Tolomato Cemetery on Cordova Street is one of the oldest Catholic cemeteries in the United States and one of the most historically layered burial grounds in Florida. Founded on the site of a Franciscan Indian mission, used continuously from the 18th century through 1884, and containing the remains of people from at least a dozen different cultures and nationalities, Tolomato holds more of St. Augustine's history per square foot than almost anywhere else in the city. The name Tolomato refers to a village of Guale Indian converts to Christianity that occupied this site in the early colonial period. Franciscan friars established a mission here to minister to the Guale people, and the site has been sacred ground in various forms ever since. When Britain took control of Florida in 1763 the village was abandoned, but in 1777 Father Pedro Camps - pastor to the Minorcan colonists who had arrived in St. Augustine - obtained permission to establish a Catholic cemetery on the grounds for his parishioners. The people buried at Tolomato represent the extraordinary cultural diversity that characterized St. Augustine throughout its history. Spanish colonists, Cuban merchants, Greek settlers, Irish immigrants, Minorcan families, African Americans, and Haitian political figures all found their final rest here. Among the historically significant burials: Bishop Agustin Verot, the first Bishop of St. Augustine, interred in the mortuary chapel at the rear of the cemetery; General Jorge Bia