Georgia Bulletin

The Newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta

  • Father Stephen Lyness, pastor of Queen of Angels Church, Thomson, and St. Joseph Church, Washington, conducts the opening prayer during the Nov. 8 Mass at the Locust Grove Cemetery. Holding the prayer book for Father Lyness is 11-year-old Grant Pixley of Macon, the great-grandchild of the late Bernard R. Darden, the name inscribed on the altar. Darden’s widow had the altar erected and donated to the cemetery, although he was buried at the Purification Cemetery when he died in 1986. Photo By Michael Alexander
  • Rose Weser, standing, of St. Joseph Church in Washington, proclaims the first reading from Scripture. Some 60 people attended the Mass at Georgia’s oldest Catholic cemetery. Father John Fallon, the first diocesan pastor of St. Joseph Church, started the annual All Souls' Mass at the cemetery in 1982. Photo By Michael Alexander
  • A flag rests beside the tombstone of John Craten at the Locust Grove Cemetery, Georgia’s oldest Catholic cemetery. The 31-year-old Cratin died in 1826, the same year John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the second and third presidents of the United States, respectively, also died. For over 30 years an annual All Souls' Mass has been celebrated at the cemetery. Photo By Michael Alexander
  • Tombstones mark a cluster of graves in a section of the Locust Grove Cemetery, which was founded in the 1790s. Photo By Michael Alexander
  • The Locust Grove Cemetery is located approximately three miles southeast from the town of Sharon. Photo By Michael Alexander
  • This is the tombstone of a 41-year-old priest from the Diocese of Savannah who died Nov. 6, 1868. Photo By Michael Alexander
  • After leaving the Locust Grove Cemetery, a small group of parishioners from St. Joseph Church in Washington went to the Purification Cemetery, which is across the street from the current Church of the Purification in Sharon, to pray the rosary. Photo By Michael Alexander

Father Stephen Lyness, pastor of Queen of Angels Church, Thomson, and St. Joseph Church, Washington, conducts the opening prayer during the Nov. 8 Mass at the Locust Grove Cemetery. Holding the prayer book for Father Lyness is 11-year-old Grant Pixley of Macon, the great-grandchild of the late Bernard R. Darden, the name inscribed on the altar. Darden’s widow had the altar erected and donated to the cemetery, although he was buried at the Purification Cemetery when he died in 1986. Photo By Michael Alexander

All Souls’ Day Mass celebrated at Georgia’s oldest Catholic cemetery

Published November 14, 2014

LOCUST GROVE—About 60 people honored the memory of Catholic forbearers who settled in Georgia in the 1700s and 1800s, as the annual All Souls’ Day Mass was celebrated outdoors at the oldest Catholic cemetery in the state.

Father Stephen Lyness, pastor of Queen of Angels Church, Thomson, and St. Joseph Church, Washington, celebrated the Mass on Nov. 8. Attendees, some of whom are descendants of early Catholics interred in the cemetery, came with lawn chairs and lap robes. Mass was celebrated at an altar erected in the cemetery by the widow of Bernard R. Darden, who died in 1986.

The cemetery is one of several historic places of Catholicism in this area. The small white wooden frame church, Purification Church, in nearby Sharon, was built in 1883, and there is also a Catholic cemetery across the street from Purification Church.

Purification Church was listed in 2014 among historic “places in peril” in Georgia, which preservationists, historians and Catholic entities are trying to save with restoration and financial support. More information can be found at www.savepurificationchurch.com.

Additional photos of the All Souls’ Day remembrance can be seen at www.gabull.smugmug.com.