Tolomato Cemetery

Description

Tolomato Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery located on Cordova Street in St. Augustine, Florida. The cemetery was the former site of "Tolomato", a village of Guale Indian converts to Christianity and the Franciscan monks who ministered to them. The site of the village and Franciscan mission is noted on a 1737 map of St. Augustine. A cemetery for the inhabitants of the village was also located on the grounds, with a portion of this cemetery set aside for former American black slaves, who had converted to Catholicism after escaping bondage in the Carolinas.The location of Tolomato was just outside the city across from the Rosario Line, a defensive line constructed in the First Spanish Period, which consisted of an earthen embankment planted with cactus and Yucca gloriosa, also known as Spanish daggers.HistoryTolomato missionWhen Britain gained control of St. Augustine in 1763 most of the Spanish population of 3,100 left for Cuba along with many of the Native American converts to Christianity, including the monks and inhabitants of Tolomato. The British occupants being primarily Protestant had no need of the wooden Catholic church on the site and tore it down for firewood, leaving the coquina bell tower intact.