Miracles keep happening at St. George Church, which is nestled in the mountains of eastern Kentucky.
This mission church, supported by Catholic Extension Society, is located in a community where the coal mines have long been shuttered. They left behind crushing poverty, exacerbated by recent natural disasters and an epidemic of substance abuse.
But each time we have visited this church, we also learn about the miracles it has produced past and present.
Miracle #1: The Miracle of roses
The first major miracle dates back to the 1980s.
It began with their beloved former pastor, Father Edward Randall, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate, who was assigned to the Appalachian church as a missionary priest.
Among his many accomplishments was convincing St. Mother Teresa, founder of the Missionaries of Charity, to establish a mission in Jenkins—making it the order’s first ever rural American mission.
Mother Teresa said she would think about it, and later she paid a visit to Father Randall in Jenkins to see for herself.
A saint’s work cannot be rushed.
Meanwhile, Father Randall and the parishioners of St. George implored heaven with their prayers.
One day, Father Randall saw the rose bush next to the church bloom earlier than normal.
He must have felt like St. Juan Diego after witnessing his Guadalupan apparition. Father Randall knew the roses were a sign from God that a miracle was imminent.
A call from Mother Teresa came shortly after the roses bloomed, confirming that his prayers had indeed been answered.
More than 40 years later the sisters are still at St. George and so are its flowers. In this area where less than 1% of the population is Catholic, these sisters—as they walk the hills and “hollers” visiting homes, hospitals and drug rehab centers in their signature blue and white habits—are a symbol of hope to a community otherwise abandoned.
The sisters remind people that even in the most seemingly dire situations, God never forsakes his people.
Miracle #2: Saved from the flood
Throughout salvation history, we learn of a God who saves his people by sending them what they need in their most desperate hour.
In July 2022, Jenkins was one of 13 counties in Eastern Kentucky that were declared Federal Disaster zones.
This was due to flash flooding that in some areas saw 16 inches of rain, causing rivers and creeks to overflow and water to rush down the mountainsides into homes and villages. In other words, water came from every direction.
The parishioners of St. George were part of God’s saving hand.
One parishioner, Patricia, told us how on the night of the flood, she and her husband Bill barely escaped with their lives.
Meanwhile, her neighbors retrieved a canoe and kayak from a garage. Together they went to a homebound neighbor with water up to her neck who had resigned herself to drowning.
They pulled her and her oxygen tank out a window.
Another burley neighbor broke down the doors of two homes with disabled people inside, rescuing the residents just in time.
All in all, they saved 11 people. Miracles abounded that night. Not one person died in Jenkins.
Miracles continued after the flood through the work of the missionary sisters.
They helped people with uninhabitable flooded homes, like that of Chastity who lived just down the road from the church.
Chastity and her four boys escaped the water by scrambling up the side of a hill as their house and all their belongings went under. After the floodwaters receded her only option was to live in a pop-up camper parked in her driveway.
When we asked about her kids, she said, “They’re great!! We always have hope!” They are buddies of the sisters, having met them during St. George’s summer program.
To this day, the sisters continue to coordinate volunteer groups who come to Jenkins from across the country to rebuild homes still wrecked three years after the flood.
Miracle #3: Saved from addiction
One of the greatest afflictions that this community faces is not economic poverty, poor housing conditions, or the threat of flooding. Rather, it is the prevalence of drugs and addiction and the causalities of despair that result from it—families torn apart, people imprisoned or killed.
In these most difficult of circumstances, St. George is also helping bring about miracles—one person, one family at a time. The Missionaries of Charity often visit the local prisons and various drug rehab centers in the region. There they encounter people who have hit rock bottom, who are often desperate to turn things around. Their prayerful, nonjudgmental, and gentle presence makes a real difference.
Take the story a woman living down the road from the church, who will we call “Jill” to protect her anonymity. At the sisters’ encouragement she shared her “God story” with us—a story of multiple miracles.
Jill’s young adult daughter, she explained, “got in a bad way,” tied up with drugs, and was at the point of losing her five small children to the state. Jill stepped in and legally adopted her grandchildren, whom she loves more than life itself, so that they would not be separated from their family.
However, shortly after the adoption, Jill fell ill and flatlined in the hospital on account of her severe COPD and went into a coma. As she awoke, she believed the Lord spoke to her and asked her to come back so that she could complete her mission of ensuring her daughter fully recovers and her grandchildren are raised in a loving household.
Her daughter is following through with her treatment, and Jill’s grandchildren (below) happily frolicked around her as she met with us.
The sisters have been supporting Jill and her grandchildren. But, the miracle doesn’t end there.
In this part of the country, Catholicism is about as foreign of a religion as one can imagine. But, Jill believes that the Spirit is moving in these sisters.
After attending the sisters’ religious education courses, Jill had all of her grandchildren baptized Catholic. She wants to make sure they have the same fill of the Holy Spirt as these saintly sisters.
The origins of beauty
As one parishioner told us, “There is no cathedral as beautiful as here,” referring to the small church of St. George in Jenkins.
More than its quaint rural charm, its blooming rose bush, or its exquisite stained glass windows, this church’s beauty stems from the miracles it helps make happen over and over again in a community that longs to see God’s “mighty hand and outstretched arm” (Ps 136:12) in the face of such difficulty. St. George is that powerhouse of miracles of mercy.
Catholic Extension Society works in solidarity with people to build up vibrant and transformative Catholic faith communities among the poor in the poorest regions of America. We need your help to support more communities like Jenkins, Kentucky! Please support our mission!
