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EIGHT THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA JANUARY 81, 1936 Five Orders of Sisters Labor in Diocese of Savannah Mother Katherine Drexel’s Nuns in Macon and Atlanta They Teach in the Schools of the Colored Parishes of of These Two Georgia Cities At the New Year’s reception to His Eminence. Cardinal Dougherty, in Philadelphia, where His Excel lency. Bishop O’Hara also received, the Cardinal paid a stirring tribute to Mother Katherine Drexel and her magnificent work among the colored people. This tribute is of particular inter est to Georgia, because two Georgia cities, Macon and Atlanta, have been and are benenciaries of her work. For the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament conduct the schools in Our Lady of Lourdes parish, Atlan ta, and St. Peter Claver parish, Ma- con. , , Mother Katherine Drexel started her work in her native Philadelphia in 1889; she is a member of one of the leading families not only of that great city but of the United States. Her great talents and ability and her great fortune have been devoted to the self-sacrificing effort. Mother Katherine undertook the actual founding of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1889, the first spending their two years as novices with the Sisters of Mery. They then went to the old Drexel home stead at Torresdale, Pa., near Phila- delphia, to continue their prepara tion for tire work. In 1892, a moth- erhouse and novitiate were opened at Maud, Pa. Mother Katherine was interested in the Indians as well as the ne groes, and in 1894 opened a boarding and industrial school for them at Sante Fe, St. Catherine's School, fol lowed by a similar school at Rock Castle, Va„ in 1899, for Southern colored girls. In 1907 the congrega tion of Sisters was formally approv ed by the Holy See. There are now 331 professed Sis ters of the Blessed Sacrament, and an encouraging number of novices and postulants; they labor in nu merous Archdioceses and Dioceses, among them, in the South, those of New Orleans, Savannah, Nashville- Mobile, Natchez and Richmond. There are 241 pupils in the school taught by the Sisters in Atlanta and 147 in Macon. In their hands the education of the children of the col ored parishes in these cities is cared for most competently, and the great sacrifices they are making is bring ing abundant fruit, a harvest which will without doubt be increasingly great as the years go on. Little Sisters of the Poor Labor in Diocese 46 Years FRANCISCAN SISTERS CAME HEREIN 1877 Permanent Work Started in 1899—Have Institutions in Savannah and Augusta ST. JOSEPH SISTERS IN GEORGIA IN 1867 They Labor in Savannah, Augusta, Atlanta, Wash ington, Sharon, Brunswick The Diocese of Savannah as well as the Diocese of St. Augustine is indebted to the gentle Sulpician Bishop Augustin Verot, Bishop of Savannah and Vicar-Apostolic of Florida, for the Sisters of St. Jo seph. Bishop Verot, born in France and ordained in Paris by Archbish op Quelen, killed by Revolutionists when at the suggestion of Frederick Ozanam he went out to plead with the radicals to cease their bloody work, brought nine Sisters of St. Joseph from Le Puy in France to St. Augustine. Three of these he recall ed to Savannah, and April 2, 1867, immediately after the close of the War Between the States, the firs; foundation of the Sisters was made in Georgia in a little house at Perry and Floyd streets, Savannah, with Sister Mary Julia, superior. Sister Mary Josephine and Sister Mary Jo seph as members; there were also two postulants in the community. The Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception first came to the Diocese of Savannah in 1877 when Mother Mary Ignatius of Jesus, Foundress of the Institute, es tablished a branch of the Sisters at Woodlawn, near Augusta-, at the re quest of Bishop Gross, to work among the colored people. The lack of subjects made it necessary for the house to be closed temporarily. In 1897 Sister M. Antonia, sent by the Superior-General to inquire into the the condition of the property, met Mother Matilda Beasley, superior of a little community of colored sisters conducting a school for colored girls at St. Benedict’s. Savannah. Mother Matilda was handicapped by lack of means and endeavored to interest Sister Antonia in the work. Sister Antonia communicated the plea to Rome, and the following year three Missionary Franciscan Sisters arrived in Savannah. They formally started their work January 6, 1899, with the approval of Bishop Becker. MORE The Franciscan Sisters continued to conduct the home for colored girls, and Benedictine Fathers acting as chaplains, with the clergy of the Cathedral also assisting. In 1907 Bishop Keiley assigned St. Benedict’s Paris,h then in charge of the Benedic tines, to the Lyons Fathers, or So ciety of African Missions; they open ed a school in the basement of the church, with the Franciscan Sisters as teachers. The present spacious St. Benedict’s Schcol was erected in 1916; in 1912 the Sisters took charge of St. Mary’s School in East Savannah. In 1909 a new home for colored girls had been erected ant 1 was dedicated by Bishop Keiley. The second mission to be opened by the Franciscan Sisters was in Au gusta in 1901, when on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception the erec tion of an industrial school was start ed. The cornerstone was laid April 4, 1902, by Father Shanahan, S. J., of Sacred Heart Church, it was dedi cated October 4 of that year by Bishop Keiley. In 1906 a beautiful Chapel was built. The Jesuit Fathers were chaplains tc the convent and school in those days. In 1908 the Lyons Fathers came to Augusta and opened Immaculate Conception parish and school, with the Francis can Sisters as teachers, and they still continue in that capacity in the splen did school building, whch has a four year high school course as well as the primary and grammar schools. In Georgia the Franciscan Sisters confine their efforts to the colored; in other parts of the country and world they conduct some of the leading schools and academies for white children. Most of the Sisters have made their nov.tiate in Rome within sight of the dome of St. Peter’s; they are cultured, gentle, talented religi ous, many of them with higher de grees, devoting their lives to the winning of the souls of the colored people, especially the children, for Christ. Their self-sacrificing, devot ed efforts have had results in many instances reminiscent of pages from historic heroic accounts of mission ary labors. , On January 6, 1890, Bishop Becker being then Bishop of Savannah, five Little Sisters of the Poor arrived in Savannah to start a work which has brought happiness and contentment and eternal salvation to many who otherwise would come to the evening of life neglected spirtually and tem porally. The Little Sisters were guests of the Sisters of Mercy while they were getting located; they soon opened their home for the aged in a house at the comer of Drayton and Perry Streets starting their mission of liv ing service by receiving as guests one old gentleman and five elderly ladies. The Little 9isters soon made their way into the hearts of the people of the city by their kindly ministrations to their wards, and their work pros- S ered. Four years after opening their ome they acquired a most desirable tract of land at Abercom and Twen ty-third Street, and began to build. Like the mustard seed, they started in a small way, but little by little they added to their building, until they have a splendid plant of brick construction, with a men’s and a women’s wing, a devotional chapel, with accommodations for 120 guests instead of for the five with which they started 46 years ago. Caring for the aged has not been an easy problem during the days of the depression, and the work, always requiring great self-sacrifice, de manded unusual heroism then. The Sisters, however, never faltered; not only Catholics but non-Catholics, who admir and wonder a the labors of the Sisters, made the burden light er. But always the Sisters, after the examnle of their Divine Master, re served the heaviest burden for them selves, and this they continue to do in their great mission of charity and mercy. The Sisters conducted a school for colored children, and were soon put in charge of the home for the white orphan boys of the Diocese, the Bar ry Male Orphan Asylum. Sister St. Pierre and Sister Clemence came from 9t. Augustine to assist in the work; Sister St. Pierre died in 1896 and Sister Clemence, later Mother Clemence, in 1910. After Bishop Verot was transferred to Florida in 1870, and Bishop Persico succeeded him, the Georgia Sisters of St- Joseph became an independ ent Diocesan community, and a no vitiate was opened in Savannah. The orphan home grew, and after two en largements to accommodate the ex panding numbers, it was decided to move tile orphanage to Washington, Ga., the beginning of the present St. Joseph’s Home there. Abbot Frederic Once Resident of Georgia Trappist Abbot at Installa tion Lived in Atlanta Sisters of Mercy First Came to Georgia Ninety Years Ago Savannah Sisters Started Work There in 1845 —Ma con Sisters Refugees FromFlorida in 1862 During War The Sisters of Mercy of the Union in Georgia trace their source back to their founder, Mother Catherine McAuley, through two blessed streams, that through Savannah and Charleston, and that through Ma con and Florida; a few years ago these streams associated in the Sisters of Mercy of the Union, to increase the flood of God’s grace to Georgia. In 1876 the Sisters opened an acad emy at Washington in a two-story frame building. On January 29, 1878, the Feast of St. Francis de Sales, Sister Francis and three other sisters went to Sharon to open a new mis sion there; shortly afterward they opened Sacred Heart Seminary for boys there. On October 1. 1894, the Sisters opened Loretto Convent and Acad emy, a private school on Marietta Street in Atlanta, and they conduct ed it until 1915. At the invitation of the late Bishop Gunn, then pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Atlanta, the Sisters opened the parish school there September 23, 1909, and eight years later, in 1917, they opened St. Anthony’s School, Atlanta, at the in vitation of the late Father O. N. Jackson. Sacred Heart and St. An thony s Schools are now conducted in two of the finest school buildings in the Southeast. Both parishes have also splendid convents for the Sis ters THE SAVANNAH STREAM Mother Catherine McAuley, the saintly foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, died November. 11, 1841, sev eral years after the Sisters of Mer cy Convent founded in Charleston in 1829 had been affiliated with the Or der in Ireland; four years later, June 12, 1845, Father Jeremiah Franm O’Neil, pastor at Savannah, then in the Diocese of Charleston, secured six Sisters from Charleston for the convent established on Liberty Street; they were installed at the convent June 13, through the cooper ation of Bishop Reynolds, the suc cessor of Bishop England. Father O’Neill had already erected a building; the Sisters opened a boarding school, a home for orphans, a pay and a free school, and also a free school for St. Patrick’s Parish; this was before the schools were taken over by the city. Mother Mary Vincent Mahoney was superior, and she extended the property in 1847, the year the Sisters became indepen dent of the Charlston convent.' At the request of Father John Bar ry, V. G., pastor of Augusta, the Sis ters established a convent there in 1853. The yellow fever broke out the following year, claiming the lives of Bishop Gartland and Bishop Barron; several Sisters died heroicly minis tering to the victims. There was a re currence in 1858, the Sisters then re peating their heroic and self-sacrific ing service. During the War Between the States, 1861-5, the Sisters nursed the wounded and dying in the parish property at Augusta, requisitioned by the Confederacy as military hospit als; during the days of the War also Winnie Davis, daughter of the presi dent of the Confederacy, was a boarder at St. Vincent’s Convent, Sa vannah. . With the dark days of the war over, the Sisters, undiscouraged by the havoc they saw around them, prepared to extend their work for the brighter days they felt lay ahead. In 1866 they established a convent m Macon, which they relinquished five years later by arrangement with Bishop later Cardinal Persico to the Sisters of Mercy from Florida, driven to Columbus by the fortunes of war. THE MACON STREAM Bishop Augustine Verot, consecrat ed Vicar-Apostolic of Florida in 1858, applied to the Providence Motherhouse of the Sisters of Mercy, spiritual daughters of Mother Cath erine McAuley, to do religious and charitable work in Florida. Mother Liguori Major and three Sisters came to St. Augustine in 1860, and soon two others joined them. The Sisters lived in a small house on St. George Street, opposite the Cathedral, and soon work iwas start ed on a new convent and school, built of coquina in old Spanish style, now so popular in the state. The school flourished; its facilities were taxed by the number of pupils, a boarding school was established, and the Sisters devoted much time also to the instruction of Negroes. Then came rumors of war, and finally war. In May, 1862, the un certainty resulting from the war made it necessary to close th; board* ing school, but the day stulents re mained and the Negroes were still instructed’ and the sick visited. One Sunday in June, while the congre gation was at High Mass, news that the Federate were coming came to the city; a panic ensued. The chil dren shrieked and clung to the Sis ters. The following day the Feder als arrived and took possession of the city; many fled. The wildest rumors were abroad. Bishop Verot, the priests and the Sisters remained, despite rumors. The Sisters finished their annual retreat on the Feast of the Assumption, 1862. Bishop Verot then decided that it would be safer for the Sisters to go to Georgia, of which Diocese he was now Bishop, as well as being Vicar-Apostolic of Florida. Bishop Verot chose Columbus as a place of refuge for the Sisters, be- ieving that this Georgia city was out of the path of the war, and while they wished to remain and brave the troubles which were fear ed in the war area in Florida, con- The presence at the installation of the Most Rev. Frederic M. Dunne. O. C. S. O., Abbot of the Trappists at Gethsemani, Ky„ was his first visit to Georgia since his blessing as Abbot to succeed the late Abbot Ed mund Obrecht, whose prior he was for many years. Abbot Frederic lived m Atlanta and Jacksonville as a young man and entered the Trap pists from this state; he is the broth er of Mrs. Katherine Miles of Sa vannah, and has other relatives in Florida. A great sorrow was sent to the Sisters in 1912, when the mother- house and academy at Washington was burned to the ground. The motherhouse and academy were transferred to Augusta, where again they were faced with difficulties, but finally through the assistance of the geneious and beloved benefactress of tiie Sisters, they were permanently settled in the “Chateau LeVert”. where Washington was a guest on his visit to Augusta in 1795, and La fayette in 1825. Here the Sisters have flourished; the academy has grown through the acquiring of additional residences until it occupies an entire block in the most desirable tourist section of Augusta, through the in terest and generosity of the same blessed benefactress; a splendid au ditorium has been erected, and there are many other indications of ex pansion. St. JosepWs Home Marking 60th Year Hie St. Joseph, Washington, Ga., hrm? for boys of w’drh the Rev. Ih mas I. ^heih n is man ger ant which is con' uctrd by the 11st rs of St. Jo erh, is com-le ing its thir l score of years o r service; it was on the night of February 26, 1876, thti 'hree Sisters of St. Joseph arr vel n ashinticn Ga., to take char e of it. fn neighboring Sharon Sa red H'art Semin-’-y. a sc’ ool for sun’I b y > i> also approach’ng the thre -score mark. The next issue of Th’ Bulletin will record the history of these r to* rer institutions through tb~’r six fe a’es of self-sacrificing service to the Diocese. , The Sisters returned to Savannah October 2, 1916, to take charge of Sacred Heart School, which is now housed in one of the section’s mos modem educational structures, and the parish has a convent equally as splendid. In 1919, October 1, the school at Brunswick was opened, completing the present category of schools and institutions under the direction of the Sisters of St. Jo seph. Another milestone in the his tory of the order was the opening in Washington four years ago of St. Jo seph’s Home, erected for the boy or phans of the Diocese at a cost of $100,000, through the generosity, of a few men and women of the Diocese who may be counted on the fingers of one’s hand. One of the last acts of the late Ho ly Father. Pope Benedict XV, was the ratifying February 13, 1922, of the affiliating of the Sisters of 9t. Jo seph of the Diocese of Savannah with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondolet, thus reuniting these two streams which have their common source at Le Puy, in France. Mother M. Discolia is Mother Provincial for the Province of Georgia; the Sisters regard their inspiring history in the Diocese of Savannah merely as r promise of greater things in the fu ture. Deo Volente. In 1866 tiie convent in Atlanta at the Church of the Immaculate Con ception was established and in 1875 the Sisters at Savannah took charge of the Marine Hospital, then located near the present St. Benedictine s Church. This was the beginning of the present St. Joseph’s Hospital; when the orphans were moved to Washington Ga., sixty years ago from the Taylor Street Home, the Home became a hospital. The present splendid hospital conducted by the Sisters in Savannah was made possi ble through the generosity of the late Captain John Flannery and other golden-hearted benefactors. Early in their work in Savannan the Sisters of Mercy cared for the orphans, with the coming of the S s- ters of St. Joseph they shared this charity, they caring for the girls and the Sisters of St. Josph for the boys. The Sisters of St. Joseph in 1876 re moved the boys to Washington, Ga., and the home for the girls remained in Savannah. For many years the Sisters cared for the orphan boys .out of their own meagre resources, with the aid given them by generous local friends. The home was a local institution, but with the Sisters serving the Diocese as they were, it was deemed an act of justice by the Bishop to assist the Sisters by making it a Diocesan in stitution with the Diocese responsible for its upkeep. The home under ths arrangement and through the untir ing efforts of the Sisters has con tinued to grow with the growth that indicates the blessing of God on work done in His Name and in His way. St. Vincent’s Academy for nearly a century has been one of the out standing schools not only of Savan nah but of the state; it has contribu ted to the community and statae hundreds and thousands of cultured women of beautiful character, and its work there has been duplicated by St. Mary's Academy in Augusta Sacred Heart School Augusta, and Immaculate Conception School in At lanta. , . . ., One of the great glories of the work of the Sisters in Georgia is their labor for the suffering in St. Joseph |s Hospital, Savannah, and St. Josephs Infirmary, Atlanta. They are regard ed as two of the finest hospitals in Georgia; the majority of their patients are not Catholics; in At lanta only a small fraction is com posed of Catholics. When the waves of bigotry and prejudice were most turbulent in Georgia, there were in the state thousands of non-Cathalic former patients of these hospitals who fought valiantly against such hatred, inspired by the recollection of the gentle services of these min istering Sisters of Mercy. It was a happy day for the Diocese and for all Georgia when Father O'Neill secur ed their promise to come to this cor ner of the Lord’s Vineyard. tinuing their work there, neverthe less they followed the arrangements made by tiie Bishop for their safety. They sorrowfully left St. Augustine August 17, 1862, in carts drawn by mules, via Jacksonville and Lake City. They were drenched by rain, bogged in muddy roads, searched, fire.', upon when crossing the river at Jacksonville at night, and under went other exciting and terrifying experiences. Bishop Verot sent one of the drivers ahead to mark out the road; he guided the party twelve miles into a swamp on one occasion before he found he was off the load.' It took them three days to get to Jacksonville. From there they went to Lake City by train, being held up on the way by a band of roving sol diers who accused the Bishop of be ing a spy. They continued to Sa vannah by stage coach and rail; the Savannah Sisters of Mercy extended them generous hospitality there un til they continued their journey to Columbus where they arrived Sep tember 4. Here they lived in a rented house- but under great difficulties. Food was scarce because of the war. House furnishings could not be had for any amount of money. The Sis ters slept on quilts on the floor. Thus they struggled through the days of the war, and in the very final days, in April, 1865, the war, which they had left Florida to es cape, came to them when the bloody Battle of Columbus made the city and section a place of terror. The Confederates were defeated and the city was practically razed to the ground. It was a place of death and desolation. Tiie war ended, and with the com ing of peace, the Sisters gave their work new impetus, despite the ap palling economic conditions. When Bishop Verot relinguished the See of Savannah to become Bishop of the new See of St. Augustine, the Sisters decaded to cast their lot with the Diocese of Savannah. The school in Columbus was their first effort. That of Macon followed; here they started Mt. de Sales Acad- emy, which became the motherhouse of the Sisters in Georgia. At. Mt. de Sales young women from every sec tion of the nation and from foreign countries have been educated. They conduct St. Joseph’s parish school at Macon, as well as the Holy Fam ily School at Columbus. They teach Sunday School at Milledgeville. Their work was started in Georgia in suf- ferind an untold hardship, but such suffering and hardship are, like the blood of martyrs, the seed of the Church, and the Diocese of Savan nah has reason to be forever grate ful to the little band of refugees from Florida and their zealous and . opilf-encrifirinH SUCCCSSOrS.