Cemetery Canopy – Our Lady of Good Counsel – St. Augustine, FL

In 1871, Fr. Stephen Langlade, a native of Le Puy, France, began his 49 years of devoted service in the state of Florida, service given almost exclusively to the people of Moccasin Branch and Bakersville, St. Johns County.

The first parochial buildings in the Mill Creek and Elkton area were built under the guidance of Fr. Langlade in 1875. With the help of the Leopoldine Association, which concerned itself with the spiritual needs of Catholics of German descent, a church was built in front of the present Mill Creek cemetery and was called the Church of St. Leopold. Priests from St. Augustine attended the church every second Sunday of the month.

The Church of St. Ambrose at Moccasin Branch, also erected under the skilled guidance of Fr. Langlade, opened for worship on February 15, 1875. Each family in the parish was given a quota of trees to cut down and provide lumber for the new church. Priests from St. Augustine attended the church every last Sunday of the month. Fr. Langlade was named pastor of St. Ambrose in 1881. A larger structure was erected in 1907 to meet the expanding needs of a growing parish. The lumber from that first church was used to build the schoolhouse. The German settlement at Mill Creek was one of the districts of St. Ambrose Parish.