge toward it, are superior to those who lack that impulse. Among living things, the sentient rank above the insensitive, and animals above trees. Among the sentient, the intelligent take precedence over the unthinking: men over cattle.' But in the earthly order, utility—usefulness for man—is the main determiner of value. In Augustine's words: 'There is another gradation which employs utility as the criterion of value. On this other scale we would put some inanimate things above some creatures of sense…. For instance, would not anyone prefer to have food in his house rather than fleas?' The Late Scholastic notion of just price was also influenced by Augustine's theory of value, which states that the value we place on goods depends on the utility we derive from them. Since our needs and desires are subjective, utility is subjective as well. According to Schumpeter, Aquinas relied on Augustine once again when arguing, 'The just price of things is not fixed with mathematical precision, but depends on a kind of estimate, so that a slight addition or subtraction would not seem to destroy the equality of justice.' Augustine himself acknowledged that it is common to try to buy low and sell high, but emphasized that fairness is the moral course to follow in any transaction. For instance, he speaks favorably of a man who paid the fair price for a book even when the seller was offering it at a lower price. Justice and Law Augustine developed the notion that unjust laws are not true laws: a law, to be such, has to fulfill certain requirements. As we know, few things are more important for an economic system that leads to integral human development than the institutions of justice and the rule of law. 'Without justice,' Augustine wrote, 'there is no realm, nor province, nor city, nor hamlet, nor house, nor family, nor even a band of robbers and highwaymen that can last.' In Book IV of The City of God we read: 'If justice is taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on. If, by the admittance of abandoned men, this evil increases to such a degree that it holds places, fixes abodes, takes possession of cities, and subdues peoples, it assumes the more plainly the name of a kingdom, because the reality is now manifestly conferred on it, not by the removal of covetousness, but by the addition of impunity. Indeed, that was an apt and true reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, 'What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst you who do it with a great fleet are styled emperor.'' A dictum of Augustine's was, "That which is not just seems to be no law at all' (On Free Will I.5). To be just, a law must derive from the law of nature in accordance with the rules of reason and usefulness to man. The just law must also be possible in the context of the customs of the country. It must be formulated by the one who governs the community, but it may not exceed his power as a lawgiver. The subjects should bear the burden of the law in accordance with proportional equality. Pope Leo XIV. (Photo by Simone Risoluti - Vatican Media via) Pope Leo ... More XIV's economic teachings will likely follow and provide clarity to traditional Catholic Social Doctrine, but concrete economic policy recommendations will come from economists, not the Church Conclusion: The Church and Economics We should not exaggerate the Pope's influence on today's policy discussions. For instance, despite Pope Francis's more interventionist views, his Argentine compatriots elected Javier Milei, whose free-market views were the most radical in the country's history. During the electoral campaign, one of Milei's mentors even advocated breaking relations with the Vatican. And this was despite the fact that over 60% of the Argentine population is Catholic, compared to approximately 20% in the United States. This may give some indication of what influence we might expect Pope Leo's views to have. The Catholic Church's social doctrine, in which Leo XIV is very well versed, establishes that the concrete economic policy solutions is not a matter of dogma but of prudential decisions. The battle to choose the best policies is a task of the Earthly City. It is a great help, however, to have in the highest recognized moral pulpit someone who recognizes the autonomy of economic science and, at the same time, provides moral direction and clarity. Josh Gregor, jgregor@ contributed to this piece
Asharq Al-Awsat
25-05-2025
- General
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Pope Leo XIV Declares 'I am Roman!' as he Completes Formalities to Become Bishop of Rome
Pope Leo XIV declared himself a Roman on Sunday as he completed the final ceremonial steps cementing his role as the bishop of Rome. The first American pope was formally taking possession of two papal basilicas in the Eternal City, a formality that serves to ceremonially introduce Leo to his Roman flock. One of the many titles that Leo assumed when he was elected May 8 was bishop of Rome. Given his responsibilities running the 1.4-billion strong universal Catholic Church, popes delegate the day-to-day governance of running of the diocese of Roman to a vicar. Sunday's ceremonies at the St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major basilicas follow Leo's visit last week to the St. Paul Outside the Walls basilica. Together with St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the four papal basilicas are the most important basilicas in the West. Rome's Mayor Roberto Gualtieri welcomed Leo first at the steps to city hall, noting that his May 8 election fell during a Holy Year, an event occurring every 25 years to invite pilgrims to Rome. The city underwent two years of traffic-clogging public works projects to prepare and expects to welcome upwards of 30 million people in 2025. Leo said he felt the 'serious but passionate responsibility' to serve all Romans during the Holy Year and beyond, The Associated Press reported. Wearing his formal papal garb, Leo recalled the words he had uttered from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica on the night of his election. The Augustinian pope quoted St. Augustine in saying: 'With you I am Christian, and for you, bishop.' 'By special title, today I can say that for you and with you I am Roman!' he said. Leo, 69, the former Robert Prevost, replaced Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope, who died April 21 and is buried at St. Mary Major, near a beloved icon of the Madonna.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Pope declares ‘I am Roman' as he completes formalities to become bishop of Rome
Pope Leo declared himself a Roman as he completed the final ceremonial steps cementing his role as the bishop of Rome. The first American pope was formally taking possession of two papal basilicas in the Eternal City, a formality that serves to ceremonially introduce Leo to his Roman flock, on Sunday. One of the many titles that Leo assumed when he was elected on May 8 was bishop of Rome. Given his responsibilities running the 1.4-billion strong universal Catholic Church, popes delegate the day-to-day governance of running of the diocese of Roman to a vicar. Sunday's ceremonies at the St John Lateran and St Mary Major basilicas follow Leo's visit last week to the St Paul Outside the Walls basilica. Together with St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the four papal basilicas are the most important basilicas in the West. Rome's mayor Roberto Gualtieri welcomed Leo first at the steps to city hall, noting that his May 8 election fell during a Holy Year, an event occurring every 25 years to invite pilgrims to Rome. The city underwent two years of traffic-clogging public works projects to prepare and expects to welcome upwards of 30 million people in 2025. Leo said he felt the 'serious but passionate responsibility' to serve all Romans during the Holy Year and beyond. Wearing his formal papal garb, Leo recalled the words he had uttered from the loggia of St Peter's Basilica on the night of his election. The Augustinian pope quoted St Augustine in saying: 'With you I am Christian, and for you, bishop.' 'By special title, today I can say that for you and with you I am Roman!' he said. Leo, 69, the former Robert Prevost, replaced Pope Francis, the first Latin American pope, who died April 21 and is buried at St Mary Major, near a beloved icon of the Madonna.
