Parishioners reflect on history at 175th anniversary of St. Joseph Catholic Church

Dr. John O’Shaughnessy vividly and fondly remembers the smell of incense at St. Joseph Catholic Church.

O’Shaughnessy, 86, said when he was 3-years-old he moved with his family from New York to Macon, where his father worked in the fertilizer business.

It was 1933 and the family immediately became part of the local Roman Catholic parish and the parish became part of the O’Shaughnessy family’s life.

St. Joseph Catholic Church, located at 830 Poplar St., will celebrate its 175th anniversary today with a 4:30 p.m. Mass.

“Back then, incense was only burned once a month, but I really liked it and looked forward to it,” O’Shaughnessy said while meeting with a group sharing St. Joseph’s memories. “As a boy, I loved all the ornate décor but as far as a sensory memory, the incense really stood out.”

O’Shaughnessy has other memories as deep and as rich as the pungent incense. He remembers being called out of elementary school during World War II to serve as altar boy at a funeral for four Italian prisoners of war from a camp just outside of Macon.

He said he remembers thinking here are people we’re at war with — people our soldiers are trying to kill — but here we are praying they go to heaven. He said it took a step of faith to pray that but it was a step he made. Sincerely.

On a lighter note, he also remembered being called to serve as altar boy and found a strangely dressed, strangely speaking priest serving Mass for a small group of strangely dressed participants. He said he found out they were the Von Trapp Family Singers, the family that the film “The Sound of Music” was based on. They were touring the U.S. and in were Macon for a performance.

Other memories include the many hours gazing with wonder at the church’s stained glass windows and the amazement as an adult when they underwent renovation along with the sanctuary 10 years ago.

“I couldn’t believe how much they brightened up,” he said. “And it’s really beautiful when the morning or evening sun catches the windows and shines all the colors on the opposite wall. Really beautiful.”

Anniversary activities co-chairperson Don Coates called O’Shaughnessy, who practiced internal medicine in Macon from 1961 until he retired in 1995, a patriarch in the church. Among the family names that reach far back in church history, like Sheridan, McGoldrick, Smaha, Union and Shaheen, are the McKennas.

Mary Alice Garvin Bruce’s mother was a McKenna.

“I was baptized here and my mother and grandmother were, too,” she said. “My great-grandparents were married in St. Joseph’s in 1865 and my grandparents were married in this church in 1905 — maybe the first couple to be married in this building. All of them were from Irish heritage, so I’m Irish through and through.”

Bruce said Irish immigrants found their way to Macon in commerce and also by working as cheap labor for the railroad.

Bruce said she remembers her first Communion and, like many others, many life events experienced at the church stand out. Events like marriages, births, baptisms and funerals.

Both Bruce and O’Shaughnessy remember the USO dances held in the church’s basement during World War II. Bruce said she could only peak in the windows because she was too young to attend.

But there is another special memory for Bruce.

“I was named May Queen in the eighth grade and was the one who got to place a crown on the head of (a statue of) Mary,” she said. “I was so honored and proud. It was one of the most special things of my young life.”

The Rev. Scott Winchel said, especially in Bruce’s younger days, May was full of events celebrating motherhood with children thinking of their mothers and looking forward to their roles as parents. He said it was indeed a privilege for a young girl to place the crown on a statue of Mary.

Winchel, 48, has only been pastor at St. Joseph’s for four months, coming here from serving in Cordele. He said he enjoyed sitting in and hearing the memories shared by the group.

“I really enjoy Macon,” he said. “It’s a beautiful, wonderful city and people in the community and at the church have been very kind. Obviously, the church here is a truly beautiful structure and brings many visitors. It’s the third building St. Joseph’s occupied, and I think through the years it’s been a place of sanctuary, a crossroads for people in their lives and travels. It’s been a center of culture and family and the big events of life and faith. The church itself is almost like a vehicle helping people in their journey toward God. It’s a safe haven and beacon in the night and we hope it always serves as a light in the world (that) people can come to and appreciate God’s beauty and get help on their journey.”

Winchel said in his short time in Macon he’s grown to appreciate more and more the church’s many ministries and outreaches — such as involvement in Family Advancement Ministries, St. Vincent de Paul Society food pantry, Daybreak homeless day center and others.

Connie Thuente is also an anniversary co-chairperson and said there will be a celebration reception following today’s 4:30 p.m. Mass. All events will be at the church’s Poplar Street building which, upon its 1903 dedication, church records show that The Telegraph wrote, “If architecture may be fittingly described as frozen music, St. Joseph’s Church … is a symphony.”

A historical marker outside the facility tells of Macon Catholic history, which it says goes back to 1829 when Diocese of Charleston Bishop John England visited here. It notes a growing Irish Catholic community in the 1830s and the church’s first pastor coming in 1841. That was just 17 years after Macon officially became a town. Other church records say the founding congregation was 50 parishioners strong and that same year the church bought its first building, a former Presbyterian church.

It was a group of Jesuits who remained in Macon after the closing of their Macon seminary in the late-1890s/early-1900s that decided the parish needed a third structure more befitting the beauty and glory of God.

The group discussing memories all agreed the building was result not only of contributions from Catholics, but from a variety of Macon’s faith communities as well.

“But I think the most admirable thing about this building is that it reflects the faith of people who believed their God was beautiful and magnificent,” Winchel said. “It reflects God and the lives of joy, hardship and hard work of the people who came here and who cared enough to make it beautiful.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2016 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Parishioners reflect on history at 175th anniversary of St. Joseph Catholic Church."