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T he Marist priest
in charge of
Saint Francis
Xavier Church
urgently wanted
to get an answer
from the bishop.
He had spoken
with him in person
Rita H and now he was
DeLorme writing him about
a subject close to
his heart: Portuguese Catholics in the
Brunswick area and along the eastern
seaboard. Much on his mind was a
handcarved statue of Our Lady of
Fatima which had recently been pro
cured from Portugal by Manuel Boa
at the behest of the considerable
Portuguese colony in Brunswick.
Could the bishop come that month,
November 1938, to bless the newly-
arrived statue?
Much more was at stake than the
blessing of a statue. Of great concern
to Father Francis Marion Perry, SM,
pastor of Brunswick’s Saint Francis
Xavier Church, was the spiritual wel
fare of Portuguese fishermen and
their families. They were, he wrote,
“scattered over two hundred and fifty
miles of the coast, from Charleston
to Saint Augustine and all will be
here for the blessing of the statue.
The Portuguese people were, he said,
“sober,” “industrious” and “sincere”
and many of them were undergoing
instruction at that time to make their
first confession and receive commun
ion. A “definite word” from the bish
op regarding the date of the blessing
of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima,
Father Perry went on, would mean
that word could be sent up and down
the coast for all to receive commun
ion on that date. “To see grizzled old
men fall on their knees and cry like
babies upon beholding the statue is
really touching,” added Father Perry,
persuasively.
Savannah-Atlanta Bishop Gerald P.
O’Hara did not need more persuasion
and probably realized, as Father
Perry emphasized, that his presence
would “add immeasurably to the sig
nificance of the occasion and that
knowledge of the blessing of the stat
ue would mean a rebirth spiritually
among a number of people Catholic
at heart who have been lured away
from the Church by the feeling that
they generally do not belong.” In
preparation for the proposed blessing
of the statue, Father Perry had
already held a meeting of all the
Brunswick Portuguese and they had
agreed unanimously to go to confes-
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Thursday, August 2, 2001
The Southern Cross, Page 3
Devotions from
the Portuguese:
Brunswick’s Catholic heritage
Above: The Blessing of the Fleet, Brunswick, in the early 1970s,
carries out a decades-long tradition.
Left: The Our Lady of Fatima Procession in 1974 features the
statue that came from Portugal to Brunswick in 1938.
Photos courtesy of the Diocesan Archives.
sion and receive communion in a
body on the day of the erection of the
statue. At the same gathering, they
had formed two associations: a Con
fraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary
of Fatima for the men and a sodality
under the same patronage for the
women.
Giving more details, Father Perry
disclosed that the Portuguese had
asked him to have a High Mass, a
procession of the statue, blessing and
enshrining of the statue, a sermon
and Benediction of the Most Blessed
Sacrament. The school children were
being taught a plain chant Mass
which was providing an incentive to
carry on a project which was part of
their new music program.
That very month, November, 1938,
Bishop O’Hara journeyed to Bruns
wick and the statue was blessed and
enthroned at Saint Francis Xavier
Church. Plans were firmed for an
annual solemn procession to take
place on the Sunday “nearest May
13th, the date on which the Blessed
Virgin appeared to the three children
at Fatima” {The Bulletin, May 28,
1949). This day was also chosen as
the day for the annual blessing of the
fishing fleet of the Portuguese fisher
men of Brunswick. The religious
observance promoted by the people
and pastor of Saint Francis Xavier
Church was to become an enduring
tradition. Today, the same statue
commissioned by Manuel Boa on
behalf of Brunswick’s Portuguese
community is still borne in proces
sion on a carved wooden shoulder
carrier by members of Saint Francis
Xavier parish through Hanover
Square to commemorate the first
appearance of the Blessed Virgin at
Fatima. The five-foot tall statue is
complete with a crown dedicated to
the memory of Manuel Manita,
Eugene Cuntinha and Louis Romeira
—young men of the Portuguese
colony who died in the service of
their country during World War II.
The Our Lady of Fatima Procession
and the Blessing of the Fleet now
take place on Mother’s Day and have
become part of Brunswick’s annual
Harborfest, a yearly weekend of boat
shows, music, arts and crafts activi
ties, and so forth.
In his Web site (http.V/www.darien-
tel.net/~ramartin/shrimpfish.html)
commemorating his Portuguese her
itage, Robert Arthur Martin refers to
an earlier time when Brunswick was
the “Shrimp Capital of the World”
and local docks were built and
owned by Brunswick’s Portuguese
community. Martin asserts that
shrimping was not a business in
those days, but a lifestyle which was
environmentally conscious and
which kept future generations in
mind. In an interview by Paula Day
which appeared in the May 31, 1990,
issue of The Georgia Bulletin of the
Archdiocese of Atlanta, Sister
Loretta Costa, a Sister of Saint
Joseph, recalled the Portuguese of
Brunswick as hardworking and
devout Catholics who would some
times pay for their children’s tuition
by leaving a bucket of fresh shrimp
at the convent door.
Though times have changed and
the Portuguese have largely been
assimilated into the city’s general
population, Brunswick’s hardy
Catholic fishermen have left a rich
“catch” of faith for the nourishment
of their community. Their early pas
tor, Father F. M. Perry, would be
pleased.
Rita H. DeLorme is a volunteer in
the Diocesan Archives.
