The Catholic History of Thanksgiving

Good news—soon, one lucky turkey will be able to live out its natural lifespan in peace, thanks to a presidential pardon! Thousands of other turkeys won’t be quite fortunate, as they’ll end up on our plates come Thanksgiving Day. While turkey was likely on the menu in Plymouth in 1621, it most likely was not served during the first Thanksgiving. Confused? That’s probably because you’ve never heard of the real first Thanksgiving in America, which just so happened to be a Catholic celebration! 

On September 8, 1565, Catholic Spanish explorers established the first permanent European settlement in the current United States at St. Augustine, Florida (named so because they first spotted land on St. Augustine’s feast day, August 28). To praise God for their safe arrival, the first thing the Spaniards did was celebrate Mass. Many curious native people (members of the Timucuan tribe) gathered around to watch the ceremony, and afterwards, the Spaniards invited them to join in a celebratory meal. This was the first shared meal between Europeans and Native Americans in thanksgiving for their many blessings—decades before the Plymouth feast! 

The Thanksgiving story with which we are more familiar is much more Protestant in flavor. The Pilgrims that celebrated the first English Thanksgiving were a subsect of a larger group called the Puritans, who were opposed to the Church of England. As a low church, they thought the high church Anglicans to be too corrupt, hierarchical, and idolatrous. Fundamentally, they believed the English Reformation did not go far enough in reforming the Christian church, and that the Church of England too closely resembled the Catholic Church. Because of their vocal critiques, English law had oppressed the Puritans, much as it had English Catholics. Wanting to practice their Calvinistic version of Christianity freely, the Pilgrims migrated to the New World. 

One way the Pilgrims wanted to ‘purify’ the church was by abolishing feast days, even Christmas. They simplified their calendars by establishing days of fasting, seemingly as a form of penance after disaster struck, and days of thanksgiving, after events taken to be fortuitous acts of God. Hence, the Thanksgiving feast of 1621 celebrated the bountiful harvest Plymouth experienced that fall. As the colonies grew and eventually evolved into the United States of America, the Protestant tradition of days of thanksgiving after major events continued. George Washington declared national days of thanksgiving after the colonists’ victory in the Battle of Saratoga and in observance of the adoption of the Constitution. Though it wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln that the country celebrated an official annual Thanksgiving celebration, the tradition was firmly planted in American custom from its earliest days. Because of the English, and therefore Protestant, identity of the original thirteen states, no one in the nascent country thought to look to the St. Augustine Thanksgiving as their prototype. Florida remained a Spanish territory until 1819, so most Americans were likely unaware there even was an earlier European thanksgiving celebration than the one in Plymouth. If they were aware, they would not have been eager to emulate a Catholic celebration of a longtime foe.  

So, on its face, the Thanksgiving celebration in America is seemingly bereft of any Catholic links. However, like much of the American experience, you don’t have to look far to find Catholic players close to the action. In this case, that Catholic is Squanto, the Native American who helped the Pilgrims survive by teaching them the ways of the land. Squanto was born outside of modern-day Boston to the Patuxet tribe, and in 1614, a group of Englishmen, up from Jamestown, lured some Native Americans, including Squanto, onto their ship and shipped them to Spain to be sold at a slave auction. Providentially, two Franciscans happened upon the auction and bought Squanto, only to free him, following the spirit of Pope Paul III’s 1537 papal bull outlawing the enslavement of indigenous peoples in the Americas. The Franciscans baptized Squanto and instructed him in the faith. This new Catholic made his way to London and then eventually back home to New England. Sadly, what greeted him were the ruins of his tribe’s settlement, as they had been wiped out by disease. He was then enslaved once again, this time by Massasoit, the most powerful Native American leader in the region.  

Far from being clear-cut, the alliances in colonial New England were constantly shifting; many native tribes were wary of each other, and some chose to ally with the newly arrived Englishmen at Plymouth. Massasoit sent Squanto, who could speak English, as an emissary to the Pilgrims to assess a potential alliance. By choosing to teach the Pilgrims how to fish and farm the finicky Massachusetts land, Squanto forged a strong friendship between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe, probably preserving the Pilgrims’ existence in doing so. Thanks to Squanto and the alliance with Massasoit, the Pilgrims’ second winter in Plymouth was much more successful than their first; they happily invited Squanto and other Wampanoag to share in their bounty during that first Thanksgiving. 

Squanto died the next year, succumbing to disease like the rest of his tribe. There are no primary sources to tell us if he was still practicing the Catholic faith, but Plymouth governor William Bradford reported that his last words were to pray for him, “that he might go to the Englishman’s God in heaven,” indicating that he embraced Christianity in his final days. In any case, Squanto, a baptized Catholic, is largely responsible for both the survival of the Plymouth colony and the friendly alliance between Plymouth and the Wampanoag tribe (an alliance that would, sadly, devolve over the next couple generations). He exemplified Christian charity in a tense, unpredictable moment, and we should pray that he stood firm in the faith to last. How wonderful it would be to meet Saint Squanto in heaven! 

Though the American Thanksgiving celebration seems firmly planted in the Protestant tradition, we see through St. Augustine and Squanto glimmers of historic Catholic influences in the holiday. Regardless, the holiday of course can, and should, be celebrated by all Christians, not only in thanksgiving to God for our country, which has been a beacon of freedom for people of all creeds and colors, but also for all the blessings which He has bestowed upon us individually. If possible, make time this Thanksgiving to go to Mass and receive the Eucharist, which fittingly means “thanksgiving” in Greek. While there, send up a prayer to Squanto, the possible saint who made this holiday a reality!