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o Sou Diocese of Savannah ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ hem (thjss Contents News 1-3 Commentary 4-5 Around the Diocese 6-7 Faith Alive! 8-9 Notices 10-11 Last But Not Least 12 Vol. 79, No. 36 $.50 per issue Thursday, October 21,1999 Saint Benedict the Moor Parish, Savannah, celebrates 125 years Above: Sister Pauline O'Brien, MFIC, Director of the Social Apostolate of Savannah, Franklin Jenkins, Sister Vergilius, Zeline Foster and Ida Branch stand outside Saint Benedict Church after the 125th anniversary Mass. Right: Father James M. Mayo, KHS, pastor of Saint Benedict's, chats with Robert Porter, a member of the Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus honor guard. By Audrey D. McCombs Savannah F rances Campbell Bazemore has a long family history at Saint Benedict the Moor Catholic Church which celebrated its 125th birthday October 16-17. “We are six generations in the church,” said Bazemore, 86. “That is the Campbell family. Bazemore is my married name.” She was baptized, confirmed and married at Saint Benedict’s. She raised her three children, Zeline Campbell Foster, Fredrick Campbell and Frances Campbell Calvert in the church. Her two daughters were married there. Bazemore’s sister Josephine Campbell is the oldest living member of the church at 102 years old. “On her birthday, we have the Mass said in her honor,” Zeline Foster said. Bazemore remembers when the church didn’t face East Broad Street. “The entrance was on Mercer in the back, that’s when I went to kindergarten at Saint Benedict. It was in the basement.” In her 86 years, she has watched Saint Benedict’s grow in size to include an orphanage for girls and a fellowship hall. Programming has expanded to include gospel music and sacred dance. The orphanage is gone and the school is empty now, but they are alive in Bazemore’s memory. Saint Benedict the Moor is the oldest black Catholic parish in Georgia and the second oldest parish in Savannah. In a program October 16 in the church fellowship hall, Bazemore and other members of Saint Benedict’s gathered to recall their memories and the long history of the church. The church is the oldest black Catholic parish in Georgia and the second oldest existing parish in Savannah. Named for Saint Benedict the Moor, patron saint to African Americans, the parish was created when two Benedictine monks established a monastery here in 1874 and a church, originally situated at East Broad and Harris Street. In 1889, a new Saint Benedict church was built four blocks south on East Broad at Gordon Street, its present location. Saint Benedict’s helped strengthen Robert Washington’s faith. He became a parishioner at Saint Benedict’s in 1949, after returning home from serv ing in the Army during World War II. He became a religious man, his friends were there, so he decided to join, leaving his Baptist upbringing, Washington said. During the civil rights era of the 1960s, the support Washington received from priests at Saint Benedict’s, made a difference. “The church was a big help because there were some priests we had at that time who were in our comer.” With a new century dawning, Washington looks to the future for Saint Benedict’s, helping to improve parish programs so the church has a long future. And at 81, there is no other church home for him. “The church is for the people, not one or two people, and the people are the church, so therefore I don’t look to leaving Saint Benedict.” Reprinted with permission from the SAVANNAH Morning News.