About the “La Misión” Project
Bienvenidos a la misión! This website is devoted to bringing together the most current scholarship regarding the Spanish missions of La Florida, examining and attempting to replicate associated material culture, and developing experiential public history programs for modern audiences of various backgrounds. These missions played a critical role in the establishment of the Spanish empire within the United States, and in 1607 their religious successes justified the continuation of the La Florida colony despite King Phillip III’s recommendation to abandon the mainland and resettle in Hispaniola. Furthermore, the missions served as a critical defense and supply network for the fledgling colony, which has allowed St. Augustine to become our nation’s oldest city today. Study of the missions is also unique in that it offers us a prime catalyst for the study of cultural contact, knowledge that is increasingly useful and important in our globalizing world. We hope to bring not just the historical narrative to the public, but also the cultures, personalities, and experiences which directed the development of La Florida’s missions.
While the La Misión project deals with topics of a religious nature within an historical context, it is NOT a ministry. The project seeks merely to study all aspects of missiology and cultural contact, and examine how these experiences shaped our world historically as well as how we might apply the lessons from this past to our present and future. We then hope to synthesize the results of such studies into engaging interpretive programs for a wide variety of audiences in hopes of increasing awareness of the influence the various mission systems had on our lives today and how we might learn from those past experiences when pursuing our future.
Beginning in fall of 2011, we will also be developing a 17th & 18th century French Recollect Franciscan program for interpretation in New France (today Canada and the upper-Midwestern US) in addition to a medieval crusader state program based out of the Franciscan chapter house in 13th century Acre. We will continue examining the same relationships and phenomenon of missiology and cultural contact, but now within two additional spatial and temporal contexts.
While the La Misión project deals with topics of a religious nature within an historical context, it is NOT a ministry. The project seeks merely to study all aspects of missiology and cultural contact, and examine how these experiences shaped our world historically as well as how we might apply the lessons from this past to our present and future. We then hope to synthesize the results of such studies into engaging interpretive programs for a wide variety of audiences in hopes of increasing awareness of the influence the various mission systems had on our lives today and how we might learn from those past experiences when pursuing our future.
Beginning in fall of 2011, we will also be developing a 17th & 18th century French Recollect Franciscan program for interpretation in New France (today Canada and the upper-Midwestern US) in addition to a medieval crusader state program based out of the Franciscan chapter house in 13th century Acre. We will continue examining the same relationships and phenomenon of missiology and cultural contact, but now within two additional spatial and temporal contexts.
Meet the Friar
Adam Cripps is a local historian, archaeologist, and preservationist hailing from La Isla de Santa Maria (now Amelia Island, Fl.). A student of the Spanish missions since his youth, Adam went on to get his BA in History and Anthropology from Flagler College. Between classes, he has been involved in the excavation of a wide variety of sites on both land and underwater, but most notably has worked at the sites of the doctrina San Juan del Puerto and its visita Vera Cruz. Having studied Spanish paleography, he also deals directly with period documents pertaining to the Franciscanos of La Florida. A public-oriented project such as “La Misión” is not new to Adam, as he has spent over half his life as a living historian at various historic sites and has served as an outreach assistant with the Northeast Region of the Florida Public Archaeology Network.
Adam is currently a Master's candidate in the Historic Preservation program at Eastern Michigan University, and is looking forward to fully implementing the La Mision project following the completion of his program in 2013.
Adam is currently a Master's candidate in the Historic Preservation program at Eastern Michigan University, and is looking forward to fully implementing the La Mision project following the completion of his program in 2013.