By Msgr. Noel Burtenshaw

Footprints In the Clay

From the beginning it was all so dramatically historic. And the beginnings went way back.

Hernando de Soto, leading his band of adventurers, reached Georgia’s red soil in the early 1500s. At each stop made by the exploring party, Mass was offered by one of de Soto’s Spanish chaplains. As early as 1540, two Indians, living close to Macon, received the Sacrament of Baptism. They may well have been the first native North American Catholics.

Jesuits established missions on Georgia’s Cumberland Island in 1566. Franciscans succeeded them and successfully preached Christianity to thousands of Indians living in thriving communities on the outer islands. Five of these first Franciscan missionaries were martyred on the “Golden Isles” in 1597. But the preaching continued, the sacraments were administered and bishops came from the Catholic dioceses of Cuba to confirm the new converts.

British Colony

This area of evangelization came to an end in 1700. The territory, known to us as the state of Georgia, became the last of the 13 colonies as General James Oglethorpe took possession for the English crown. The General gave religious freedom to all except “Papists” who were regarded with exceptional suspicion. However, the penal laws were enforced only reluctantly and many Catholics became prominent citizens of the colony.

One of the heroes of the Revolutionary War effort in the city of Savannah was the Catholic Count Casimir Plaski, who was mortally wounded in Oct. 1779 as he led his cavalrymen against the British. Monuments, including the famous Fort Polaski, still commemorate the gallant Count and his exploits in South Georgia.

Shortly after the war ended, sometime in 1780, a remarkable Catholic community came into being in Wilkes and Warren counties just north of Augusta. This community, seeking religious freedom, moved south from the state of Maryland and settled in Sharon and Locust Grove. It was in the latter place that the members built their church, the first Catholic Church established in Georgia. Since this area is now part of the Atlanta Archdiocese, that church of Locust Grove, founded around 1790, was the first church of Atlanta and also the first church of the Savannah Diocese.

John England

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, in 1820, the Holy See gave recognition to the fact that growth in the faith was taking place in the South. A quick glance showed that the territories of North and South Carolina, along with the state of Georgia, housed approximately 1,000 Catholics. It was time to appoint the first bishop of the area.

In the City of Cork in Ireland, Father John England, a parish priest, was consecrated first Bishop of the Carolinas and Georgia. He was 35 years old. He set sail for his new mission, taking six volunteer priests with him. Together, they would attempt to bring the Gospel message to the vast new territory--127,000 square miles in all.

England was the perfect choice for the task. He was a man of enormous creativity, energy and foresight. He founded the first U.S. Catholic Newspaper, “The Catholic Miscellany,” opened a seminary, established a center for adult Catholic education, began the first Catholic parochial schools in the United States and traveled the highways of his diocese by every means available.

Bu 1850 the number of Catholics in the state of Georgia had increased to about 4,000. John England had established parishes in Savannah, Locust Grove, Macon, Columbus and Atlanta. On July 3, 1850, the Holy See established a new diocese. The territory would comprise the state of Georgia and part of Florida. It would be called the Diocese of Savannah and Francis X. Gartland, from Dublin Ireland, was named first bishop.

Diocese of Savannah

Between 1850 and 1956, when the northern half of the state was established as the Diocese of Atlanta, Savannah had nine bishops. Great names like Verot, Kieley, Gross, O’Hara will be remembered as men of enormous faith, energy and ingenuity.

Bishop Verot, a Frenchman, was the church leader of the Civil War and Reconstruction era. He was appointed in 1861 and immediately set up a new and unique school system. He formed an agreement with the government whereby the two Catholic schools existing in Savannah would become part of the public school system. Religion was taught before school began and after regular school ended. The government supplied the textbooks and also the salaries of the teachers. Many other cities across the nation used Verot’s system and it remained intact in Georgia until 1916 when Georgia’s Attorney General declared it unconstitutional.

Bishop Verot also defied the laws forbidding the teaching of black children. Quietly, without seeking any permission, the bishop opened a school in the city of Savannah which was staffed by the Sisters of Mercy.

North Georgia Growth

At this time the northern half of the state began to see growth too. Communities of Catholics were clustering in the great city of Atlanta, even as the dust of the War began to settle.

Immaculate Conception Church was really the church of the Civil War era. It was founded in 1846 and, as the century ended, had a school and a population of 1,300 parishioners. The great Bishop Kieley was pastor of this parish in 1900 when he was named the seventh Bishop of Savannah.

North of this mother church, land was set aside for another parish that would be called Sacred Heart. The parish was founded in 1879 and eventually entrusted to the Marist Fathers. Their famous high school, called Marist College, was opened on the same spot, along with an elementary school. As the new century dawned, Sacred Heart was flourishing with a population of 2,000 parishioners and still growing.

A New Century

The first Atlanta parish of the 1900s was St. Anthony’s in West End. It was formed from Immaculate Conception and founded in 1903. A school was started in 1912. Interestingly, the first pastor, Father Jackson, also offered Mass at the United States Army Base, Fort McPherson.

Atlanta also could brag that the Sisters of Mercy had founded a hospital in the city in 1880. The sisters ministered to 200 patients in their infirmary on Ivy Street in 1900.

The Catholic people of Georgia had always shown great concern for the underprivileged. Care of orphaned children was a ministry undertaken from the beginning. The first Catholic male orphanage was established in Savannah in 1854. This foundation was moved to Washington, Georgia in 1876. St. Mary’s Home for girls was founded later in 1884. The male orphanage would, of course, become the new Village of St. Joseph in 1967 when the foundation was made on Butner Road in Atlanta for girls and boys.

Missions and New Parishes

From the Atlanta churches, new missions were constantly founded and served down the years. Atlanta was the transportation center. Spanning out from the city, the railroad took missionaries on weekends to places like Cartersville, Ellijay, Rome, Tallapoosa and even to Birmingham and Chattanooga. Churches were established and in 1936 the present Cathedral of Christ the King was founded and built. The name of the diocese was changed, demonstrating the importance of the northern half of the state in the life of the growing Catholic community.

On Jan. 5,1937, the state of Georgia became the new ecclesiastical territory to be known as the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta. The ninth and last Bishop of Savannah-Atlanta was Gerald P. O’Hara, who came to Georgia from Philadelphia in 1936. He had served as Auxiliary Bishop in Philadelphia and, while leading the Church in Georgia, he would serve as ambassador for the Vatican in many areas of the world, including Rumania, where the Communist regime imprisoned him for a time.

The post World War II migration to the southeast ensured considerable growth and future potential for the state of Georgia. Recognizing this bright future, the Holy See created the new Diocese of Atlanta in July 1956 and formally established the daughter Georgian diocese on Nov. 8, 1956.

The first Bishop of Atlanta was Francis E. Hyland.