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PAGE 8—THE BULLETIN, April 30, 1960
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convert, then held the See of
Savannah until 1899. At his in
vitation the Marist Fathers came
to the Diocese, and the Little
Sisters of the Poor began their
work in Savannah.
Well remembered by many
Georgians is the beloved Bishop
Benjamin J. Keiley, who was
Bishop of Savannah from 1900
until 1922. New parishes were
started, new schools opened,
and priests of the Society of Af
rican Missions, Franciscan Sis
ters and Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament came to work among
the colored Catholics of the Dio
cese.
The years of the episcopate of
Bishop Michael J. Keyes, S.M.,
included the era of depression.
Under his leadership the Diocese
experienced one of its periods of
greatest progress. Bishop Keyes
resigned the See of Savannah in
1935 due to ill health. His Ex
cellency was a member of the
staff of Marist College in Wash
ington, D. C. until his death in
1959.
The program of expansion of
the Diocese continued resplend-
ently under the leadership of
Archbishop Gerald P. O’Hara
who headed the See of Savan
nah from 1935 until November
of 1950.
New churches, schools, hos
pitals and other new institutions
erected during this time have
contributed to the physical de
velopment of the Diocese, while
the spiritual growth has been
fostered by the coming to Geor
gia of more than a score of Re
ligious orders to labor in the
state.
In 1949 the Holy See appoint
ed The Most Rev. Francis E.
Hyland, D.D., J.C.D., as auxili
ary to Archbishop O’Hara. Bish
op Hyland served the diocese
of Savannah-Atlanta in this of
fice until 1956 when the separate
diocese of Atlanta was establish
ed. Bishop Hyland was appoint
ed as the first Ordinary of this
new diocese.
In 1957 The Most Rev. Tho
mas J. McDonough, D.D., J.C.D.,
auxiliary bishop of the Diocese
of St. Augustine was transferred
to the See of Savannah as Aux
iliary to Archbishop O’Hara. Tt
was under Bishop McDonough’s
supervision that the Diocese ex
perienced its most recent build
ing program. Included in this
program was the construction
of the new Chancery building
and the establishment of St.
John Vianney Minor Seminary.
Upon the resignation of Arch
bishop O’Hara in November of
last year, Bishop McDonough
was named Administrator of the
Diocese. On March 2nd of this
year the Holy See named Bishop
McDonough as successor to
Archbishop O’Hara.
bishop McDonough tenth
ORDINARY OF HISTORIC SEE
The Most Rev. Thomas J. Mc
Donough, D.D., J.C.D., is the
10th ordinary to guide the 110-
year-old Diocese, whose 25,700
Catholics constitute about one
per cent of the population in 88
southern Georgia counties.
Up until 1956, the venerable
Savannah See embraced all of
Georgia, but four years ago Pope
Pius XXII took some 22,000
miles from it and created the
Diocese of Atlanta, which today
has about 27,000 Catholics.
Some 70 priests are active in
the Savannah Diocese, serving
in 30 parishes scattered across
the diocese’s 36,346 square miles.
Previous spiritual leaders
have included a prelate who
became a member of the Sacred
College of Cardinals, and one
— the immediate past Bishop —■
who has spent more than a de
cade in the service of the Holy
See’s diplomatic corps.
The diplomat is Archbishop
Gerald P. O’Hara, presently
Apostolic Delegate to Great
Britain, whose career also in
cludes posts in Rumania, from
which he was expelled by the
Reds, and Ireland.
Archbishop O’Hara, who be
gan his diplomatic service in
1947, was Bishop of Savannah
for 24 years. He resigned his
Georgia post on November 11,
1959, but retained his position
in England.
The Bishop who became a
cardinal was Ignatius Persico,
O.F.M. Cap., an Italian who was
the fourth spiritual leader of
Georgia’s Catholics. He served
from 1870 to 1872 when he re
signed to return to Rome after
about five years of mission work
in this country.
In Italy he spent several years
carrying out missions for the
Vatican, primarily as its repre
sentative to special events over
seas. He was created a cardinal
on January 16, 1893, and died
in Rome on December 7, 1895.
While 110 years have passed
since the Diocese of Savannah
was erected in 1950 out of the
Diocese of Charleston, which in
1820 had been carved out of the
Archdiocese of Baltimore, the
history of the Catholic Church
in Georgia had its beginning
more than four hundred years
ago.
Catholics were the first Chris
tians and the first white people
to come to Georgia. While it is
Dnly a possibility that earlier in
the sixteenth century explorers
like Miruelo, Cordova, Pineda
and de Ayllon may have visited
what is now Georgia, it is
known that the expedition of
Hernando de Soto made its way
:hrough this area and that
priests who were in his party
offered the Holy Sacrifice of the
Vlass at altars which were erect
ed on what is now Georgia soil.
This was while Martin Luther
vas still alive. While Henry VIII
was King of England. Sixty-
| seven years before the English
’a me to Jamestown; eighty
years before the Pilgrims land-
;d at Plymouth Rock, and al
most two hundred years before
General Oglethorpe established
(the English colony of Georgia.
1 There is a lapse in Georgia’s
^listory from the time of De
Soto’s expedition until the Jes
uits made an unsuccessful at
tempt to establish missions in
Georgia. The Franciscans and
Dominicans who followed them
were more successful in their
efforts and a number of Spanish
Missions flourished along the
Georgia coastline and even in
the interior wilderness.
In 1598 there were seven mis
sions in Georgia, along the
coast, when Bishop Altimirano
of Cuba confirmed more than a
thousand Indian converts within
the present limits of the State
of Georgia. By 1655, there were,
according to some authorities,
about forty missions in Georgia
and Florida and some 26,000
native Christians.
Let us not repeat the sad story
of how the coming of the Eng
lish brought a bloody ending to
the Spanish Mission era of Geor
gia’s Catholic history.
Though “Papists” were not
welcomed in Oglethorpe’s colo
ny, there seemed to have been
some few Catholics in the colo
ny even from the beginning. In
1755, several hundred Acadians,
exiled from Nova Scotia, sought
a haven in Savannah, but
though they were first kindly
received the prejudice which
their Catholic religion aroused
against them caused them to
seek refuge elsewhere.
During the Revolutionary
War, though there were few
Catholics in Georgia, they play
ed a prominent part in the
events which transpired in Sav
annah. Soon after American
freedom was gained, some Cath
olics migrated to Georgia from
Maryland, and then came the
French refugees from France
and San Domingo. Shortly after
1800 the Irish began coming to
Georgia in increasing numbers.
In 1796 the Catholic congrega
tion in Savannah numbered
about one hundred, and Father
Oliver le Mercier who was sent
to that town from Baltimore
also was pastor of the congrega
tions in Augusta and Locust
Grove.
When the Diocese of Charles
ton was founded in 1820, its ter
ritory included the Carolinas
and Georgia. When the great
Bishop John England came to
Charleston as the first Bishop
of that See he found only five
priests in the territory and only
three churches in Georgia. He
accomplished great things for
the Church in Georgia, and at
his death in 1842 there were
twenty-two congregations in the
state.
Bishop Ignatius Reynolds, who
succeeded Bishop England at
Charleston, introduced the Sis
ters of Mercy into Georgia in
1845. It was during this period
that Mass was offered for the
first time in Atlanta and Mil-
ledgeville, and congregations
were formed in Columbus and
Macon.
The Diocese of Savannah, long
been a hope, became a reality
in 1850. It embraced nearly 60,-
000 square miles of territory,
had but eight priests and only
four thousand Catholics, most of
them in Savannah and Augusta.
Father Francis Gartland, Vicar
General of the Diocese of Phil
adelphia, became the first Bish
op of Savannah.
Bishop Gartland found parish
es in Savannah, Augusta, Lo
cust Grove, Macon, Columbus,
Atlanta and St. Mary’s and
Catholics in Marietta, Milledge-
ville, Brunswick, Albany and
other places. He erected three
new churches, enlarged the Ca
thedral in Savannah, before his
death during the yellow fever
epidemic in 1954.
His successor was Bishop
John Barry, who had served for
nearly twonty-two years as a
priest of the Diocese of Charles
ton and Savannah. His health
was weakened by the labor on
the missions and he died in 1959.
The third Bishop of Savannah
was Bishop Augustin Verot, a
Sulpician Father, and it was
during his Episcopacy that the
Sisters of St. Joseph came to
the Diocese. In 1862, a commun
ity of the Mother McAuley Sis
ters of Mercy came from Florida
and founded houses in Colum
bus and Macon.
Bishop Verot’s successors in
the See of Savannah was Bishop
Ignatius Persico, later Cardinal
Persico, who directed the Dio
cese from 1870 to 1872.
Bishop William H. Gross, a
Redemptorist, was then Bishop
of Savannah from 1873 until
1898 when he was made Arch
bishop of Oregon City. His Epis
copacy was a fruitful one which
saw the coming of the Benedic
tine Fathers and the Jesuits to
the Diocese.
Bishop Thomas A. Becker, a
Diocese Of Savannah Established in 1850;
Catholic History Dates To Visit By Desoto