Across the Dark Sea: The Story of Maryland’s Catholic Beginnings

Fr. Scott A. Haynes

A Meditation on Thanksgiving Day

The fire in the small farmhouse had burned low, and the Martin family kept the shutters drawn though morning had long come. In England, Catholics learned early to guard their windows and their words. The children sat quietly as Father Martin lifted a hidden board beneath the hearth and drew out a small brass crucifix wrapped in cloth.

“Pack quickly,” he whispered. “Today we leave this land.”

For decades the Martins had lived the quiet fear shared by every faithful Catholic in England. Mass was outlawed. Priests were hunted. Fines, prison, and suspicion were constant companions. Children learned their catechism by candlelight, and the faith survived in attics and barns where whispered prayers rose into the darkness. Every knock at the door had the power to end a family.

Yet hope had begun to stir across the sea.

It began years earlier with a remarkable man named George Calvert, once a rising favorite in the court of King James I. Calvert had everything before him: opportunity, wealth, and influence. But in 1625 he embraced the Catholic faith through the ministry of Father Andrew White, S.J.

In a single decision, Calvert sacrificed his political future. Becoming Catholic in England was not a pious inconvenience. It was a criminal act. Yet Calvert refused to hide his conversion. From then on he devoted his life to one goal: establishing a place where English Catholics could worship freely and openly.

He attempted this first in Avalon, a colony he founded in Newfoundland in 1627. But the harsh climate there—wind-torn, icy, unforgiving—made survival difficult. Calvert himself confessed the land was more suited to penance than settlement. So he sought a gentler place for his Catholic refuge. King Charles I granted him new lands along the Chesapeake. These lands would become Maryland, a name chosen in honor of Queen Henrietta Maria.

George Calvert did not live to see his dream. He died in 1632, like Moses seeing the promised land from afar. But he had a faithful Joshua.His son, Cecilius Calvert, carried the mission forward. With determination and great sacrifice, he paid £40,000 of his own fortune—a sum equal to several million dollars today—to begin the colony. His brothers, Leonard and George, were appointed to lead the first settlers, a mixed company of Catholics and Protestants. The Calverts insisted from the beginning that Maryland would be a place of religious peace.

And so the Martins, with many others, made their way to the Isle of Wight to join the voyage.

The Voyage of the Ark and the Dove

Two ships waited in the harbor: the Ark and the Dove. On November 22, 1633 (Old Style), the settlers boarded. Among them walked Father Andrew White, S.J., the same priest who had brought George Calvert into the Church. His calm presence steadied the frightened children as they took their first steps onto the deck.

The crossing was long. Storms battered the ships. Waves rose higher than masts. Children and adults prayed as the Jesuit chaplain led evening devotions beneath swaying lanterns. Father White later wrote an account of this voyage, describing both the dangers they faced and the deep hope shining in the hearts of the faithful.

At last the winds shifted, and the ships glided into the Chesapeake.On March 25, 1634, the Feast of the Annunciation, the settlers landed on St. Clement’s Island. Father White carried a wooden cross ashore. The colonists knelt in the spring air as he celebrated the first public Catholic Mass in the English-speaking American colonies. No fear. No secrecy. No shutters drawn. It must have felt like the sun breaking through after a lifetime of clouds.

A New Life in Maryland

Maryland was not comfortable. Trees had to be cleared. Houses built. The winter winds were sharp. But here, for the first time in their lives, the Martins and the other Catholic settlers could live the faith in daylight.

Father White and the Jesuits served tirelessly. Over the next decade he built a thriving mission and was joined by three other priests. They ministered to Catholics and Protestants alike and reached out to the Indigenous peoples with humility and respect.

Father White became a friend to Chitomachon, chief of the Piscataway. Through patient dialogue and kindness, he helped lead the chief to baptism. To deepen this mission, he composed a grammar, dictionary, and catechism in the local dialect. He even wrote the first history of Maryland, preserving the story for generations to come.

The Calverts continued their policy of religious tolerance. Catholics and Protestants lived side by side, trading, building, praying, and raising families. The colony became a quiet beacon of peace in an age of conflict.

Storms Return

But across the ocean England descended into civil war. In 1645, a Parliamentarian captain named Richard Ingle seized Maryland, plundering Catholic homes and churches. Father White was taken in chains back to England. He was thrown into Newgate Prison, one of the harshest in the land.

Brought to trial for returning to England after being banished, Father White defended himself with quick wit:“I returned against my will,” he said, “as the chains I wore prove well enough.”

He was released in 1648. But though he begged repeatedly to return to his beloved Maryland, the government of Oliver Cromwell refused. Father Andrew White died in England on December 27, 1656, never again setting foot on the peaceful shores where he had planted the Catholic faith.

The Legacy

Years later, the Martin children would tell their own families about the sea voyage, the raising of the cross on St. Clement’s Island, and the first Mass celebrated in freedom. They spoke of Father White, the Jesuit who had risked everything for them, and of the Calverts whose sacrifices made Maryland possible.

Today, as we step freely into our churches, we share in the treasure those settlers sought. Their courage forged a refuge where the Catholic faith could grow. Their hope laid the groundwork for the religious liberty Americans cherish.

And remembering their story helps us see that the freedoms we now take for granted were once paid for with tears, courage, and unshakable faith.