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PAGE 8—THE BULLETIN, April 30, 1960 '« » in WiNWhfe'im junto : WMSi, :,1 rn.'\} VtotMitm «<h(. SWs w Gt-tMU. 4a<AS*hi (WINS OF rut' SMNiSH MISSION SGOtXmXt ON PEASE. CREEK:Siv»Ue» N E .* Iwrio*. Mf hitosh i t.. , pja* '> tri* lOi/ MAlO n_ Pj£»W: E&ROCACME • THE"! WCKEr• -wxrthi* ftrtvj WSxjy <>■ 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