"SAINT THERESA MUSEUM BRIEF" #3 - "Our Master Carpenters"

Our little parish of Saint Theresa of Avila in Rhodelia, Kentucky, has produced 37 Sisters, 8 Priests, 1 Brother, hundreds of lay heroes and dedicated pastors in its 203 year history. In these periodic little "history briefs," I will spotlight the various religious communities from which they belonged, some of their families and their contributions to Saint Theresa Church. Today, I want to focus on three of it's "master carpenters." 

 JOHN BAPTIST MANNING 

1826-1899

Mary Ann Wight - With First Wife and Family

@1829-1859

DID THE CARPENTY WORK ON THE PRESENT CHURCH

BUILT THE ORIGINAL SAINT THERESA ACADEMY BUILDING

Honora T. Brown - With Second Wife and Expanded Family

1832-1874

John Baptist Manning married a third time to Catherine Emma Clark after the death of Honora, his second wife. All together, the Saint Theresa history book lists fourteen children from his three marriages.  

GEORGE JEAN EGART

1835-1910

Born in France to non-Catholic parents - emigrated to America with an uncle at age ten.

Learned cabinet making in Louisville. Helped build the Abbey Church at Gethsemani. 

In 1860, he moved to St. Theresa to help finish the present church, met and married Frances Jane Brown Egart (1845-1922). He became a Catholic in 1861. They were parents to St. Theresa's second priest - Fr. Henry Lee Egart, who is buried beside them. Until his death in 1910, George Jean Egart was an exemplary Catholic and loyal member of St. Theresa Church. 

 

FATHER FELIX J. JOHNSON

Probably no one, in the history of Saint Theresa, has done more to build the structures of the parish than Father Felix J. Johnson, our pastor from 1937-1960. He was truly a "master builder." 

He installed electric lights in the church, had it frescoed, laid a hardwood floor in the sanctuary and modernized the heating system. He opened the new cemetery. In 1947, he erected our parish hall. He was behind building a new rectory, a new convent and a new school, laying the bricks and overseeing much of the construction work himself.  

PROPOSED SAINT THERESA HISTORIC PHOTO GALLERY