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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
pointed to secure subscriptions. Two years later,
while Rev. Dr. Brown was pastor, the first church
was completed.
In 1848, during the pastorate of Rev. Father
Barry, the church was found to be too small, and
was enlarged by adding a transept to the nave, mak
ing the church cruciform in accordance with general
usage throughout the Catholic world. The brick for
the original church was furnished by Nicholas
del’Aigle and Fedinand Phinizy, the latter the first
of the family of that name to live in Augusta.
There are still living in Augusta men and women
who remember the original church with its addition.
The first step toward erecting the present church,
was taken in 1853, but the death of the Bishop of
Savannah in the epidemic of 1854 and the elevation
of Father Barry to the See of Savannah interrupted
the movement. By 1857, $4,365 had been collected
and the work started. As the contributions were
received, the Church went up, and it was completed
and consecrated, free of debt, in April, 1863, Rev.
Gregory Duggan being at that time pastor.
The Augusta Constitutionalist, now The Chronicle,
gave the following list of distinguished churchmen
present at the consecration: Rt. Rev. Augustus
Verot, Bishop of Savannah, Rt. Rev. Dr. Lynch,
Bishop of Charleston, Rt. Rev. Dr. McGill, Bishop
of Richmond, and Rt. Rev. Dr. Quinlan, Bishon of
Mobile. Bishop Quinlan delivered the consecration
sermon to a congregation of 7,000 people, old ac
counts say.
The fiftieth anniversary of the consecration of
St. Patrick’s, which was originally Holy Trinity
Church, took place April 13, 1913, with Bishop
Keiley of Savannah, the late Bishop Northrop of
Charleston, Bishop O’Connell of Richmond and
Bishop Allen of Mobile, the successors of the pre
lates who officiated a half century before, present..
The pastors of the church since its foundation
were Rev. Edward Sweeney, 1807; Rev. J. McEnroe,
1828; Rev. John Barry, 1830; Rev. Gregory Duggan,
1841; and since the war Rev. Wm. J. Hamilton, Rev.
C. C. Prendergast, Rev. H. J. McNally, Rev. James
O’Brien, Very Rev. L. Bazin, Very Rev. P. H.
McMahon, all deceased, Rev. Wm. Quinlan, now of
Sharon, and Rev. H. A. Schonhardt, the present
pastor.
In addition to the church, which, despite its age, is
in perfect condition and still one of the show places
of the city, the parish boasts of two fine schools, one
for boys, taught by the Christian Brothers, and an
other for girls, conducted by the Sisters of Mercy.
The property occupies a whole block, having front
age on four streets. The rectory faces the post-office
and the railroad station, and is located but a minute
or two from the business center of the city.
THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN
By RT. REV. BENJAMIN J. KEILEY, D. D.,
Bishop of Savannah.
The Bulletin is to issue a Woman’s Number, and I
am asked to say a word.
In so brief a space to which I must of necessity
confine myself I can only write on one phase of my
subject—the influence of woman.
Christianity naturally and inevitably brought
about a most wonderful change in her status. I say
inevitably, because Christianity was a willing and
loving witness to the great debt it owed to a Woman,
the Immaculate Mother of our Lord. A debt in
creased ten thousand fold since as each succeeding
age felt the benign influence of Her name and the
wonderful power of Her intercession!
Constancy, devotion and courageous love were
the special virtues which were so admired, and which
so exorted willing recognition and eternal gratitude.
Christianity told the story of her typifying and illus
trating these sublime virtues of Courage, Devotion
and deathless Love, as it showed woman the last to
leave Calvary and the first at the tomb. I know
not what became of the sweet spices borne by the
blessed women that Easter morn ere the dawn had
come, as they sorrowfully wended their way to the
tomb, where they thought to find the body of the
Lord, but though the sweet spices were lost the
aroma of the Constancy, Courage and Love of these
women has come down all the ages, to our own day.
And today, as through His wonderful mercy once
more does the Lord bring back the memory and the
awful sacrifice of Calvary, differing only in manner
from the tragedy of the first Good Friday, the wom
en are found at Holy Mass as the women were found
at the foot of the Cross.
By all of us is a debt due our Mothers, for from
their lips did we first learn the name of Jesus and
Mary and the beautiful stories of Bethlehem and
Calvary.
As wife, mother or sister, she stands supreme as
the personification of devotion to duty and loyalty
to Home.
In every work done for God and His Church,
woman is first in responding, most faithful in doing
and is the last to leave her post and only leaves when
the work is done.
No one will ever know until the last Great Day
how often has the avenging arm of a justly angered
God been withheld because of the pleading voices of
His children in Convent, Monastery or Home.
In our own State woman has done her duty in the
Laymen’s Association, and all over the State have
the Catholic women recently banded together to help
the Priests on the Missions of the State.
And yet even the mild reproof, which fell from
the lips of our Blessed Lord regarding Martha’s
anxiety in many things, does not apply to them for
at the Altar at the feet of our Blessed Lord they too
have sat and have learned there the better part,
and have found always time amid other duties to
wait on the Lord, minister to His wants and help
His priests.
BENJAMIN J. KEILEY,
Bishop of Savannah.
Savannah, Ga.,
June 15, 1921.
DEVELOPMENTS IN THE LIBEL BY THE
JUNIOR SENATOR FROM GEORGIA
Mrs. Milton P. Higgins of Worcester, Mass.,
president of the National Convention of Moth
ers, has condemned the statements of the Junior
Senator from Georgia and his cunning attempt
to link up the organization and his allegations.
Representative Thomas J. Ryan, Republican,
of New York, has introduced into the House of
Representatives at Washington a resolution de
manding that Congress order the discontinuance
of the editoral headquarters of the Columbia
Sentinel, of which the Junior Senator from
Georgia is editor, in the Senate Office Building,
that it send to President Harding an expres
sion of disapproval of the Georgia Senator’s
action, and that it publicly condemn his action
and take disciplinary measures against him.
At least two Georgia papers, and numerous
other daily papers throughout the country,
have referred editorially and with disapproval
to the unfounded charges of the Junior Senator
from Georgia against Bishop Keiley.
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