In the 1930’s, after moving their general administrative offices from England to Vermont, the Society of Saint Edmund began to seek ways in which it could meet the call of Pope Pius X’s to serve the “Negro and Indian populations of North America.” In January 1937, Bishop Thomas Toolen of Mobile (AL) invited the Society to “establish a mission among the colored population in Selma.” By July 1937, three Edmundites were serving in Selma. Within a month, they began publishing Your Edmundite Missions Newsletter (now the Edmundite Missions Newsletter) to solicit funds for the new mission.
Over the years, the work of the Edmundites expanded to include:
Work in parishes and schools throughout Alabama, (especially in Selma, Anniston, Gadsden, Mobile and the Gulf Coast), in Elizabeth City and Wake Forest, NC, in Apalachicola FL, in New Orleans, LA and in Caracas, Venezuela. Sponsorship of the Good Samaritan Nursing Home and Good Samaritan Hospital in Selma from the 1940s until their closure in the 1980s The Don Bosco Boys Club Sponsorship of the Good Samaritan School of Practical Nursing, the first school of practical nursing for black students in Alabama. Additionally, the Edmundites have sponsored learning centers, health clinics, nutrition centers, and other social service organizations in Dallas, Wilcox, Monroe, and Lowndes Counties in Alabama, and have maintained parishes and a school in Louisiana. Through the years they worked very closely with many Religious orders of women through the South, including the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Rochester and the Daughters of the Holy Ghost.
The work of the Society in the South included entrusted parishes, sponsored works, campus ministry programs, educational endeavors and a number of chaplaincies. Sponsored works were often run by the society or a women’s religious order affiliated with the society. Much of the funding was through the Edmundite Missions Office, which quickly became an entity distinct from the Southern Missions as a whole, (although the office of Mission Director and Superior was held by the same person in the earliest years). In 1952, the local superior and mission director were held by different men for the first time, with the mission director given responsibility for the work outside of Selma or “the missions.” In 1991, another office was established to oversee the sponsored works of the southern missions, that of Program director. The Mission Director was responsible for raising funds, the Program Director was responsible for administering the works themselves, and the Superior took responsibility for the house, house members, and the work in parishes. An entity known as Fathers of Saint Edmund, Southern Missions, inc. was established in Alabama in1943 as the non-profit corporation.
The Society members were often the only whites regularly engaging with the African American population in their chosen locations. Administering and sponsoring institutions that were a part of the social fabric of the community allowed them to witness events integral to twentieth century America. As the civil rights movement took hold, the Edmundites continued to manage their insitutions while the communities they served radically changed. A few individuals became deeply involved in the movement.
Southern Missions
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