Anna Alexander
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Anna Ellison Butler Alexander (c. 1865 – September 24, 1947) was the first and only African-American consecrated a
deaconess The ministry of a deaconess is a ministry for women in some Protestant, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox churches to provide pastoral care, especially for other women, and which may carry a liturgical role. The word comes from the Greek ...
in the Episcopal Church. She served in the
Episcopal Diocese of Georgia The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, USA is one of 20 dioceses that comprise Province 4 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Province IV of the US Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Episcopal Church, and is a dio ...
during her entire career, and may be remembered in the
Calendar of saints The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...
on September 24.


Early life

Alexander was born shortly after the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
on
St. Simon's Island, Georgia St. Simons Island (or simply St. Simons) is a barrier island and census-designated place (CDP) located on St. Simons Island in Glynn County, Georgia, Glynn County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. The names of the community and the ...
to former slave Daphne Alexander and her husband James Alexander (known by his nickname Aleck). Her parents had married in 1841 and Anna became their eleventh and last child. Her birth date was not recorded, and she later gave various different dates, in part because she feared that she would be forbidden to continue to work in her final years as too old (later diocesan records list it as 1878 and her death certificate lists 1880). Her father Aleck was the personal servant and aide of his master, Pierce Mease Butler (1810–1861), who owned several plantations inherited from his grandfather, founding father and U.S. Senator
Pierce Butler Pierce or Piers Butler may refer to: * Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond (c. 1467 – 26 August 1539), Anglo-Irish nobleman in the Peerage of Ireland * Piers Butler, 3rd Viscount Galmoye (1652–1740), Anglo-Irish nobleman in the Peerage of Ireland * ...
. Aleck Alexander had learned to read and write (despite state laws to the contrary) from Butler's wife, the British actress
Fanny Kemble Frances Anne Kemble (later Butler; 27 November 180915 January 1893) was a British actress from a Kemble family, theatre family in the early and mid-nineteenth century. She was a well-known and popular writer and abolitionist whose published wor ...
. Alexander later wrote that her part-Native American paternal grandmother had received her freedom after nursing Pierce Mease and his brother John Mease, before they assumed their grandfather's surname in order to inherit his plantations. Her maternal grandmother was from
Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
, and her mother was the result of a rape by a white overseer. Fanny Kemble became estranged from her husband after witnessing such activities at his plantations, particularly by that overseer. Kemble wrote the anti-slavery '' Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839'', published in 1863 and which helped influence British public opinion against the
Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
cause. The Alexander family soon moved to Pennick, Georgia to take advantage of land south of the
Altamaha River The Altamaha River is a major river in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It flows generally eastward for from its Source (river or stream), origin at the confluence of the Oconee River and Ocmulgee River towards the Atlantic Oce ...
previously held by poor whites who had moved further south to
Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
to obtain land under the
Southern Homestead Act of 1866 The Southern Homestead Act of 1866 was a United States federal law intended to offer land to prospective farmers, white and black, in Southern United States, the South following the American Civil War. It was repealed in 1876 after mostly benefi ...
. Her father became a carpenter-builder and a community leader. In addition to building his own family's houses, and helping others learn that trade, Aleck Alexander helped build a school for the community and used his own land as an experimental farm.


Career

Anna first taught at the public school in Pennick. Later, she moved to
Darien, Georgia Darien () is a city in and the county seat of McIntosh County, Georgia, United States. It lies on Georgia's coast at the mouth of the Altamaha River, approximately south of Savannah, and is part of the Brunswick, Georgia metropolitan statist ...
, at the mouth of the Altamaha River, where her sister Mary founded a school affiliated with St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church, and all three sisters taught. Anna also visited
Brunswick, Georgia Brunswick ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Glynn County, Georgia, Glynn County in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. As the primary urban and economic center of the lower southeast portion of Georgia, it is the second-larges ...
and St. Athanasius' Episcopal Church. In 1894, with the cooperation of the Brunswick priest, Anna founded a mission in Pennick, while still teaching at Darien during the week, making a 40-mile round trip by boat and foot. The mission faltered when Anna accepted a position at St. Paul's Normal and Industrial School (as well as enrolled in the new teachers college there) in
Lawrenceville, Virginia Lawrenceville is a town in Brunswick County, Virginia, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 1,014. Located by the Meherrin River, it is the county seat of Brunswick County. In colonial times, Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotsw ...
. In 1897, she returned to Pennick and revitalized the mission. The congregation was renamed Church of the Good Shepard, and Alexander also started a school. She supported herself by taking in sewing, and managed to buy property in 1902, where her brother Charles Alexander and other men then erected a church. In 1907, bishop Cleland Kinloch Nelson addressed the second annual meeting of the diocese's council of colored churchmen, held at the Church of the Good Shepherd. He described Alexander as a "devout, godly and respected colored woman" and consecrated her as a
deaconess The ministry of a deaconess is a ministry for women in some Protestant, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox churches to provide pastoral care, especially for other women, and which may carry a liturgical role. The word comes from the Greek ...
. She became the first and only African-American deaconess. She worked in Altamaha River area for the rest of her life, teaching not only academic subjects, but also moral values. Her
Sunday School ] A Sunday school, sometimes known as a Sabbath school, is an educational institution, usually Christianity, Christian in character and intended for children or neophytes. Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are u ...
students always donated pennies to those worse off then themselves. When an earthquake devastated 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, Tokyo-Yokohama in
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in 1923, Alexander's mission diverted their own building funds to aid the overseas victims, donating more proportionally to assist other needy people than any other church in the diocese. The diocese of Georgia split in 1907 and Nelson chose to associate with the new
Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, with jurisdiction over middle and north Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is in Province 4 of the Episcopal Church in the United States of ...
. His successor in the Diocese of Georgia, Frederick Focke Reese, excluded African-Americans from church government in the diocese, and extended almost no diocesan financial support to African-Americans. This forced Alexander and others to make do, as well as seek support from outside the diocese, including from the Episcopal Board of Missions. During the bad crop years of the late 1920s through the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, Alexander continued to work in her hardscrabble community, whose members built the current wooden church building in 1928. In 1934 only 2 of the 30 students could pay the nickel per week school fee. Alexander became the agent for governmental and private aid for both black and white residents, and enlisted neighbors of both races to help. Before his death, Reese recognized her decades of service. During the summers of her last decade, Alexander cooked for Camp Reese, the then-new (and now former) Diocesan summer camp on
St. Simons Island St. Simons Island (or simply St. Simons) is a barrier island and census-designated place (CDP) located on St. Simons Island in Glynn County, Georgia, United States. The names of the community and the island are interchangeable, known simply as ...
, and brought small groups of African-American boys and girls – who were formally barred as campers but could enjoy the area. In her later years, Alexander worked alongside other deaconesses, including Madeline Dunlap of Chicago.


Legacy

Alexander died on September 24, 1947, and was buried at the cemetery at Camp Reese. In 1998, she was recognized as a saint by the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and its Bishop Henry Louttit, Jr. Her diocese began advocating for larger recognition in the Episcopal Church. In 2004, she was reinterred at Good Shepherd Church in Pennick, which she had founded and where she had worked for many years, although now visiting priests only hold services twice a month. The
General Convention The General Convention is the primary governing and legislative body of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. With the exception of the Bible, the ''Book of Common Prayer'', and the Constitution and Canons, it is the ultimate autho ...
of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah preliminarily recognized Alexander's service as a deaconess and teacher in 2015. A short documentary released by the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia in 2018 explains her life. Also in 2018, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry visited Pennick, Georgia and recognized her ministry. She was the winner of the "Golden Halo" in Lent Madness 2018, an educational tool hosted by
Forward Movement Forward Movement is the name taken by a number of Christian Protestant movements in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and other countries. The movement emphasised holiness. It generally promoted a form of "practical Christianity" that respo ...
Publications featuring the saints of the calendar of the Episcopal Church. She was added to the Episcopal Church's calendar of saints that year. On March 24, 2019, two churches in the
Episcopal Diocese of California The Episcopal Diocese of California is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) in Northern California. History The founding Episcopal diocese in the state, once encompassing all of ...
merged, naming their new congregation 'St. Anna's Episcopal Church' in her memory.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Anna 1865 births 1947 deaths 19th-century Anglican deaconesses People from St. Simons, Georgia Anglican saints