LOCUST GROVE--"This is a special moment for us to keep our sense of unity with those who came before us, for this place is a part of us," Father Philip Ryan told those gathered for the annual All Souls Day Mass at Locust Grove Cemetery in Taliaferro County.

The cemetery is on the ground where the first Catholics worshipped after their arrival in Georgia from Maryland around 1790.

"Although we are at a place of death, we have a sense of those who lived here, for we are all part of history," Father Ryan said. "There is an historical and spiritual connection between them and us."

The Mass was celebrated on the marble altar erected in an open area of the cemetery. It was given in memory of Bernard Darden. The Dardens were long connected with the area. The quiet setting amid sunlit trees was not too different from the way it was when the first settlers "chopped down the trees, tilled the land, built their own homes and the log cabin church and then moved on," the priest said.

Father Ryan, a native of Ireland and pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Washington, speculated as to whether he could be related to the Ryans buried in the old cemetery. Their tombstones were placed there by Father Patrick Ryan in the late 19th century.

The custom of celebrating All Souls Day Mass at Locust Grove was revived in 1984. In case of rain the liturgy is celebrated at the Church of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin in Sharon, a few miles away. This church is the successor to the log cabin built by the first Catholics.