“Do not let the past disturb you, just leave everything  

in the Sacred Heart and begin again with joy.” 

—Mother Teresa  

Sacred Heart Catholic Church 

The parish of Sacred Heart Catholic Church was established in Savannah by the Benedictines in 1880. 

The current church building began construction in 1902. Hyman Witcover was the supervising architect. Witcover designed my favorite building in Savannah, the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple (see PFS-15). He also designed the Congregation Bnai Brith Jacob Jewish Synagogue (see PFS-87). Both buildings are now in service to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). 

This en Plein air of Sacred Heart Catholic Church was painted on a scorching, cloudless, and sun-filled day. The sun’s intense reflection off its Philadelphia Red Brick provided the opportunity to compliment the red-orange of the beautiful brick against the bright blue open sky. The church is trimmed in white Georgia marble, and has two white statues of enchanting angels look down upon all those who enter. 

An angel of a different color who became associated with the church was Mother Mathilda Taylor Beasley, best known as the first African-American nun in Georgia.  

Born into slavery in New Orleans in 1832 and owned by James C. Taylor, Mathilda Taylor became an orphan at an early age. Her biological father was likely a Native American. It remains a mystery how Mathilda became a free person or how she made her way to Savannah. But somewhere in the 1850s, she planted herself among Savannah’s several hundred free Black residents. 

The census in 1860 recorded Mathilda Taylor working as a seamstress. Before she arrived in Savannah, city authorities passed an ordinance forbidding the education of slaves. Georgia passed a similar state law in 1829. The punishment for teaching slaves included a $100 fine and up to 32-lashes with a whip in the public square. Mathilda, along with a handful of other educators, bravely defied those laws. 

Mathilda ran a private school for Blacks from her home. Many slave owners wanted their slaves to learn how to read, calculate and write. The additional skills benefitted slaveholders who often leased out their slaves to perform services that included written orders and keeping a ledger. Still, while the practice of teaching slaves was an open secret, it required teachers like Mathilda to maintain a low profile. 

In 1865, Mathilda was also working in a Savannah restaurant named The Railroad House owned by Abraham Beasley, a wealthy free Black man. In addition to a couple of restaurants, Mr. Beasley owned tracts of land and a saloon. He also earned part of his income in the slave trade. In 1869, an entry in the records of St. John the Baptist Cathedral (see PFS-12) listed Mathilda’s baptism into the Catholic Church, while a later entry recorded her marriage to Abraham Beasley. The couple never did have children. 

In 1877, Abraham Beasley died, leaving his entire estate to his wife, Mathilda Taylor Beasley. At that moment in her life, Mathilda became wholly devoted to her faith and the Catholic Church. She donated her substantial inheritance from Abraham to the church, intending some of it to establish a home for African-American orphans. 

In 1885, Mathilda traveled to York, England, to receive instruction in her faith from the Franciscan monastic order. When she returned to Savannah as a nun, she established The Third Order of Saint Francis in 1889, Georgia’s first community of Black nuns. In 1903, she died while engaged in her daily devotions in her private chapel. She is buried in Savannah’s Catholic Cemetery. 

Savannah’s Mother Mathilda Beasley Park located at 500 East Broad Street was named in her honor.