A voice of compassion for people in need | Sacred Heart Southern Missions .A voice of compassion for people in need | Sacred Heart Southern Missions

The Priests of the Sacred Heart Come to Northern Mississippi

In 1941 Fr. Charles Talsky SCJ visited St. Mary Cathedral in Natchez to make mission appeals. He mentioned to Fr. McCarthy, a diocesan priest, that the Priests of the Sacred Heart might be interested in mission work in the South. When Bishop Gerow learned of the interest, he invited the SCJs to come to North Mississippi. Fr. William Noelken, the SCJ provincial, sent Fr. John Flanagan, SCJ in the spring of 1942.

The mission territory that greeted Fr. Flanagan when he arrived in northern Mississippi consisted of 2000 square miles of hot, dusty roads, widely scattered small towns, cotton fields in the west, forested hills in the east and 29 known Catholics. Fr. Flanagan began SCJ ministry in Mississippi in the town of Water Valley.

In the spring of 1943, Fr. Flanagan moved to St. Joseph’s in Holly Springs, a parish with a history going back to the 1850s. The Priests of the Sacred Heart were given the pastoral responsibility of DeSoto, Tate, Marshall, Benton and Tipton counties. St. Joseph’s had not had a resident pastor in 65 years and the small parish church was in some disrepair. Gertrude McDermott kept a journal of Fr. Flanagan’s first summer in Holly Springs.

According to Gertrude, Father began a “single-handed renovation” of the old Church. She wrote, “the windows were once painted white but were streaked and weather-beaten…(It looked like) it was raining all the time.” Father Flanagan removed the windows and pane by pane removed all the old paint. “When the windows were placed back in the church,” the journal continues, “…rays of light and sunshine came through ... that same ‘light’ that began penetrating the minds of the Catholic members.”

A second SCJ, Fr. Henry Saxon, joined Fr. Flanagan the following year and together they discovered and began ministry to another 34 Catholics in DeSoto County, some 50 miles to the West and North of Holly Springs. In 1944 Fr. Flanagan and Fr. Saxon went on to celebrate Mass in private homes in Walls, Hernando and nearby towns. Sacred Heart Church was built in Walls in 1944 with funds from the Catholic Church Extension Society, the Priests of the Sacred Heart, and a few local Catholics.

Fr. Paul Frichtl, SCJ replaced Fr. Flanagan in Holly Springs and began to serve the education needs of Black children in the area in addition to his work as pastor of St. Joseph’s.