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Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander (1865-1947) was born to recently emancipated slaves on St. Simons Island, Georgia. She became the only African American set aside in the order of deaconess in The Episcopal Church.
In 1998, Bishop Henry Louttit, Jr. named her a Saint of Georgia by the Diocese of Georgia with a feast day of September 24. In 2011 and 2014, the Diocese of Georgia passed resolutions calling on the General Convention of The Episcopal Church to recognize her feast day through inclusion in its Holy Women, Holy Men. The General Convention moved the feast to study by the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music in 2012 and then approved her feast be added to A Great Cloud of Witnesses (the successor to Holy Women, Holy Men) at its 2015 meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music voted to recommend that the Episcopal Church add Deaconess Alexander to Lesser Feasts and Fasts (Major Feasts are those like Christmas and Easter). A vote on that larger recognition for this Saint of Georgia will come during the General Convention meeting in Austin, Texas, July 5-13, 2018. |
Social Reformer, Religious Leader. Anna E.B. Alexander, a descendant of slaves from the Butler family plantations in Pennsylvania and St. Simons Island, Georgia., grew up in an area called Pennick, a rural location, just north of Brunswick, Georgia. She established an Episcopal church in 1894 and a local parochial school in 1902, for the children in that locale. She taught both the negro and white children in and around that area. She was the first black woman ordained as a Deaconess in the national Episcopal Church, in 1907, and considered a Saint in later years, by the Episcopal Church.
Despite the harsh confines of Jim Crow, St. Anna founded a church and school, from which she ministered to and educated the people of Glynn and McIntosh counties for decades. Today, we are working to restore the historic schoolhouse, and to turn the Good Shepherd church and school—in the rural Pennick community, 13 miles north of Brunswick, 15 miles west of Darien—into a pilgrimage site and retreat center. Anna Ellison Butler Alexander was born in a year of great jubilation: 1865, the end of slavery in the United States. But the world she came of age in was a reactionary era of diminishing horizons, with the rise of Jim Crow across the South. Despite this adversity, Anna established a mission church at Pennick in 1894 and, in 1902, a school. For six decades, walking the dirt roads and ferrying by boat, she tirelessly and devotedly taught, led services, cared for the poor and elderly, and inspired young people with hope. In 1907 she was consecrated as a deaconess—the only Black woman to ever serve in that order—and in 1998 she was named a Saint of Georgia. In 2018 the General Convention officially recognized St. Anna’s feast day, September 24. On the weekend of September 24-26, 2021, RJGA members journeyed to Pennick and other key sites in St. Anna’s life in the inaugural St. Anna Alexander Pilgrimage.
About the Good Shepherd School
Anna taught briefly in the public school, but felt the lack of religious education hindered her efforts to build up her students. She began teaching at the Mann School at St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church in Darien with two of her sisters, Mary and Dora. After completing her studies at St. Paul’s College in Virginia from 1897-1900, Anna began teaching students in her home. In 1902, she bought the property on Pennick Road as well as the lumber for a schoolhouse, which was built by volunteers. Between 1902 and 1914 the Deaconess averaged forty day students and more than sixty Sunday School enrollments. She supplemented meager school fees with sewing during the school year and working at the Diocese of Georgia’s summer camp, Camp Reese, when school was out of session. She also gained support with grants from the national Episcopal Church Women and support from other philanthropists. This allowed her to take students whether they could pay for school or not. In 1934, for example, only 2 of the 30 students could pay the nickel per week school fee. The school closed with her retirement in 1945. Deaconess Alexander had served until she physically could not do so any more and died on September 24, 1947.
For groups arranged in advance, visitors can tour two downstairs rooms in the schoolhouse.
Anna taught briefly in the public school, but felt the lack of religious education hindered her efforts to build up her students. She began teaching at the Mann School at St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church in Darien with two of her sisters, Mary and Dora. After completing her studies at St. Paul’s College in Virginia from 1897-1900, Anna began teaching students in her home. In 1902, she bought the property on Pennick Road as well as the lumber for a schoolhouse, which was built by volunteers. Between 1902 and 1914 the Deaconess averaged forty day students and more than sixty Sunday School enrollments. She supplemented meager school fees with sewing during the school year and working at the Diocese of Georgia’s summer camp, Camp Reese, when school was out of session. She also gained support with grants from the national Episcopal Church Women and support from other philanthropists. This allowed her to take students whether they could pay for school or not. In 1934, for example, only 2 of the 30 students could pay the nickel per week school fee. The school closed with her retirement in 1945. Deaconess Alexander had served until she physically could not do so any more and died on September 24, 1947.
For groups arranged in advance, visitors can tour two downstairs rooms in the schoolhouse.
Birth-- 1865
Saint Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia, USA
Death-- September 24, 1947 (aged 81–82)
Pennick, Glynn County, Georgia, USA
Burial-- Good Shepherd's Church Grounds
Pennick, Glynn County, Georgia, USA
Saint Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia, USA
Death-- September 24, 1947 (aged 81–82)
Pennick, Glynn County, Georgia, USA
Burial-- Good Shepherd's Church Grounds
Pennick, Glynn County, Georgia, USA