By Joanna Puddister King
NATCHEZ — The beauty is evident just driving by gothic revival style church – St. Mary Basilica – in downtown Natchez. The thousands of tourists that visit the Basilica each year, in addition to many parishioners don’t see all of the work that goes in to keeping such a beauty in shape.

Father Aaron Williams was just appointed pastor of St. Mary Basilica and Assumption parish in May of this year, but he has already taken on projects from restoration work on the rectory and the bell tower, repairs to stained glass windows, and lighting work in the sanctuary – not to mention work on electrical equipment, including the church bell, the organ, sound system and HVAC due to a lightning strike in August. And all of this is in addition to his pastoral duties to the parishes and to students at Cathedral School.

“It is exciting for me to be a part of this great work of preservation,” said Father Williams. “The parish really is a treasure of American Catholic history and we have to do what we can to hand on that treasure to the next generation.”

To help keep up with all of the projects, Father Aaron recently hired a new staff member, Jacob Ali, to serve as strategic planning coordinator. “Jacob is assisting me by being the point-person on all these projects, ensuring they are running on schedule and communicating with vendors and contractors,” said Father Williams.
“Him and a lot of caffeine keep my head over water.”

One major project is the third floor of the rectory located next to the Basilica. The top floor of the rectory historically had three bedrooms, but for many years was used as an area for storage. Over the years, the area was subject to moisture that damaged the walls. The third floor of the rectory has now been completely gutted down to the studs and is now safer said Father Williams. The long-term plan is to restore the bedrooms on that floor for guests.

On the side of the church facing the rectory, it was discovered that two stained glass windows were in need of immediate repair. Father Williams said it was determined to be an “emergency” situation because the windows were both bending out from the frame and could potentially break.

The two windows are now being repaired and cleaned, with new protective glass being installed over them on the exterior.

In 2019, the ice storm caused extensive damage to the Basilica. “Most of that was repaired,” said Father Williams. “But we discovered that the top level of the bell tower was holding water and in the long-term this could prove very dangerous for the structure.” So, the few feet of roofing over the tower was replaced.

Amidst all of the projects, a lightening strike to an adjacent property during a storm in August caused thousands of dollars in damages to various electrical systems, including the church bell, the organ, sound system and HVAC. Father Williams reported that the surge fed up the underground lines and hit the Basilica, the rectory and other businesses surrounding the property.

“Nearly every electronic system in the church was damaged in some way, and we lost some devices in the rectory,” said Father Williams.

He is planning to take this unfortunate event to improve upon systems that were dated or overly complicated to use, particularly the HVAC and lighting systems.

Also damaged at the Basilica was the electrical system which rings the church bell. The parish received an initial proposal to fix the damage but after speaking with several parishioners, Father Williams discovered there was interest in researching the possibility of adding bells to the tower. So, the “Ring out your joy to the Lord!” fundraiser was born to add to the current bells at the Basilica.

The church tower currently has two bells – the larger being the “Maria Alexandrina,” which was cast in the 1840s in Italy at the direction of the direction of Bishop John Joseph Chanche, SS – the first bishop of the diocese. It was gifted by Prince Alexander Torlonia and his wife Maria, of Rome and created by prominent sculptor, Giovani Lucenti, who cast it from bronze. The second, smaller bell which was cast by the Coffin bell company in the 1880s in Cincinnati and was never formally given a name.

After studying the structure of the tower, it was determined that it could handle extra weight, so three additional bells, all smaller that the “Coffin” bell could be supported.

Within days of the fundraiser announcement, most of the sponsorships available for the bell project and restoration work were claimed, leaving only a few thousand dollars to be raised to complete the project.
Along with the restoration work on the bells, an electronic striker will be used for funeral tolls and hour strikes on the “Maria Alexandrina” bell – which Father Williams painstakingly struck by hand 96 times to mark the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, Sept. 8.

Another plan, in work for at least a decade at the Basilica is a “Cultural Heritage Center” to allow parishioners and tourists to have access to the historic treasures of the church and archives, as well as provide a place for evangelization and education on the Catholic faith.

Father Williams says that the parish is in the early stages of planning to convert the lower hall of the Basilica and the original parish library into this center, which will include a museum and place for video presentations. He says this will focus not only on the parish’s local history, but on the beliefs and practices of Catholics. The overall project includes the creation of a website to provide further information and videos to visitors who wish to learn more, as well as a mural to tell the story of the early school and ministry of Bishop Chanche to Black Catholics.

“The original parish hall is of great historic value, as it also served as the original school for Black Catholics in Natchez and was the site of the baptism of over 600 African Slaves at the hand of our first Bishop, John Joseph Chanche,” said Father Williams.

The Basilica is a treasure of the Diocese of Jackson both because of its history and national recognition – welcoming tourist from around the world.

“The church building itself is a national treasure of which we are the custodians,” said Father Williams.
“We wish to preserve that treasure and increase the exposure of the parish particularly through initiative which can leave a lasting impression on visitors and hopefully touch them in their heart.”

Those wanting to learn more about St. Mary Basilica or to make contributions, can visit www.stmarybasilica.org or contact the office at (601) 445-5616.

By John Surratt (The Vicksburg Post)

VICKSBURG – For 116 years, St. Mary Catholic Church has been a source of spiritual guidance and education for African American Catholics in Vicksburg and Warren County.

Its importance to the community will be remembered on Oct. 16 with a ceremony dedicating two historic markers – one for the church and another for the elementary and high school.

The markers, said Benny Terrell, a member of the marker committee, were the idea of the church’s pastor, Father Joseph Nguyen.

“He decided that he wanted to do something to recognize St. Mary’s; to highlight the significant contributions of St. Mary’s Catholic Church and St. Mary’s School to the spiritual and educational needs of the Vicksburg community,” he said. “We wanted to cover those things that we have done that have impacted this community and a lot of the minority people in this community.”

The original plan, Terrell said, was to unveil the markers in 2021 to celebrate the church’s 115th anniversary, but the impact of COVID-19 delayed the plans.

“We couldn’t get the markers done until 2022 but we decided to go on and do the dedication anyway.”
St. Mary’s parish was founded in 1906 by Father Aloysius Heick. The first church was on Holly Street “right behind where United Cleaners is located on Cherry Street, down the hill,” Terrell said.

The Sisters of Mercy provided the altar for the first church, the candlesticks and the priest’s vestments, and the priests at St. Paul Catholic Church provided a place for Heick to stay until St. Mary’s moved to its present location at Main and Second North streets later in 1906 and also started an elementary and high school. The present church was built in 1923.

The congregation at St. Paul’s collected $279.80 that they donated to Heick to buy the land and philanthropist Katherine Drexel, who was later canonized a saint, provided half of the money necessary to get the property.

“When they moved from Holly Street, there were three houses on the lot,” committee member Josephine Williams Calloway said. “They utilized one for the priest, one for the school and one for the nuns when they came.”

School attendance at the time was so low, she said, the grade school and high school were housed in the same building.

“They (parish officials) had to contact most of the parishioners to see how many would come to the school,” she said.

A two-story Greek revival building was built in 1908 and was later used for the high school. Drexel, Calloway said, contributed money for the building.

“She came here to inspect it and according to accounts, she was very impressed with what they were doing,” she said.

“She was very dedicated to supporting Black Catholics in this country,” Terrell said. Not only did she provide funding to help secure our property, but when Father Heick went to Jackson, she helped secure the property over there by donating funds. “She also paid for Xavier University in New Orleans. She was very generous and very supportive of Black Catholics and Native Americans.”

The nuns who taught the children at St. Mary’s were members of the Sisters of the Holy Spirit, “Which were all German,” committee member Cherrie Boykin McClelland said.

“And in order to teach in Mississippi, the teachers, if they had not completed their teacher training in Germany or Holland, they had to go to DePaul University in Chicago and get an additional degree before they were allowed to teach here,” Calloway said. “So, most of our teachers had two degrees and one of our teachers was a professor at Peking University (before Catholics were expelled from China).”

“They spoke limited English and they practiced English on the way from Europe to the United States,” Terrell said.

Because they were teaching African American children in the then-segregated Jim Crow South, “The nuns were not that welcome in Vicksburg and the congregation was the one that really supported them,” Terrell said.

“The nuns would not go anywhere by themselves; they would always go in pairs. People still did not cater to the idea of white nuns teaching Black kids,” he said.

“Sometimes they were referred to as the ‘N Nuns,’” McClelland said.

But the members of St. Paul took a different attitude.

“The contribution of the white community should be noted because the congregation consisted of Italian, Irish, German and Lebanese and they supported the nuns,” Calloway said. “Mother Hildegard, a Sister of Mercy nun, and her family supported the missionary sisters when they needed food and help.

“A number of prominent whites attended St. Mary’s on a regular basis and still do,” she said. “Although this is an African American parish, it has truly served the community of Vicksburg and welcomed everyone who came. Although we may be assigned to the back pews of St. Paul, they were integrated into the total Catholic community at St. Mary’s. They helped us and we helped them.”

The elementary school closed in 1970 and the high school closed in 1964. When the schools closed, Terrell said, the children who wanted to continue attending Catholic school had to go to Yazoo City. Calloway’s father, a prominent businessman in Vicksburg, took the children to Yazoo City and waited there to take them home.

When a new high school building was built in 1948, McClelland’s father, a contractor, contributed most of the money and materials.

“I think he actually built the high school, along with other adults,” Terrell said.

“Our parents worked hard to support St. Mary’s,” Calloway said. “We are continuing their effort. What we have done here has influenced the whole community.”

(Reprinted with permission of The Vicksburg Post.)