-
Catholics in Oxford -
-
1st catholic in oxford
The first Catholic at Ole Miss, nay in Lafayette County, was a professor and his wife, Dr. Eugene Hilgard in 1855. Hilgard was a geologist, and would start a family in Oxford. He helped tend the University during the Civil War. He is memorialized on campus in the Hilgard cut historical marker. The cut was dug by enslaved laborers to create a pathway for the railroad through Oxford. Hilgard’s son Eugene was the first baptized Catholic at the University in 1866 by a traveling priest from Holly Springs. Religious sisters served at the hospital at the University during the Civil War. It was not until later that a significant Catholic population lived in Oxford, and that was due to the presence of the University.
-
Catholics at ole missThe Catholic Club at Ole Miss was founded in 1934 when Alfred Hume was chancellor. It was incorporated at a Newman Club a few years later within a larger movement among Catholic college students in the US.
Prior to the foundation of a parish in Oxford, Ole Miss students and Oxonians traveled to Water Valley for Mass or attended when the Water Valley priest was in town. The parish of Water Valley, spanned 7,000 square miles with only 385 Catholics in the area. In 1941, Fr. Cletus Manon was the chaplain of the Newman Club and pastor of Water Valley. Richard Gerow was Bishop of Natchez (before the Diocese of Jackson was established).
In 1941, at a banquet brought Bishop Gerow as well as the Catholic Extension Society president (and auxiliary bishop of Chicago) William O’Brien to Oxford. As they were celebrating Mass in the Union (then Weir Hall), it came to the attention of the clergy that a church was needed in Oxford. Fundraising efforts were started, and construction began miraculously without a hitch, despite the war efforts beginning the same year. The first church, on the current land, was dedicated on September 6, 1943. The building and supplies for the dedication cost $22,979.17 or about $1 million in 2023.
In 1969, the congregation consisted of 1,000 members with 768 of them students. Fast forward to 1990 and there were 220 resident families with over 1,000 Catholic students (church histories). Facilities included the church and the rectory next door. The church was redecorated in the modernist style in 1972 following the second Vatican Council. A Newman Center house was in use in the 80s. Eventually, the Newman Club or Catholic Club was re-named to Catholic Campus Ministry to be less exclusive.
-
-
In the Ole Miss yearbook...
-
-
-
New Church
When Fr. Joe Tonos arrived in Oxford in 2004, the 1942 building was in shambles. Fr. Joe made the executive decision to demolish the standing building. Mass was held in Nutt Auditorium or the Chapel on campus until the new church was finished and dedicated Oct. 8 of 2008.
Ten years later there was an addition to the church as well as the building of the “Tonnex” the annex building of classrooms and offices. In this process, the Newman Center house and old rectory were demolished.
-
St. John's today
Fr. Mark Shoffner arrived in Oxford in May of 2022 as construction on a new rectory began. Now, St. John’s facilities include the main church, the parish hall underneath the church, the Tonnex consisting of classrooms on the lower level with offices and meeting spaces on the top level, and the rectory. At the heart of the mission of Catholic Campus Ministry at St. John the Evangelist is providing for the spiritual and communal needs of the students of the University of Mississippi.
Many campus ministers have served the students of Ole Miss over the years including Vidi Olivi and Brad Noel. In 2016, missionaries from the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) came to Oxford to help serve the student community. FOCUS is a national organization dedicated to campus ministry. FOCUS remained on campus until the end of the 2021-2022 academic year. Ole Miss alumna Alexandra Barfield serves as the current Catholic Campus Minister, beginning that role in May of 2023.
-
-
welcome home!
-
