In August of 2015, the Diocese of Charleston opened its doors to a new pastoral center. An exhibit was created for visitors viewing the new facility during its grand opening. The exhibit focuses on the thirteen bishops and their legacies.
Bishop England High School (BEHS), a Catholic high school, was founded in 1915 by Reverend Joseph O’Brien and Reverend J.J. May with the approval of Henry N. Northrop, fourth bishop of Charleston. The school offered two courses of study, Classical and Commercial, and was conducted in the Cathedral Grammar School building on Queen Street. After the first year, Mrs. Thomas F. Ryan of New York, New York, donated property, formerly the Cenacle Sisters house, to the diocese to be used for the new high school building. The school moved to the new location and it was renamed Bishop England High School after the first bishop of Charleston, John England. …
Camp St. Mary, a catechetical education camp, was a camp on the Okatee River near Bluffton, South Carolina. It operated from 1929 into the early 1980s.
Images depict summers at Camp St. Mary from 1931-1963.
On August 31, 1886, around 9:50 p.m. a powerful earthquake shook Charleston, South Carolina. The earthquake is estimated to have been between 6.6 and 7.3 on the Richter scale and is one of the most powerful and costly earthquakes to hit the southeastern United States. This earthquake was reported from distant places such as Boston, Massachusetts; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois; Cuba; and Bermuda.
27 people died on the night of the quake, with 56 more earthquake-related deaths recorded between September and October.
Since the founding of Charleston’s first seminary in 1822, the diocese has looked towards academic excellence by serving, supporting, and challenging teachers and students in the Catholic community. This exhibit explores Catholic based education in South Carolina.
This exhibit remembers former popes and highlights their links to the Diocese of Charleston through images, correspondence, commemorative medals, and a plenary indulgence.
An apostolic or papal bull is a decree issued by the pope of the Roman Catholic Church. The word “bull” comes from the Latin bulla which means seal. It is named for the lead seal affixed to the end of the document. The 1820 Bull of Erection for the Diocese of Charleston was the official decree in which the Diocese of Charleston was formed. Pope Pius VII gave the bull to Bishop John England.