St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church is presenty comprised of approximately 1300 families. Monsignor Thomas Evatt serves as pastor of St. Mary's Church. Mr. D. Keith Darr serves as principal of St. Mary Help of Christians School.
St. Mary's has a legacy of expansion which was built on a strong foundation in Aiken, South Carolina, an area which traces its ties to Catholicism back to the 1500s and an expedition by explorer Hernando De Soto with 12 priests.
Records show that in June 1853, the tract of land at the intersection of Park Avenue and York Street was purchased by the Right Reverend Ignatio A. Reynolds. St. Mary's first parish church was built more than 20 years later through the efforts of a coalition of area Catholics known as the Aiken Missions headed up by Bishop Ignatio Persico. It was a small, simple frame structure built on brick piers. Bishop Persico later returned to Rome where he was appointed to the rank of Cardinal.
In 1878, a hurricane destroyed Persico's small wooden church. It was blown off its brick piers and sent crashing over the railroad tracks that ran down Park Avenue. When the little frame church was demolished, Mlle. Celestine Elizabeth Eustis, an ardent parishioner, made immediate efforts to have it replaced with a brick church of longer lasting construction. The well-known ecclesiastical architect, Renwich, was hired to design the new church to be known as the church of Saint Claire of the Holy Cross.
Mlle. Eustis also commissioned French artist M. Loren to execute the stained glass painting of St. Claire as well as the two side windows depicting angels. When these windows arrived by ship in Charleston, controversy surrounded their admission. Customs officials insisted they were stained glass and met with resistance from Mlle. Eustis who maintained that they were original works of art and entitled to be freely admitted.
In 1903, St. Claire's had become overcrowded and Father John Seidl began plans to build an additional church. The new building, dedicated two years later, was named St. Mary Help of Christians Church, but to this day St. Claire's is still used for very special functions. It's semi-Gothic architecture and exceptionally intricate beams and woodwork on the the interior are excellent examples of ecclesiastical architecture.
The rectory was built in 1932; and in the 1940s and '50s, Monsignor George Lewis Smith helped expand the parish, acquiring St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic School in 1950 and adding on to the school through the construction of new classrooms and a cafeteria. During his tenure land was purchased for the church cemetery and the convent was constructed. Over the next several years, renovations to both the church and school were ongoing. A new primary building was constructed under the guidance of Father James Carter and a pipe organ installed in the church.In 1989 the school underwent extensive renovation, including the addition of a state of the art computer lab, a special project spearheaded by computer buff Monsignor Joseph Roth, who came to St. Mary's in 1989. While many private schools struggle to make ends meet, the school usually has a waiting list.
In1999, Monsignor Thomas Evatt proudly dedicated a new Kindergarten and first grade classroom building and St. Angela Hall, a gorgeous Parish Life Center, to continue to meet the needs of our church and school community.
