5 Beautiful Catholic places not to miss in Georgia

While the first Catholic diocese in the Peach State wasn’t established until 1850, the earliest Catholic presence there dates back to the 1500s, when Spanish missionaries arrived in the New World. 

For many years, Franciscan priests maintained a network of mission stations stretching from St. Augustine, Florida, to the Savannah River in what is now Georgia. Five of these friars died defending the sanctity of marriage and are honored and remembered in the region as “the Georgia martyrs.”

The arrival of the British brought an end to the period of Spanish presence as Catholics were banned from the new colony of Georgia. But after the Revolutionary War, small groups began to move into the area from other states, as Georgia was the first state to enact religious freedom. The first Catholic church was established in Locust Grove, Georgia, in the 1790s.

Slowly these numbers grew, especially with immigration from Europe in the 1800s, and today nearly one-tenth of the population of Georgia is Catholic, approximately 1.2 million people.

If you happen to find yourself traveling in Georgia or call the Peach State home, don’t miss these beautiful and significant Catholic sites.

The Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist, dedicated in 1876, is the seat of the Diocese of Savannah. This venerable landmark stands as a testament to the city's rich cultural and religious heritage. 

Standing out as “a center of active and pastoral liturgy,” the cathedral basilica is an exquisite masterpiece of the High Victorian Gothic architectural style.

This stunning church has a very unusual history. The building is a magnificent neo-classical structure that was once the mansion home of Asa Candler, the Coca-Cola magnate, and his wife Lucy Elizabeth Howard. 

The couple envisioned the residence as a setting for many social and cultural affairs in an Atlanta that was awakening to the world. But in the years after their death, it fell into disuse, so that eventually the Melkite Catholic Community of Atlanta purchased the Candler home from the American Legion in 1955. (You can read the whole fascinating story here!)

The Melkite parish in Atlanta has maintained the original vision of grandeur and majesty of a splendid structure. It has now been redirected into the creation of a beautiful house of worship.

Located on 2,300 acres of land about 45 miles from Atlanta, this abbey is home to Cistercians of the Strict Observance, a religious order of monks and nuns also known as “Trappists” or “Trappistines.”

Holy Spirit Abbey offers a Sacred Space for persons seeking to encounter God in solitude, in stillness, in the beauty of nature, in the healing rhythm of the contemplative lifestyle in the presence of a praying Community.

The monastery is home to a community of 28 monks who are self-sustaining, running businesses on site, and are known in the area for their bonsai garden store and delicious homemade fudge!

My family went to Sunday Mass at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on our road trip from Chicago to Miami last spring, and we cherished the experience at this breathtakingly beautiful church. 

It’s worth a stop if you’re in the area, and the packed pews we saw along with the parish’s calendar of devotions and activities reveal an energetic and active Catholic community.

The Cathedral of Christ the King is the mother church for the one million members of the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta. The cathedral is located at an intersection popularly called “Jesus Junction,” as a Baptist church and Episcopalian church stand there, too.

Designed in a French Gothic architectural style of the old world, the cathedral is a city landmark that was voted Atlanta’s most beautiful building. The parish community consists of well over 5,700 registered families, who are deeply involved in the over 100 ministries in service at the cathedral.

One of America’s most well known Catholics is writer Flannery O’Connor, and you can visit the church where she attended daily Mass for much of her adult life. 

Sacred Heart Church is about a 10-minute drive from Andalusia, O’Connor’s home as an adult where she wrote most of her novels and short stories. Follow up Mass at Sacred Heart with a visit to Andalusia to walk directly in the footsteps of O’Connor.