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FOUR—A
THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
AUGUSTA 25, 1945
Former Pastors of St. Theresa’s, Albany
MONSIGNOl. CASSIDY
The Very Rev. Monsignor Joseph
G. Cassidy, rector of tlxe Cathed
ral of Christ the King, in Atlanta,
was pastor of St. Theresa’s Church,
Albany, Ga., from March, 1943, un
til April of this year.
It wa' during Monsignor Cassi
dy’s sta„ in Albany that the move
ment to build a new church, rec
tory, sc tool and convent was inau
gurated several months ago.
FA11HER BRENNAN
One of the most esteemed of the
priests who have served at St.
Theresa’s Church in Albany, is
the Rev. Thomas A. Brennan, now
pastor of the Blessed Sacrament
Church in Savannah. First as
assistant to the late Father Leo M.
Keenan, from 1926 to 1930, and
then his successor as pastor, from
1930 to 1941, Father Brennan made
a host of friends in Albany.
Parochial School in Albany
Begins Classes Next Month
(Special to The Bulletin)
ALBANY, Ga. — The year
which marks the celebration of
the one hundredth anniversary of
the first offering of the Holy Sac
rifice of the Mass in Albany, will
witness also another important
event in the history of the Catho
lic Church in this community—
the opening of Albany’s first
♦’Catholic school.
With a teaching staff com
posed of Sisters Adorers of the
Most Precious Blood, St. Theresa's
parochial school is scheduled to
open on September 5, the same
date as that set for the opening
of the other Catholic schools of
the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta.
Operating without tuition
charges, the new school will be
gin with six grammar grades and
n kindergarten, and will be housed
in a former residence which has
been reconstructed and converted
into a school. There will be four
class rooms, a reception room, a
lunchroom, a kitchen, and reift
rooms.
The work of remodeling has
been done by the Hodges Build
ing and Supply Company, under
the supervision of Joseph Dio- i
guardia. superintendent of con- ,
struction for the Diocese of Sa- i
vannah-Atlanta, with the Very j
Rev. Daniel J. Bourke. V. F.. pas
tor of St. Theresa’s Church, and
George Mock and J. II. Wigger-
man. representing the parish, serv
ing in advisory capacity.
A nearby dwelling will be used
by the Sisters as a residence un
til such time as a convent can be
erected.
Members of St. Theresa’s parish
and their friends in Albany will
welcome the four Sisters Adorers
' of the Most Precious Blood, who
will compose the faculty of the
new school, at a reception to be
held on the afternoon of Septem
ber 2, at the school.
The Right Rev. T. James Mc
Namara, of Savannah, Superin
tend of Schools for the Diocese of
Savannah-Atlanta, will attend, and
invitations have been extended to
the Superintendent of Schools of
Dougherty County, members of the
Board of Education, and city and
countv officials as well as to the
Catholic and non-Catholie resi
dents of Albany.
A musical urogram is being ar
ranged for the occasion bv Mrs.
Robert E. McCormack, while the
decoration of the school building
and the serving of refreshments
will be taken care of by members
of the Altar Society, under the
direction of Miss Margaret
♦"“'Stenhens.
Th Altar Society of St. Theresa’s
Church also has accepted the rc-
sponsibilitv of furnishing the con
vent which will be the residence
of the Sisters, and the committee
now engaged in that task is head
ed by Mrs. William Rakel. Sr.
munity, which was established on
March 4, 1834, on the mountain
of Acuto in Italy, has been
stamped with the mark of poverty,
and its progress has always been
accompanied by difficulties and
trials.
The zeal of the foundress
sought its first and most impor
tant outlet in the many schools
which she established throughout
Italy for the education of girls be
longing to the poorer classes, yet
her ardent spirit, animated by a
great*longing to glorify the Most
Precious Blood, did not confine it
self to the work in schools alone.
Whenever the work of Christ was
to be found, there was Mother de
Mattias to be found, and there,
too, were her daughters.
True to the spirit which char
acterized its foundation, the com
munity, in the course of its de
velopment, has identified itself
with, almost every type of labor
peculiar to the active apostolate,
particularly that among the poor
and neglected. Today, it numbers
that capacity she served until
190G, when, complying with the
expressed wish of the Superior
General, Mother Catherine Pavoni
she embarked with a small group
of Sisters to America.
Responding to the urgent re
quest of Mother Theresa Repking,
Vicaress of the Ruma foundation,
to help supply Sisters for the new
hospital about to be opened in
Taylorville, 111., Mother Pauline
and her Sisters settled in Alton,
111. With the passing of time it
became evident that the Sisters
were in general better equipped
for a teaching career than for
hospital work, and were finally
withdrawn.
Great difficulty had neverthe
less to be surmounted before the
Sisters acquired a command of the
English' language sufficient to
enable them to teach successluly.
Some of the Sisters cared for
tho sick in their homes, and in
spite of its crowded condition, a
small frame house in Alton was
pressed into service as the be
ginning of a Home for the Aged.
Soon too, the Sisters were able
to take over several schools, and
having come from Bosnia, they
were peculiarly fitted to teach in
the schools of those parishes with
a predominant Crotian member
ship.
In 1908 a plot of land was pur
chased and the erection of a
rather spacious building, known
as Nazareth Home for the Aged,
was begun. It served as a
Motherhouse until a . more suit
able- one could be obtained.
During 1924, instructions came
from the General Motherhouse in
Rome directing that the Sisters
seek a location further removed
from the already existing Vica
riate of Ruma—a location which
would open to the Sisters a wider
field of activity.
Through the sale of the Naza
reth Home, the Sisters realized a
sum sufficient to purchase the
Senator Matthew Quay farm near
Mounlville, Pennsylvania.
Assured of a welcome in the
Diocese of Harrisburg, the first
group of Sisters arrived in Co
lumbia on March 26. 1925.
In spite of the depression
period, which followed rather
closely their arrival, the Com
munity has grown steadily, if not
rapidly.
The three American groups,
which had been termed “vica
riates," became “provinces” in
1927. Under the title of Provin
cial Superior, Mother Pauline
continued her leadership of the
Community until 1929 when she
was succeeded by Mother Engel-
berta Mueller.
In 1934, the centennial of the
founding of the Sisters Adorers
of (lie Most Precious Blood was
houses throughout Italy, Get- i celebrated solemnly throughout
many, Jugoslavia, Liechtenstein, 1 the entire Congregation. In the
Switzerland, and the United j same year, the Sisters of the three
States. Its most recent founda- American Provinces received per-
tion is that in Albania, while as mission to exchange the tradi-
missionaries. the daughters of j tionai garb worn in the rest of
Mother de Mattias have carried | the institute for one less conspi-
the banner qf the Most Precious cuous and better adapted to their
Blood into China and Brazil.
However, the Columbia
Pro
needs.
In the autumn of 1938, Mother
The Religious Order which will
staff the new school, Sisters
Adorers of the Most Precious
Blood, is a community founded a
little more than a century ago by
Venerable Mother Marie de
Mattias. under the inspiration of
Blessed Gasper del Bufalo,
founder of the Missionary Fathers
of the Precious Blood.
Since its beginning, the com-
vince of the Sisters Adorers of i llildegarde Arnold became the
the Most Precious Blood, in com- third Provincial Superior of -the
mon with the other American pro- Columbia Province, and shortly
vinces of Ruma, Illinois, and j after plans began to be formulat-
Wiehita, Kansas, does not trace ! ed for the construction of the
its origin directly to the Italian much-needed new Motherhouse.
foundation, but to a very humble j By March of the following year
beginning at Steinerburg in Switz- the new building was ready for
erland. Here a group of pious dedication.
young women banded together to 1 The following autumn its doors
form a community whose primary : were opened to girls seeking an
objective was the perpetual adora- opportunity to complete their
tion of the Precious Blood in the high school education in a private
Blessed Sacrament. academy. In the few years of its
During the stormy period of existence the academy has made
1848, this small community, ban- notable progress, and its high
islied from Switzerland, sought 1 standards are a tribute to the
refuge at Ottmarsheim in Alsace.
At Ottmarsheim, the Sisters led
ability of the Sisters as teachers.
Besides teaching in schools
a life much like that at Steiner- and caring for the aged, which
burg although it became increas- the Sisters have been engaged in
ingly evident that the grow'ing since coming to this country, they
community would be forced to have more recently taken over
adopt some form of active work the management of the domestic
in order to sustain itself. departments of several seminaries
Those Sisters who still felt the
desire for the contemplative life
were affiliated with a community
and Episcopal residences
A new field of endeavor is that
of conducting Retreats for lay
of Benedictine Nuns, while those j women and girls during the sum-
who were willing to carry on the ‘ mer months.
active apostolate opened a school ■ At present, the Columbia 1 ro-
for orphans at Gurtweil in Baden, i vince, from which will come the
and in the year 1865 were affiliat- I Sisters who will staff the school
ed with the Italian community ’ in Albany, is represented in the
founded by Mother de Mattias. Dioceses of Harrisburg, Altoona,
Several other schools were ; Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, Spring-
opened and work of the Sisters I field in Illinois, and Raleigh, as
prospered until the Kulturkampf j well as in the Archdioceses of St.
broke over Germany and set the Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia and
community adrift again. j New York. For several years Sis-
The greater number of the ters Adorers of the Most Precious
Gurtweil Sisters set sail for Am- ! Blood have been in charge of the
erica and became the pioneers of i domestic affairs at the rectory of
the Ruma Province. Others for the Cathedral of St. John the Bap-
the time being, withdrew to Feld- I tist in Savannah, so they are no
Kirch in Voralberg, Austria, and
in 1879 formed the nucleus of
the Province of Bosnia in Jugo
slavia.
Among this group was a pos
tulant, Paulina Schneeberger, who
later, in 1890, became Superior
of the foundation at Bosnia.
strangers to this Diocese.
“WOOL MERCHANT OF SE
GOVIA”—a biography of St.
Alphoi.sus Rodriguez, Jesuit lay
brother, by Mabel Farnum, is the
choice of the Catholic Literary
In ' Foundation for September.
Held in Blessed Memory in Albany
FATHER KEENAN
Outstanding among the priests
who served as pastor of St. The
resa’s parish in Albany, and on its
missions, was the Very Rev. Leo
M. Keenan, who died two years
ago while serving as pastor of St.
Patrick’s Church in Augusta, to
which parish he had been trans
ferred after being pastor of the
parish in Albany for more than
nine years. Father Keenan had
served as an assistant in Albany
and on its mission for some years
prior to being appointed pastor.
FATHER McMAIION
One of the most beloved of the
priests who have served as pastor
of St. Theresa’s Church, Albany,
Ga., w s the Very Rev. P. H. Mc
Mahon, who was called to his eter
nal reward in 1920 while serving
as pastor of St. Patrick's Church
in Augusta.
Father McMahon was the sec
ond resident pastor in Albany, and
after serving a number of years in
other places in Georgia, returned
to Albany as pastor for the second
time in 1907, serving then for two
years.
Catholics in Albany Plan
Extensive Building Program
(Special to The Bulletin)
ALBANY, Ga.—The observance-
oil the last Saturday of October of
the centennial of the first celebra
tion of Mass in Albany, will find
the members of St. Theresa’s par
ish well advanced in their plans
and in the raising of funds for the
construction of a new church, rec
tory, convent and school here.
The building project, which is
expected to require an expenditure
of $100,000 or more, and which
will extend over several years,
will be inaugurated as soon as
war-time priority regulations have
been removed to allow construc
tion to begin.
Henry D. Dagit and Sons, of
Philadelphia, who were the aelii-
tects for the new Blessed Sacra
ment Church and school in Sa
vannah, have' been authorized to
executed the plans for the new
Cathdlic church and other build
ings in Albany.
The undertaking, which will re
sult in the erection of a Catholic
Community Center in Albany, had
its origin last December, when the
Very Rev. Msgr. Joseph G. Cassi
dy, now rector of the Cathedral of
Christ the King, Atlanta, was pas
tor of St. Theresa’s Church, and it
is being continued under the gui
dance of the Very Rev. Daniel J.
Bourke. V. F... who succeeded
Monsignor Cassidy as pastor here.
Bob McCormack is general
chairman of the parish commit
tee, with J. L. Rau as chairman of
the finance committee, and Miss
Margaret Mock is serving as sec
retary. Associate members of the
finance committee are J. R. Pinks
ton, James Gallagher, W. J. Rak
el. Paul Keenan, M. M. Wiggins.
William Mock, Jr.. Fred Mills, Mrs.
D. G. Davis, Mrs. Darien P. Tomp
kins, Mrs. Y. G. Hilsman, Mbs Ann
Sneed, Miss Mary L. Brosnan and
Heads St. Theresa’s
Parish Committee
ROBERT McCORMACK
Miss Margaret Stephens.
George Mock heads the building
committee, which includes J. II.
Wiggerman, D. W. Brosnan and
T. II. Coleman.
The men’s division of the Parish
Activities Committee has as its
chairman, Retro Stephens, and in
cludes J. J. Romeo, L. E. Goth,
J. R. Flock, O. T. Kenan, L. E.
Mock and Eugene Clark. The
women’s division of this commit
tee is headed by Mrs. K. M. Russ,
with Mrs. Fred Mills, Mrs. Mary
Lewis, Mrs. J. L. Rau, Mrs. J. H.
Wiggerman, Mrs. L. E. Mock, Mrs.
J L. Bacon and Miss Helen Smith
as members
Sturkie Furniture Co.
Furniture for Less
2079 Millcdgevillc Road
Phone 2-2162
IRA B. MERRY, Mgr.
Augusta, Georgia
“TUFF-KOTE PAINT”
Quality Paint & Roofing Company
Paint and Roofing Headquarters
PAINT’S, GLASS, GRATES, BRUSHES, ROOFING
CALCIMO, TILE, CEMENT
509 Ninth Street Augusta, Georgia