Nombre de Dios Mission and Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche

On September 8, 1565, a Spanish chaplain celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving on this ground — the beginning, the shrine's keepers say, of Catholic parish life in what would become the United States. The shrine built here in 1609 is the oldest Marian shrine in the country. It was burned twice, rebuilt, and elevated to national shrine status in 2019. Pilgrims still come, most often to pray for safe pregnancy. That continuity, across four and a half centuries, is the whole point.