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 Biassou, a leader of the Haitian Revolution who became a Spanish general and died in St. Augustine in 1801; Father Felix Varela, a Cuban priest and human rights defender who later published the first Spanish-language newspaper in the United States; and Governor Enrique White of the Second Spanish Period. Also buried here are Confederate and Union soldiers, the first Sisters of St. Joseph to serve in Florida, and approximately 1,000 St. Augustinians in total - though only about 100 grave markers survive. Much of what is known about who is buried here comes from the Cathedral Basilica's parish death records, which Tolomato served for over a century. The cemetery is managed by the Cathedral parish and the Diocese of St. Augustine. It is locked and gated to protect the historic grounds from damage, but visible through the iron fence year-round at no charge. Public access is available on the third Saturday of each month from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm, when free guided and self-guided tours are offered. Tolomato Cemetery appears on virtually every ghost tour in St. Augustine, and the stories told here - the yellow fever epidemics, the Haitian general, the graves under Cordova Street - are among the most compelling in a city with no shortage of compelling stories.