The growth of the church in East Alabama in the last ninty-one years is a truly Vincentian story. It was foreshadowed as long ago as 1822 when Vincentian missionary Joseph Rosati, later first Bishop of St. Louis, was named Vicar Apostolic of Mississippi and Alabama, an appointment rescinded when Rosati convinced the Holy See of the death of Catholics, Mobile being the only town in the two states which could support even one priest.

Vincentian Apostolate

When Father Patrick McHale, Vencentian provincial, said yes to Mobile's Bishop Edward Allen's request for priests in 1910, he was accepting the very work for which St. Vincent de Paul had founded his community, the evangelization of poor country people. The reality of the work has not changed substantially over the years. This evangelization was carried on from the first by resident priests who were at the same time roving missionaries; and as the work became rooted, they added the second original Vincentian work of ministering to the clergy, an apostolate which was formalized in 1947 with bi-monthly days of recollection for priests which perdured for years.
Father McHale, offered a choice of two districts, chose the one without a single church: "Lee County with the five counties north and northeast and two counties south." The first superior, Gather Thomas J. McDonald, chose Opelika as the center of operations because "no city of the south has better railroad facilities, is more convenient for transportation, and has better connection with the surrounding country." 
"From this little town," wrote Father Joseph P. McKey--Father McDonald's assistant--to hoped-for benefactors in the North,  "the priests will radiate through their assigned territory of ten counties covering six thousand square miles, a territory larger than the whole state of Connecticut by more than one hundred and fifty square miles, more than three times larger than the state of Delaware. In the town of Opelika with it's four thousand inhabitants there is but one catholic. In the surrounding country, because of the scarcity of priests, hundreds have fallen away from the faith... hundreds feel themselves wavering; and the faithful few are fearful for their young.  The basic facts were true, the numbers were exaggerated: the first census--taken by consultation with people who knew their neighbors: Protestant ministers, doctors, drug store clerks, etc.-turned up 114 Catholics, .0005% in an overall population of 210,000.
The honor of the first mass went, not to Opelika, but to Tallassee. Where Father McDonald celebrated on September 18, 1910 in the Masonic Hall. It was appropriate enough, for Mass could well have been said in the area 400 years earlier when, according t Creek Indian lore, the explorer Ferdinand DeSoto and his band visited their village of Talisi less than 50 years after Columbus discovered America.

Beginnings

When Father McDonald and Mckey arrived "in their Roman collars," wrote Father McKey jocularly, to take possession of "The Pines,"- the big house at 1000 Fourth Ave. still in use, which they had bought for $12,000 from Captian Dean - "for the first time the people realized that the Catholic Church had a foot hold in town." Bishop Allen transferred Father McKey to Eufaula on August 16 as part of his campaign to convince the Vincentians to take over the second district, too, but he relented and sent McKey back to Opelika on November 2. In the meantime a legendary lay brother, Brother James Carver, had arrived on October 4 "with a broom and a sauce pan."
These first missionaries were truly spiritual men with no other goals than the spread of the church and the salvation of souls. Their sheer energy was amazing. In their first five years they built five churches, at Opelika (1911), Phenix City (1911), Auburn (1912), Salem (1914) and Lanett (1915). In the first months The Marian, "the first magazine ever published in Opelika," came out with 3000 charter copies on December 21. 1910.  "The priests here," according to the first quarterly, "besides giving missions, forty hours, and retreats outside the district, attend to Catholics in 13 towns at least three times a month (Auburn, Loachapoka, and Opelika); to those of four towns every Sunday, (Phenix City, Girard, Fort Mitchell, and Hatchuchubee, East Tallassee, West Tallassee,Salem, Lanett. West Point, and LaGrange made up the 13 towns whose people were cared for monthly.)"

Willing Hands

The Priests did not, of course, do it all by themselves. They had first of all the faith and good will of the early parishioners, people like Mrs. Lyons of Opelika who suffered the ridicule of her husband with the lonely distinction of being the only Catholic in town; like William Merna, Sr., of Lanett who opened his home for the monthly Mass and took his family by train to Mass in Montgomery on other Sundays; like Mrs. O'Brien who welcomed the Mass to her home in Tallassee, "a God fearing and loving, apostolic woman" whose dearest dream was to build a church. 
They were helped also by many benefactions from parishes and friends in the North, like the Alumnae of St. Joseph's College, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, prime builders of St. Mary's Church, Opelika, in memory of Mother General Mary Clement, S.S.J.; or the sisters Susanne Hearty and Mary Rossiter who built Holy Family Church in memory of their brother J.P. Hand.  Southerners Mrs. Kennon donated the land for St. Vincent de Paul Church in Salem, and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Blount the land for St. Vincent de Paul in Tallassee. Over all loomed the magnificent benefactions of the Venecentian Father's headquarters in Philadelphia, the Catholic Church Extension Society, the Bishops from Mobile and Birmingham from Bishop Allen, through  Archbishop Toolens, to Archbishop Lipscomb and Bishop Vath and the Central Association of The Miraculous Medal.
They, and the priests who followed them, have been helped by a host of women religious, beginning with the Ladies of the Lay Apostololate who came to start a school nd remained to be incorporated by their founder, Father Thomas Judge, in 1917 as Missionary Servants of the Blessed Trinity, the Daughters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy, and the Vencentian Sisters of Charity.

Zeal For Souls

The zeal of the first missionaries was taken up gladly by their successors and endures to the present. As increasing years offered wider opportunities than the Friday night lectures on Catholicism at St. Mary's, Opelika, and The Marian which ceased publication in 1914 for lack of support, it took various forms, such as Holy Family Academy, Opelika (now St. Peter's School, Phenix City); and preaching through public address equipment from a station wagon lent by the Vencentian Western Province(St. Louis) along with it's veteran Father Oscar Miller, who was joined for four summers by Father John Cody and John Conway; weekly radio preaching on local stations in Lanett, Auburn, and Alexander City; and "Operation Doorbell, a Crusade for Souls" in all the parishes. Overriding forms of zeal have been taken and are, of course, friendliness, devotion to the sick, and concern for the poor. A memorable example was the heroic care given influenza suffers by priests and Sisters during the terrible epidemic of October, 1918. The laity, too, had and have their own forms of zeal: the regular practice of their faith is "abright and shinning light" in a non-Catholic culture==attendance at Sunday Mass by "soldiers, sailors, and flying cadets" during World War II  was noted as "advancing the Church"  -- and the multiple church societies of past and present: Holy Name, Sodality, Knights of Columbus, Altar Society, Children of Mary, Holy Family Society, Ladies of Charity, Legion of Mary, Mother Seton Guild, National Council of Catholic Women, Newman Club,etc.

Perseverance

Another virtue inculcated by the first priests, equal in their energy or zeal, and faithfully practiced for 91 years,  is perseverance.  It is and especially heroic virtue in the face of often minimal results and disappointments.  In 1013 Father McKey bravely claimed a 30% increase in catholics when the overall population increase was less, but he spoke of only 34 people. In the fall of 1915 there were still only four Catholics in Opelikia, several families in Lanett, and the largest mission was Auburn with 30 students from the University and the few town Catholics. In 1932, after 22 years of apostolate, Father Eugene Snyder, who loved the South and it's people and was loved by them in return, sadly reported only one Catholic in every thousand persons still - .001% - "worse than Chins."  There had been only 95 adult converts in all those years, and the totla number of Catholics remained stable and discouragingly low because of population mobility.  In 1946 there were 80 Catholics in Lanett, 20 in Alexander City, 25 in Auburn (apparently excluding University students), and 26 in Phenix City.  An early disappointment was the failure of a proposal for a Catholic hospital in Opelika in 1914, which undoubtedly contributed to the death in 1915 of the second superior, Father James Molyneaux, "crushed by the rude treatment of his hospital project."  This unhappy affair, like the attempt at a school in Opelika, was typical of the bigotry the missionairies and their people endored and persevered against. But in 1932 Father Snyder was able to write hopefully; "Prejudice has been dispelled, and a better understanding and and knowledge of the Catholic religion has been diffused" -- and he finished prophetically -- "The seed has been well sown.  In God's name it will bear a rich harvest."

Mother of God

Special Vencentian devotion to the Mother of God, and her favor in return, were evident from the beginning.  The foundation was named St. Vincent's Mission House until,Father McKey recorede, "Father McDonald... thought what a had Mary the Mothr of God had in the enterprise, as is seen fron the following dates; September 8, the birthday of Mary, the deeds received; September 15, octave of the feast, property delivered; September 18, Seven Dolors, first Mass celevrated in Opelika territory -- at Tallassee; October 9; Maternity of Mary, first Mass int he chapel of the house; December 16, first Mass on the present altar ... Purity of Mary.  These considerations made him change the name, and incorporate the foundation into St. Mary's Mission House.  This indispensible devotion continued through the years in The Marian
magizine, the sodalities and other Marian societies, the weekly Miraculous Medal Novena in the mission churches, the dissemination of the Green Scapular to myriads pf people from Opelika, the establishment of Immaculate Heart of Mary Mission for Blacks in Auburn and Immaculate Conception,
Roanoke.

Alexander City

On Easter Sunday, 1945, a stable Catholic community was formed in Alexander City with Mass offered for 13 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. T.W. Tifton. The following year Mass was said on alternate Sundays in Disabled Veterans Hall, in 1951 every Sunday in the new St. Thoma Chapel as well as at Dadeville and Tallassee.  The present church, renamed in honor of St. John The Apostle, was dedicated by Archbishop Toolens on March 27, 1960.  From 1059 until 1972 the pastor had dual responsibility fior Alexander City and Tallassee.

Tulfillment

Father Snyders prophecy is surly being fulfilled.  The 114 Catholics of 1910 (84 area residents and 30 Auburn students) has increased 44 times over to 5,036 Catholics in 1985 (3,036 area residents and 2000 Auburn students).  Most importantly, there are six firmly established parishes with resident priests to care for their faithful people, to support the wavering, to welcome the strayed, to offer havens of truth to the seekers.  May God be blessed who has given the increase.

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