Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, February 22, 2001
The Southern Cross, Page 3
Rita H.
DeLorme
Benevolent caregivers:
I n the fever-ridden decades of
the 1800s, when a shortened
adult lifespan hovered like a
dark cloud over many families,
M ™ K orphaned children frequently
W became the responsibility of
church or state. In the Diocese
of Savannah, care for these
unfortunate children was provided
during this period by the Sisters
of Mercy and the Sisters of
Saint Joseph.
The Sisters of Mercy, invited to Savannah from
Charleston by Father Jeremiah F. O’Neill, rector of
the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, began tak
ing care of a dozen orphans in 1845, five years
before the Diocese of Savannah was founded. Ar
riving in Savannah in 1867, the Sisters of Saint
Joseph moved the Barry Male Orphan Asylum to
Washington, Georgia in 1876 at the suggestion of
Bishop William H. Gross, CSsR, who thought
Washington would provide “a climate and open
country more conducive to the health of the boys.”
The Sisters of Mercy continued to nurture or
phans in their Savannah convent until 1875 when
three sisters and twenty-five young girls moved to
the White Bluff home of Mrs. J. Lama, and Saint
Mary’s Home for Girls came into being. Thanks to
the generosity of Captain Henry Blun, Saint
Mary’s Home was provided additional property in
1880 and the sisters and their charges were
installed in a frame building on Habersham Street
between 32nd and 33rd. The Female Orphan
Benevolent Society had been formed in 1877 and a
group of “Lady Collectors” soon became Saint
Mary’s mainstays, collecting modest dues weekly
from subscribers to help support the home.
In Wilkes County, scene of the early Catholic
settlement at Locust Grove, the Sisters of Saint
Joseph were continuing their pioneering work with
orphaned boys at Washington. Settling into the
eight-room “Nicholas Wiley House,” the sisters
soon found it necessary to utilize a log cabin and
servants’ house on the grounds as well. Father
James O’Brien, pastor of Saint Patrick’s Church in
Washington, became manager of what was now
Saint Joseph’s Male Orphanage and remained at
this post, except for brief pastoral assignments
elsewhere, for many years.
The Sisters of Saint Joseph expanded their min
istry in 1876, a mere nine months after their arrival
at Washington, by purchasing a two-story house
neighboring their property and turning it into an
academy for young ladies. Three sisters from Saint
Joseph’s Orphanage staffed the new school under
Saint Mary’s Home and Saint Joseph’s Orphanage
Saint Mary’s Home for Girls around the time of its opening (1938).
Photos courtesy of the Diocesan Archives.
Rita H. DeLorme is a volunteer in the
Diocesan Archives.
leadership of Sister Saint Peter Borie, one of the
original founding sisters who had come from
France.
A symbiotic relationship eventually developed
between Saint Joseph’s Orphanage and their elite
neighbor, the prestigious girls’ academy. Young
ladies at Saint Joseph’s Academy were recruited to
help with the ministry of the Sisters of Saint
Joseph at the orphanage and elsewhere. The sis
ters, with both orphanage and school running
smoothly, stretched their resources further to assist
members of Washington’s black community. In
1897, a fire broke out and destroyed buildings on
the grounds which were soon rebuilt under Father
O’Brien’s able direction. Both the home for home
less boys and the elegant young ladies’ “finishing
school” seem to have flourished side by side until
another fire in November 1913 destroyed the
Academy, but left the orphanage untouched. The
Academy, because of several unfortunate spins of
fate, was never to reopen in Washington, but Saint
Joseph’s Orphanage for Boys continued in opera
tion. In 1931, under Bishop Michael J. Keyes, a
fireproof brick building was begun at Washington,
to house the orphanage and to provide a place of
worship for the Catholic community of the area. It
was dedicated on May 30, 1932.
Saint Joseph’s operated in this new facility until
the 1960s. In 1967, the Village of Saint Joseph, a
derivative of Saint Joseph’s Orphanage, opened in
the Atlanta area for the care of children with learn
ing and behavioral disorders. The Sisters of Saint
Joseph remained on the Village’s staff until 1990.
Under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Atlanta,
the Village of Saint Joseph now offers counseling
services to eligible children, adolescents and fami
lies in the metro Atlanta area. In the last two years,
the village has served 300 families, 98 percent of
them Catholic.
The role of Saint Mary’s Home for Girls in the
Savannah Diocese has undergone its own meta
morphosis throughout the twentieth century. In
1906, Saint Mary’s became a'diocesan institution
offering a haven for orphaned girls throughout the
state. When a new bishop of Savannah, Gerald P.
O’Hara, was installed in 1935, he decided after a
tour of inspection of the orphanage that the old
frame building on Habersham Street constituted a
fire hazard. Three years later, Bishop O’Hara dedi
cated the new, brick Saint Mary’s Home which
crested “a knoll overlooking Savannah’s beautiful
Victory Drive.” The Female Orphan Benevolent
Society continued in operation, later becoming
Saint Mary’s Guild.
More changes came as Saint Mary’s became not
an orphanage but “a home for girls in need of a
home” in the 1950s. In 1967, its mission expanded
to include the care of boys. A yearly art auction for
the benefit of Saint Mary’s Home enhances dioce
san support and donations from other sources.
Sister M. Alvin Seubott and Sister Johanna
Maguire, Sisters of Mercy, are administrator and
assistant administrator, respectively, of Saint
Mary’s, which is now a “full-time residential group
care facility covering the 90 counties of south
Georgia,” and which oversees the needs of 28
young people unable to live with their parents.
Sketch of the new Saint Joseph’s Male Orphanage (1932).