Events marking the one hundredth anniversary of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception will include a concelebrated mass at the Shrine at 6 p.m. on November 22, followed by a banquet and ball at the Dinkler-Plaza Hotel at 8 P.M.

Principal concelebrant of the Mass will be the Most Reverend Thomas A. Donnellan, Archbishop of Atlanta. The other concelebrants include: Reverend Leonard A. Kelley, O.F.M., pastor from 1958 to 1964; Right Reverend Patrick J. O’Connor, pastor from 1956 to 1958; Very Reverend Lawrence Schmuhl, S.M., Superior of the Marist Fathers, and Reverend Arthur D. Murray, O.F.M., who has been pastor of the parish since 1964. The Mass will begin with a processional at 5:45P.M.

The Choral Guild of Atlanta, under the direction of Don. C. Robinson will provide the music.

Representatives from other churches who will be participating in the celebration include Dr. Randolph Taylor of Central Presbyterian Church, Dr. Kenneth Jones of Trinity Methodist Church, Dr. Russell H. Dilday Jr. of Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church, Dean Charles Child of The Cathedral of St. Phillip.

For the banquet and ball at the Dinkler-plaza Hotel antebellum costumes are optional. The banquet will be held in the International Room.

The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is the oldest building in downtown Atlanta. The centennial anniversary booklet includes the early history of Atlanta with the history of the origin and development of Immaculate Conception parish. Pictures printed in the booklet include photographs from the nineteenth century, going back as far as 1855.

The first written records of the Atlanta Catholic congregation begin in 1846 with missionary priests, mostly from Augusta and Macon, following the railroad from camp to camp, town to town, providing Catholics with the Sacraments of the Church. Catholics in Atlanta at first held Mass in private homes and a school building by the railroad, but by 1848 erected a small church on the same lot as the present church. At the time of the Civil War, Father Thomas O’Reilly became pastor of the parish. He ministered to both the Union and southern soldiers. He was comforting to the people of Atlanta when Sherman’s order came that they were to be evacuated. In his own memoirs, Sherman tells of Atlantans protesting this order.

But to his aide, General Halleck, he sent orders concluding with those hard words: “If the people raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity-seeking. If they want peace, they and their relatives must stop the war.”

So the federals planned to burn Atlanta.

Father O’Reilly, with great dignity and persuasion, talked General Slocum into sparing the churches around the area of what is now Capitol Square. He not only saved his own church, but got them to spare also the Central Presbyterian Church, the Second Baptist Church, Trinity Methodist Church, St. Phillips Cathedral, and the City Hall itself.

In June, 1869 ground was broken for the new church building, and on December 10, 1873, the Church of the Immaculate Conception was formally dedicated by Bishop William Gross of Savannah. With the dedication of the new marble high altar in 1880 the church was substantially complete.

Father James O’Brien, the pastor at the 1880 dedication, was responsible for Atlanta’s first permanent hospital. He bought property on the present Courtland Street for the Sisters of Mercy for a Catholic Hospital first known as the Atlanta Hospital, today well known as St. Joseph’s Infirmary. The Sisters of Mercy were already known in Atlanta as they had arrived in 1866 to operate the parish school housed in the old “Wigwam Building.”

Nine years after the death of Father O’Reilly a young priest, Father Thomas Francis Cleary, arrived to serve as pastor. Father Cleary won the friendship of Catholic and non-Catholics alike, and a plaque in the main entrance of the church speaks of him: “None knew him but to love him, none named him but to praise.”

The Franciscan Fathers of the Holy Name Province were invited to take charge of the Shrine in July of 1958 by Bishop Francis E. Hyland. Father Leonard A. Kelley, O.F.M., was pastor, with Fathers Rayner A. Dray, O.F.M., and Raymond A. Beane, O.F.M. assistants.

Father Arthur D. Murray, O.F.M., present pastor, has made the Shrine a place of prayer and devotion.

General chairman of the 100^th anniversary committee is William Leide. Cochairmen are Eddie Gasperini and Mrs. Flora Grahym. Other committee members include: Mrs. Fred Ajax, Mrs. Laura Clarke, Mrs. Clifford Schexnayder, Miss Eleanor Ann Camarata, Miss Betty Palmer, Jerry Giordano, Van Buren Colley, Fathers Charles Pfab, Rayner Dray, Kevin Farrell and Aidan Gara.