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Feature News | Saturday, May 27, 2017

St. Justin Martyr

Key Largo parish carries on its patron's love for the beauty of Christianity

KEY LARGO | St. Justin Martyr, patron of the Catholic parish in Key Largo, was a second-century scholar. He embraced Christianity as a faith of rationality as well as revelation, for its moral beauty as well as its truth. His namesake local parish continues that tradition, in art as well as ministry.

Born in the year 100 in Palestine, Justin studied with the likes of Stoics, Platonists and Aristotelians. He became a Christian after a mysterious old man counseled him to read the biblical prophets.

For his boldness in arguing for Christianity and against paganism, Justin and six companions were arrested in Rome and ordered to renounce the faith. He replied, "No one who is rightly minded turns from true belief to false."

He was beaten, then beheaded in 165. Justin Martyr is honored as one of the Apostolic Fathers, those who defended the faith in its early centuries. His feast day is June 1.

St. Justin Martyr parish was established in 1970 by Archbishop Coleman F. Carroll, the first spiritual leader of the archdiocese. Weekend Mass was held at first at the Key Largo Civic Club before scheduling issues prompted the parishioners to find another place. They dedicated their own home in 1973, with offices and a rectory.

But they weren't through: They dedicated their current church building in 1992. The architecture -- with its arches, overhangs, covered walks and metal roof -- is meant to emulate the building styles of the Keys. The church cupola is reminiscent of the one that topped St. Mary Immaculate Convent in Key West before the building was razed.

The church art, too, evokes a maritime theme: spouting fish in a pool, windows showing Jesus at the Sea of Galilee, a mosaic depicting the underwater "Christ of the Abyss" statue off the coast of Genoa, Italy.

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