Note: The following contains excerpts from an Oct. 19, 2020, article in our sister publication, The St. Augustine Record entitled “Cathedral Parish to celebrate 150 years of Florida’s first diocese” by Margo C. Pope.
Most News-Press readers are at least somewhat familiar with Bishop Verot High School, a private, Roman Catholic high school in the Diocese of Venice, Florida. But how familiar are you with its namesake, Augustin Vérot?
On the weekend of Oct. 22-23, 1870, Right Rev. Jean-Pierre Augustin Marcellin Verot, first bishop of the new Diocese of St. Augustine, took possession of his cathedral and preached his inaugural sermon.
Jean-Pierre Augustin Marcellin Verot portrait.
Verot’s words were a mix of encouragement and warnings. Historian Michael Gannon, Ph.D., author of “Rebel Bishop: Augustin Verot, Florida’s Civil War Prelate,” summed them up in his book. He said Verot predicted “the elevation of Florida to the dignity of a diocese would prove an incalculable advantage to the priests and Catholic people of that ancient mission territory.”
But, Verot advised, aid from French Society for the Propagation of the Faith that he had depended, had been cut off due to political and military upheavals. Verot speculated that if those problems had been foreseen, the new diocese might not have been created. Gannon noted, too, The St. Augustine Examiner covered Verot’s sermon and reported that “the remarks of the Rt. Rev. Bishop were all the time listened to with breathless attention.”
Verot, a native of LePuy, France, and a former seminary instructor in Maryland, was appointed Apostolic Vicar for the new Vicariate of St. Augustine, established by Pope Pius IX in 1857. It covered Florida east of the Apalachicola River. A vicariate is a jurisdiction in regions where a diocese has not been formed.
The St. Augustine Cathedral on March 13, 1871.
Verot arrived in 1858 after being consecrated a bishop in Baltimore. His oversight of the St. Augustine continued until his death in 1876. From 1861 to 1870, Verot also served simultaneously as the third Bishop of Savannah. The new diocese was created by Pius IX on March 11, 1870.
Verot’s story is compelling. “Verot was on horseback a lot and rode in stagecoaches when he travelled around the state to visit the parishes and the priests he had. When you think of the challenges, it’s kind of amazing that these missionaries, like Verot, were so willing to come over here to bring the gospel to the people.”
“Locally the most important thing Verot did, in addition to getting a diocese started in the very difficult, post-Civil War time, was getting the Sisters of St. Joseph here,” Willis said.
Verot asked the Sisters of St. Joseph of LePuy in 1866 to provide him with sisters for Florida and Georgia to teach the newly freed slaves after the Civil War.
“That one action of his can never be celebrated and acknowledged enough,” Willis said. “They have done great work in the name of the Lord ever since.” The sisters then added schools for white students statewide, too.
Verot also secured the 16th-century site of Mission of Nombre de Dios and the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche, then in private ownership.
After he discovered that St. Augustine’s oldest parish records, dating from 1594, were in Cuba, he worked to return them to the Diocese.
Bishop Verot Catholic High School was established in 1969 as Fort Myers Central Catholic High School. The school was renamed “Bishop Verot,” when the school moved to their newly-constructed location in 1980.
The school
Bishop Verot Catholic High School was established in 1969 as Fort Myers Central Catholic High School. The school was renamed “Bishop Verot,” when the school moved to their newly-constructed location in 1980.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: From the Archives: Bishop Verot’s namesake and building on Florida’s faith
