Savannah's first black Catholics arrived in the 1790s with their masters. They were escaping from the revolution in French Haiti led by Toussaint Louverture .

For many years, these Catholics worshipped in various private homes. Rarely, a French speaking priest would arrive in the city to celebrate mass for them and preach in French. As the decades passed, and the second generation stopped speaking French, the black Catholics merged with white Irish Catholic who began arriving in the 1840s. By 1850, both groups finally had a church building which eventually became The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist on Lafayette Square.

Today there are several thousand black Catholics living in Savannah. Most are members of St. Benedict the Moor on the city's eastside and The Resurrection of Our Lord on the city's westside.

To learn more about Savannah’s African American history and heritage, go to [ Ссылка ].

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