Pioneer Bishops of Georgia

This blog will discuss bishops that served in Alabama up to 1900.  For more information about Georgia, see my blog of January 10, 2017.

Spanish explorers came to Georgia in the early 16th Century.  The explorers were followed by Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries who established 18 missions beginning in 1595 to the Native Americans living along the Georgia coast.  Five Franciscans, now known as the Martyrs of Georgia and declared Servants of God (the first step toward canonization), were killed by Native Americans in 1597 for condemning the practice of polygamy.  The Spanish missions eventually closed (the last in 1702), and the English gradually pushed the Spanish out of Georgia.  James Oglethorpe established the English Colony of Georgia and the town of Savannah in 1733.  The few Catholics that lived in the Colony were not allowed to openly practice their religion until after the American Revolution.  Georgia became the fourth State in 1788.

The first English Catholic church in Georgia was established by settlers from Maryland in Locust Grove, east of Augusta.  They built a small log church in 1792 and built the first Catholic school in 1818.  Georgia became part of the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1820 and at that time there were fewer than 1,000 Catholics in the State with churches in Locust Grove, Savannah, and Augusta.  Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Savannah in 1850, at which time there were about 3,000 Catholics in Georgia served by a dozen parishes and priests.

The number of Catholics in Georgia continued to grow and in 1937, the name of the Diocese of Savannah was changed to the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta in recognition of the fact that Atlanta has surpassed Savannah as the largest city in Georgia by 1880 and had been the capital since 1868.  Atlanta became a separate diocese in 1956 and in 1962 it was raised to the status of an Archdiocese.

Francis X. Gartland was born in 1808 in Dublin, Ireland, and moved as a child with his parents and nine siblings to Philadelphia.  He attended seminary in Maryland and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Philadelphia in 1832.  He served as a pastor and as the Diocesan vicar general before being appointed the first Bishop of Savannah in 1850.  Gartland’s diocese consisted of Georgia and part of Florida and had fewer than 6,000 Catholics.  Bishop Gartland established three new parishes, an orphanage, a Catholic cemetery, and recruited priests from Ireland.  He was more interested in saving the souls of slaves than in freeing them from slavery.  A yellow fever epidemic struck Savannah in 1854 and Bishop Gartland ministered to victims before dying the same year.

John Barry was born in Ireland in 1799 and was recruited while still a seminarian to come to Charleston, South Carolina, by Bishop John England.  Barry continued his studies in Charleston and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Charleston in 1825.  He served as pastor in Augusta, Georgia (then part of the Diocese of Charleston) from 1830 to 1854.  During an 1832 cholera epidemic, Barry converted his rectory into a hospital.  When the Diocese of Savannah was created in 1850, Barry became a priest of the new Diocese and became vicar general for the Diocese in 1853.  Barry was named second Bishop of Savannah in 1857.  Bishop Barry established an orphanage and a school for boys.  He died during an 1859 trip to Paris to secure resources for the Diocese and to obtain medical treatment.

Augustin Verot was born in France in 1805 and ordained a Sulpician priest in 1828.  He came to Baltimore in 1830 and served as a pastor and seminary professor until being appointed the first Vicar Apostolic of Florida in 1856.  He served as vicar apostolic until 1870.  He also served as Bishop of Savannah, Georgia, from 1861 to 1870.  He was named the first Bishop of St. Augustine, Florida in 1870.  

Before and during the Civil War, Bishop Verot supported the right to own slaves, but opposed the slave trade and called for humane treatment of slaves.  After the War, he fought for the rights of the newly-freed slaves.  He and his priests were the only clergy to visit Union prisoners at the notorious Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp.  During the 1870 First Vatican Council, Verot was noted for his strong positions on several issues, including reconciliation with Protestants, greater recognition of scientific research, and recognition of the equality of people of African descent.  Many of his positions were not accepted until many years later.  He was named first Bishop of St. Augustine, Florida, in 1870, and he died in 1876.

Ignatius Persico was born in Italy in 1823 and entered the Franciscan Capuchins in 1939.  He was ordained a priest in 1846 and immediately sent to India.  He served as an assistant to a bishop in India and became a coadjutor bishop of what is now Mumbai in 1854.  He was named vicar apostolic of Tibet in 1856 until ill health forced him to resign in 1860 and return to Italy.  The Pope sent him on a mission to the United States in 1866 and he was named fourth Bishop of Savannah in 1870.

At the time Persico was named Bishop, the Diocese consisted only of Georgia and had 20,000 Catholics and 30 churches.  He continued the missionary work among African-Americans begun by Bishop Verot and built two churches.  He resigned due to ill health in 1872 and returned to Italy.  He served as a Vatican diplomat until he was name bishop of an Italian diocese in 1879.  He became an official in the Roman Curia in 1887, became a Cardinal in 1893, and died in 1895.

William H. Gross was born in Baltimore in 1837—his father was of German ancestry and his mother of Irish ancestry.  He enrolled in a seminary in Ellicott City, Maryland, at the age of 13, but returned to work in his father’s store in 1853 after the seminary decided he was not suited to become a priest.  He thought about becoming a sailor, but in 1857 joined the Redemptorists.  He was ordained a priest in 1863.  Gross ministered to wounded Union soldiers in Annapolis and to Confederate prisoners-of-war as well as freed African-Americans.  He joined a Redemporist mission band and served at missions in Maryland, New York, Florida, and Georgia before he became ill.  He regained his health and served in New York and in Boston.  He was appointed the fifth Bishop of Savannah in 1873 and became the youngest bishop in the United States.

Bishop Gross spent most of his time rebuilding the churches, schools, and other Catholic buildings damaged during the Civil War, including the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah.  It was during his administration that the Sisters of Mercy established St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta.  He invited an order of nuns to work with African-Americans and invited the Jesuits to establish a seminary and college in Macon.  He also started a diocesan newspaper.  He was named Archbishop of Oregon City, Oregon, in 1885.  (The Archdiocese of Oregon City became the Archdiocese of Portland in 1928.)  He died in 1898 in Baltimore after giving a retreat in Annapolis, Maryland.

Thomas A. Becker was born to German Protestant parents in Pittsburgh in 1832.  While studying at the University of Virginia, he met Bishop John McGill of Richmond, who convinced him to convert to Catholicism in 1853.  The following year, Becker started seminary in Rome and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Richmond in 1859.   He was born as Thomas Baker, but his parents asked him to change his name after his conversion to Catholicism.  Becker served at parishes with the Diocese until the Civil War when he was appointed to the faculty at Mount St. Mary’s College in Maryland.  He later became secretary to the Archbishop of Baltimore and then as rector for the cathedral in Richmond.  Becker had been arrested at some point during the Civil War because of his pro-secessionist sympathies.  

Becker was appointed the first Bishop of Wilmington, Delaware, in 1868, and was appointed Bishop of Savanna in 1886.  He died in 1899.  Becker was one of the first bishops to advocate for a national Catholic university and he was a widely-read author and noted speaker.  He was an advocate of temperance and an early defender of workers’ rights.