From the Archives
By Mary Woodward

JACKSON – “A picture says a thousand words” is an age-old adage that we often use to describe many situations. In archives, that saying is very true. The photos included this week tell many stories, but more importantly these images, along with thousands of others like them in our diocesan archives collection, help us document history and artifacts.

In looking at the image of three bishops strolling down the street how can I conclude who is in the photo and what is happening? The main evidence fortunately is a date in the lower right corner of the photo is given as on Oct. 15, 1924. Please always date photographs and identify the people in them.

Taking the photograph by itself, I can deduce many things. It is of Bishop Gerow, it appears to be in Mobile because the columns in the background look a lot like the ones of the Cathedral there. But after that for those not familiar with the date on the photograph or Bishop Gerow the trail goes cold.

However, as archivist and chancellor, knowing the importance of that date in diocesan history, I can confirm that the photo is from Bishop Gerow’s ordination as bishop, which occurred on Oct. 15, 1924, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile. How then can I identify the two other bishops? In order to do that, I need to look no further than Bishop Gerow’s meticulously maintained diary. All the information I need is right there on the page in a beautiful passage:

“The ceremony was in the Cathedral of Mobile, and this was proper. Within its shadow I had been born; within its walls, baptized; here I served for many years as Altar boy; here I had been confirmed; and since my ordination to the priesthood here had been my only appointment; here was the only parish in which I had ever had a domicile.

The Consecrating Prelate was Bishop Allen, who had always been to me a father. He had sent me to college to try my vocation; he had kept me near him during my years as a priest; and I feel that his example and training have done much to mold my priestly life.

The Co-Consecrators were Bishop Jules B. Jeanmard and Bishop James A. Griffin, the latter a close companion during my years of study in Rome. A magnificent sermon was preached by Very Reverend Edward Cummings, S.J. Provincial, with whom I had been closely associated during his years at Spring Hill College.”

From this description, one can be almost certain that the two other bishops are Bishops Jeanmard and Allen. To further solidify this, I can search the internet for images of these two men and see if they match up and determine which is which. Jeanmard is on the left for the viewer and Allen is on the right.

I can only deduce that the man on the far left is a Knight of Columbus in formal attire – sword, sash, top hat. This attire was customary for such an occasion in the early 1900s.

Photographs also help us identify various episcopal symbols such as rings and pectoral crosses. In the image of Bishop Gerow we can see a pectoral cross. That cross is kept in the vault of the archives.

The cropped image, which is of Bishop Thomas Heslin (1889-1911), has the same cross. Therefore, we can date that particular cross in the vault to 1889. It could go back further but the two previous bishops went on the become archbishops and would have taken most of their crosses and rings with them.

The ring in the cropped photo also is in the vault and is engraved as a gift from St. Michael Parish, which was the parish Bishop Heslin was pastor of in New Orleans when he was named Bishop of Natchez in 1889. Therefore, we can date and assign that ring to Bishop Heslin.

So, archives can often be a scavenger hunt and an archaeological expedition. Portraits and photos play a major role in solving so many mysteries. In 2016 our diocesan archive was awarded the Cultural Heritage Digitization Award by the Mississippi Digital Library. The award allowed 600 images from our collection to be digitized and uploaded to the MDL.

You can view this sampling of our collection on their website https://msdiglib.org/. We are a partner listed as Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson. I hope you will visit the collection and enjoy the journey through diocesan history.

(Mary Woodward is Chancellor and Archivist for the Diocese of Jackson)

From the Archives
By Mary Woodward

JACKSON – On Sunday, Oct. 24, at the 10:30 Mass in the Cathedral of Saint Peter the Apostle, Bishop Joseph Kopacz will officially open the diocesan phase of the church’s preparation for a universal synod on the synodal process in 2023. In the Mass, Bishop Kopacz will offer prayers for the diocesan church as we undertake this important aspect of church life on the local level.

More information on the preparations for the synod is shared in this week’s paper and will be shared as the process moves forward. This is an exciting time for our church.

From an archive’s perspective, synods have been held in our diocese dating back to 1858. Bishop William Henry Elder called the First Synod of Natchez to gather his priests together to discuss diocesan life and business. In 1856 the Archdiocese of New Orleans had hosted a synod for the province, which included our diocese. Decrees, including the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, rules for the election of bishops, and several disciplinary items, were promulgated from that synod. Bishop Elder called the 1858 local synod in Natchez to discern those decrees and discuss in collegial fashion how to implement them in the diocese.

Nowadays we get information immediately; in the mid-19th century news travelled much more slowly. It is not unusual that it took two years to discuss these decrees and how they will affect the growing church in Mississippi.

The 10th and last official diocesan synod was held in 1957. This synod took up some very weighty topics such as the teaching authority of the church, the Sacraments, Christian education for children, and the administration of church property.

After each synod, a book was published of the decrees and decisions. In the 1957 book we find some great paragraphs on the sacraments and sacred things. These quotes will sound familiar to many of us.

Paragraph 96 states: “The Sacraments should be administered with dignity and decorum and in accordance with the regulations of the church. The rubrics shall be carefully studied and scrupulously observed.”

Paragraph 100 is most important to an archivist and chancellor: “Great care should be taken that records of Sacraments administered be plainly legible. All names of recipients should be written in BLOCK CAPITAL LETTERS. Ink to be used must be of a permanent type.”

Paragraph 211 is most informative: “The music for all church services shall be that found in approved liturgical books and only hymns which have been approved by recognized authorities in church music shall be used.”

Those are a few of the 261 statements coming forth from the 1957 synod. The 10 synods in our history were clergy attended. Diocesan convocations grew out of the synods. These convocations up until COVID met every two years and in recent years had included parish leadership other than just priests.

The themes for the 2023 worldwide synod are: Communion, Participation and Mission. It will involve listening sessions with local parishioners around the world on these powerful foundations of our faith. Our diocese will participate in this process as stated above.

Stayed tuned to how you can be a part of this historic and spiritual process in our church.

(Mary Woodward is Chancellor and Archivist for the Diocese of Jackson)

From the Archives
By Mary Woodward

JACKSON – The month of September in Mississippi normally brings to mind football and a little bit of a cooler breeze coming through. September also is an active part of the hurricane season. We have started this September off with Ida and Nicholas. So far, we have been more fortunate than our Louisiana neighbors.

Archives and hurricanes are not generally talked about in the same sentences unless you are involved in archival work and are located in hurricane prone areas. Archivists throughout the Gulf Coast region have disaster preparedness and disaster recovery plans in place to help alleviate the damage wind and water can cause to artifacts and manuscripts.

In our diocesan archives, we often get requests from parishes in the Biloxi diocese for photos of their original churches. Many of those churches built in the early 1900s did not survive the years. Some were lost to fire and age, others to population shifts and neglect, but many were lost to hurricanes. These storms bring with them swells of water, triple digit winds and torrential rains.

Hurricane Camille came barreling ashore in 1969 and left a path of destruction not seen in modern times. Camille became the benchmark for destruction along the Gulf Coast until 16 years ago when Katrina removed most everything south of I-10 in the Biloxi diocese.

While the world focused on the terrible flooding in New Orleans caused by the backside of Katrina, the people of the Gulf Coast were trying to dig themselves out from under miles of debris. For the Diocese of Biloxi, which encompasses the 17 counties closest to the Gulf, nearly every church property sustained severe damage. Some were completely destroyed.

Imagine St. Clare Church in Waveland. When Katrina came ashore with a 30-foot swell of water, St. Clare’s front door stood at normal sea level, 100 feet from the water. Needless to say, there was nothing left but the front steps of the church and the slab of the school. St. Michael’s seashell roof in Biloxi looked fine from the air, but the main altar which weighed several tons was tossed off to the side and the pews were sucked out to sea.

After concerns about the safety of people, a Catholic diocesan archivist starts to think about sacramental registers, photographs and sacred vessels. Many of these items were lost.

Just recently Sacred Heart in d’Iberville called because they will be celebrating their 100th anniversary next year and were hoping we had some photos of the original church. Fortunately, we were able to provide them with a couple of photos. They had never seen what the original church looked like.

This week in a tribute to our neighbors on the Gulf Coast, we are sharing some images from Bishop John Gunn’s photo scrapbook. The photos or postcards range from 1915-1923 and give us a glimpse of churches during that time. Sacred Heart in d’Iberville (then Seymour) is among them.

As you look at them, offer a prayer to St. Medardus, patron of weather, to protect us all from storms. Amen.

(Mary Woodward is Chancellor and Archivist for the Diocese of Jackson)

From the Archives
By Mary Woodward
JACKSON – A bishop’s life is full of travel around the diocese to visit parishes, schools and missions. This time of year, it involves school masses for the opening of the new academic year. Because of COVID, these celebrations did not occur last August.

Confirmation celebrations have Bishop Joseph Kopacz all over the diocese from one end to the other. These celebrations normally take place between Easter and Pentecost, but due to schedules and once again the pandemic, Confirmation celebrations have been spread out into the summer months.

This weekend Bishop Kopacz will be in Ripley at St. Matthew Mission to confer Confirmation on more than a dozen young people. Ripley is in Tippah County, and I have a special connection to the area because my maternal grandmother’s family is from Tippah County. My great-grandparents are buried in the Pine Hill Cemetery just outside of Ripley on the way to Walnut.

Suffice it to say that our diocese being the largest diocese geographically east of the Mississippi River creates long drives. Tippah County borders Tennessee and is part of the rolling hills section of the state where beautiful views can be found around various bends in the road. Ripley is close to a four-hour drive from Jackson.

Imagine travelling to Ripley on horseback or in a cart from Natchez as was done in the early days of our diocese. This was the life of our bishops back in the day even up into the early 1900s when Bishop Thomas Heslin was making his way around the diocese for Confirmation celebrations.

Let me share a particular instance from Bishop John Gunn’s diary dated June 8, 1912, in which he accounts for an unfortunate incident that led to Bishop Heslin’s ultimate demise. It may give a better appreciation for a bishop’s life on the road.

“Visit to Montpelier. This is a little mission chapel about 13 miles from West Point, without a railroad and with the poorest roads imaginable. On the way out from West Point to Montpelier I heard a story about Bishop Heslin which is worth recording.

“The good Bishop was, like myself, going out to the little chapel to give Confirmation. The best pair of mules in the neighborhood were commandeered to bring the Bishop out. The Bishop’s carriage was a spring wagon and a plank put over the sideboards formed the cushions for the driver and the Bishop.

“The roads were of that peculiar type known in Mississippi as ‘corduroy’ roads. Branches of trees, stumps, logs, etc. are imbedded in the mud roads during the Winter, In the Spring these are covered with dirt and there is a good road until the first rain comes. Then the dirt is washed up and the stumps are very much in evidence, especially when the mules get into a trot.

“It seems that on the past visit of Bishop Heslin, the driver talked all he knew about cotton, lumber, and the country and talked so much that the mules fell asleep. It is thought that Bishop Heslin – if he was not asleep, was at least nodding – and at the moment the driver woke up and commenced to whip the mules into some kind of activity.
“The sudden start caught the Bishop unprepared and he made a double somersault over the spring wagon and fell on the road. The driver was so busy with the mules that he forgot the Bishop and did not know of the mishap for nearly half a mile.

“Then there was the difficulty of turning the pair of mules on the road and a convenient turning spot had to be reached. This delayed the recovery of the Bishop for a considerable time and when the mule driver and his mules found the Bishop – Bishop Heslin was in a dead faint.

“The good Bishop was a big man and a heavy man, and the mule driver was lean and lanky and there was no help in sight or available. There was nothing to do only to take the sideboards from the wagon and form an inclined plane and roll the Bishop up the plane and make him comfortable in the wagon. “He recovered consciousness before he reached West Point.

“It is said that the Bishop never really recovered from the shock and the injury sustained by this fall.

“The driver who brought me out to Montpelier was the same one who had brought Bishop Heslin and he gave me the story as written.”

This incident would have occurred most likely in 1910 because Bishop Heslin died in February 1911.

Bishop Gunn concludes his description of his own arrival and visit in Montpelier thusly: “I arrived at Montpelier for supper. The day was hot, and all the neighbors of the little village were invited to sup with me.

“There was a table spread for all comers on a kind of porch. The neighbors supplied the feed and there was plenty of it. I think that all the flies of the country got notice because they were present like the locusts of Egypt. They were in everything, tasting everything, and lighting everywhere, especially on the bishop’s nose.

“A few girls got branches of trees and used them to keep the flies away. It was all right as long as the girls minded their business but when they forgot the flies and hit the guests there was some embarrassment.

“We had Mass and confirmation in the little chapel, which strange to say was dedicated to St. Patrick and for that reason several parts of it were painted green. We returned to celebrate Sunday.”

More from Bishop Gunn next time…

(Mary Woodward is Chancellor and Archivist for the Diocese of Jackson)