By Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw

(Last in a Series)

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Georgia left Savannah on the morning of January 26, 1876 and arrived in their new home in Washington, Georgia that evening. The Sisters, numbering 17 in all, and their charges, about 60 orphan boys, would begin a new chapter in the history of the Catholic Church in Georgia. The Order would grow, prosper, expand and then suffer great loss in that northwest Georgia town which was part of an area in the state which has been called the “Cradle of Catholicity” in Georgia.

The Sisters of St. Joseph has arrived in Savannah in 1867; nine years later, in 1876, they moved to Washington. They would remain in Washington as a diocesan community of nuns until 1913.

Washington, in Wilkes County, is part of an area of Georgia that is steeped in Catholic history. Fourteen miles east of the city is Sharon, another historic landmark. However, it all began in a little township just two miles east of Sharon. It was there, in Locust Grove, that the first band of Catholics settled in 1790. They were French for the most part, but soon the community was joined by Irish immigrants. They came to Locust Grove fleeing persecution and desiring only to practice their faith in peace.

A church and school were built. The community at Locust Grove became a center of learning and was renowned among priests and scholars throughout the south. Many vocations to the priesthood and religious life were born in the community which consisted of large plantations.

For over 50 years the colony at Locust Grove prospered. However, the coming of the railroad changed the world of the colony. In order to be near the new mode of transportation, the community moved to Sharon in 1846. Even the parish Church of the Purification was moved. But life was never again the same. Some of the original families moved on to other places, the remaining families continued their lifestyle in the new township of Sharon.

About this time Washington was seeing growth also. In 1840 the visiting Bishop John England, in whose diocese all of Georgia was at the time, laid a foundation stone for a new church in Washington. It would be located in the center of town and would be called the Church of St. Patrick.

So, as the Sisters of St. Joseph arrived in Washington in 1876, the Church of the Purification was fourteen miles away with active Catholic families participating and the Church of St. Patrick was in the heart of their new city. The home of Col. Nicholas Wiley, along with 50 acres of land, was purchased for the sisters. The work of the Georgia Order of Nuns was about to begin.

The pastor of St. Patrick’s was to be a friend of the sisters all his life. He was Father James O’Brien. Father O’Brien was a New Englander. Born in 1842, he came to Georgia in 1874. Most of his priesthood was spent in Washington. For a short time he ministered in Augusta and for one year he was pastor of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Atlanta. However, he returned to Washington and remained there till his death in 1900. For those years, he was a father to the boys in Washington and a helper to the sisters who found their new life very difficult in those beginning years. Father O’Brien died in Baltimore, Maryland after a long illness. His body was taken back to Washington for burial. A large memorial was built to him and can be seen today in the old St. Patrick’s cemetery in the heart of Washington.

Very soon, the sisters had their work for the orphans running very smoothly and decided to extend their ministry. A two-story home adjoining their property was purchased and converted into a school for girls. Donations were sought from parishes in the north and in October 1876, just nine months after their arrival in Washington, “The St. Joseph’s Academy for Young Ladies” was opened.

Three sisters were sent from the orphanage to begin this school. The first principal was Sister St. Peter Borie, one of the original band who had arrived from Le Puy in France.

Side by side, until 1913, the orphanage and the elite academy were to exist and prosper. Hundreds of young women from all over the south were educated at this school. It was recognized as one of the best “finishing schools” for young women of that time. Up to 60 girls would board in the school and many day students from the surrounding countryside were educated.

These young women also assisted with the work at the orphanage and with the other apostolates of the sisters. Work for the black community in the Washington area was begun. After school, the sisters, along with young women from the school, would teach and minister, where needed, among the poor of Washington. The sisters became a welcome sight to many families.

To facilitate the school and the orphanage, a second church was opened in Washington. This one was built on the sisters’ property and, of course, was called the Church of St. Joseph. Eventually this church would become the parish church for Washington and the downtown Church of St. Patrick ceased to exist.

One year after the Academy opened, in 1877, a young woman named Ella Trout from Canton, Ohio joined the community. She was a cousin of Bishop Gross of Savannah and would be known as Sister Sacred Heart. Until her death in 1921, she would be the guiding spirit behind the academy. Under her direction, this exceptional school in 1878 was chartered as one of the first Catholic female institutions to grant diplomas in Georgia. The work of Sister Sacred Heart for the cause of education would find recognition far and wide.

In 1878, the Sisters again looked around for new work for the community. They decided to found a mission house in Sharon, 14 miles away. Three sisters were sent, and seeing the active Catholic community in place, decided to open a new academy – this time for boys. It would be called Sacred Heart Seminary. For many years, until about 1910, this school was just as popular as the girls’ in Washington. The gala event each year was the annual baseball game between the boys in Sharon and the orphanage boys in Washington. Usually it was played in Sharon on an early summer’s day with sisters from both towns earnestly vying for victory along with their charges. The evening before the game was spent in strict prayer for victory in both places.

Again, many vocations to the priesthood were fostered in Sharon and the Sisters of St. Joseph were rewarded with candidates from the school in Washington. They were happy years of struggle and reward.

Special word must be mentioned in this history of the spirit of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Georgia. They developed into a truly southern community. In 1880 the General of the Order was Mother St. John Kennedy. She petitioned the Bishop to eliminate the rank of lay sisters from the community. In this way, all sisters could participate fully in every aspect of community life. There was great warmth experienced in the Order. This special warmth would be missed when eventually the affiliation with St. Louis would take place.

In 1892 a place was selected on the grounds of the old St. Patrick’s Church in downtown Washington to be a cemetery for the sisters. Two of the nuns had been buried on the grounds of the orphanage. Mother Helen Gidon, the first superior from France, who had been buried in Savannah, was brought there along with one other sister, who had been buried in that same city. Today the cemetery can be seen in Washington. Until 1922 the Sisters of St. Joseph of Georgia were brought to that spot for burial.

The community prospered in Washington towards the end of the nineteenth century. A motherhouse and novitiate was established. The Academy and the orphanage stayed full and active. The mission in Sharon, along with the boys’ school, was a success. Added to all this, the Georgia sisters were attracting vocations. It was decided to look around for another mission. Atlanta was chosen.

The bishop in 1894 was Thomas Becker. He urged the foundation of a school in Atlanta. Since the Sisters of Mercy conducted a girls’ school, it was decided that the Sisters from Washington would open a boys’ school. And they did. Lots were purchased on Pryor Street, a convent and school were erected and in September 1895 the Loretto Academy for Boys opened its doors to 50 smart, young Atlanta boys. It remained in place for 20 years (it closed in 1915) and hundred of students passed through its halls.

Many of those students again became priests. There are names well known in Georgia parishes today. Father Herman Diemel who became a priest in Savannah, Father Marion Perry a well known Marist and many other Marist Fathers received their education with the Sisters at Loretto on Pryor Street.

The success of the missions gave great encouragement to the sisters in Washington. More vocations came to them even as the loss of the first pioneers began to happen. In 1910 Mother Clemence, who had come as a young nun from Le Puy, died. To the end she was active in the school in Sharon. She was the last of the “French Sisters” who had ministered so bravely to the people of Savannah back in 1867. Mother Clemence had always prayed that her final confession would be uttered in her native French. Her prayer was answered. A French Jesuit, giving a mission near Washington, was present when the great woman died.

The missionary role of the Georgia sisters continued. In 1900 Bishop Benjamin Kieley, asked the sisters to found a school in Brunswick, Georgia. Again they willingly and successfully responded. The school is there this very day.

In 1909, the sisters again answered the call and came to Atlanta, to Sacred Heart parish and founded a school on the old Marist property. Realizing the importance of the city of Atlanta, the sisters decided to move their novitiate to the Sacred Heart property in 1912 also. It seemed at this time the Sisters of St. Joseph of Georgia were at the height of their strength and success.

Then disaster struck.

When the school year began in Washington in September 1913, the Academy was full. There were 50 boarders. They all looked forward to another successful year. However, early in the morning on November 20, smoke was discovered in the academy building. The alarm was raised and sisters, along with the students, quickly left the building but the entire school was destroyed. It was a total loss. The orphanage was unharmed but the academy would have to be rebuilt.

The sisters consulted Bishop Kieley and thoughts were given to rebuilding the school either in Atlanta or Augusta. While this decision was being made the Chamber of Commerce in Augusta offered a free site along with a gift of 20 acres, if the school could be relocated in their city. The sisters agreed and the move was made.

However, it was not a fortunate move. The sisters easily borrowed sufficient funds to build the new academy; however, while awaiting their building, they invested their borrowed funds in a new bank – the Irish-American Bank in Augusta. Unfortunately the bank failed and the sisters lost all. They had to reborrow and pay both interest bills and both debts. They really never recovered from that disastrous year of 1913.

By 1915, the sisters of St. Joseph of Georgia were in financial ruin. To meet their heavy bills, drastic measures were taken. The school in Augusta was sold, so too was Loretto in Atlanta; the convent in Sharon, now serving a very small Catholic community, was sold and the school closed. It was a great blow but the sisters made the difficult decision and were debt free. That same year the motherhouse and the novitiate was brought to Augusta. The house they moved to was called Mount St. Joseph.

While the Sisters closed their private academies, they continued to open schools for parishes. In 1916, they returned to Savannah, where it had all begun in 1867. In 1917, they came to West End, Atlanta and helped Father O.N. Jackson open a new parish of St. Anthony.

The losses in Augusta were really too much for the tiny order to survive. The sisters, having moved away from the small, intimate surrounding of Washington, seemed to lose much of their distinctive spirit. Or maybe it was just the modern times beginning to overtake them. Vocations dropped off considerably. Survival of the community became a topic for discussion.

In 1920, Mother Aloysias Burke opened discussions with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Louis. They also had come from Le Puy in France and the possibility of affiliation seemed the most reasonable answer. Bishop Kieley eventually sent a letter to each sister in Georgia – there were 55 of them in 1922 – requesting consent or refusal. Nine-tenths replied in favor of the affiliation. Approval of Rome was obtained and on February 13, 1922 the Sisters of St. Joseph of Georgia ceased to exist and became the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.

It was an end. The sisters testified, without complaining, that they were asked to make great changes in their life. Northern sisters became the new superiors and many of those superiors made it clear that the southern style religious life that had been developed over a 55-year period was now over. Many radical changes were ushered in and while they were quickly adapted by the Georgia sisters, their own community formation developed in Washington was missed for many years.

The Sisters of St. Joseph continue their work in the archdiocese today. They are still to be found staffing the Village of St. Joseph, which moved to Atlanta from Washington in 1967. St. Anthony’s parish has the St. Joseph’s sisters as do other schools and apostolates in the archdiocese. Like their forebearers in Le Puy, they go about their work, serving and ministering without a distinctive garb but with the spirit of the Gospel. May they continue for many years.

One is left. Sister Eulalia Murray, now living in Nazareth House in St. Louis in retirement, is the last of that community which was distinctly Georgian. She knew many of the Washington sisters who walked with those pioneers who came to the New World in response to the call of Bishop Verot back in 1867. They were founding members of the church we enjoy today.