Diocese of St. Augustine Media Release
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Mission will celebrate an inaugural Mass in their new worship space on Thursday, March 17, at 5 p.m. Bishop Felipe J. Estévez of the Diocese of St. Augustine will bless the new building with several Catholic clergy, local government leaders and Christian faith leaders from Nassau County in attendance. The church property is located at 86000 St. Francis Way at A1A and Gene Lasserre Blvd. in Yulee.
The faith community of St. Francis of Assisi broke ground on their building on May 16, 2015 with construction beginning three months later on August 14.
The new worship space is part of a 7,700 square foot multi-purpose hall, which will be used until the mission can afford to build a church.
The building was designed by Jose Miranda of Miranda Architect and Design. The building is Spanish Colonial in style and can seat 350 people. The contractor is Tim Young Construction Company. It cost $2.3 million to build with a majority of funds coming from the generosity of Catholics in the area.
Some of the new religious objects include:
• Stations of the Cross purchased from the Holy Land and hand-carved from olive wood.
•The main altar was made from an Indonesian Sugar Palm Tree.
• The stained glass windows were made by Lynchburg Stained Glass in Virginia. They depict the preaching of St. Francis while he is surrounded by nature.
• A crucifix of San Damiano was donated to the faith community and is suspended from the ceiling of the worship space.
St. Francis of Assisi, officially established on May 14, 2014, began as a mission of St. Michael Catholic Church in Fernandina Beach. The first Mass was celebrated in Yulee on August 11, 2007 at the Yulee United Methodist Church. The mission is designated a “quasi-parish” without territorial boundaries and serves the faithful in the general area of Nassau County west of the Intracoastal Waterway and east of I-95.
On March 1, 2015, Bishop Estévez appointed Father Daniel Guindon, LC, administrator of St. Francis of Assisi, which has about 135 registered families.