St. George

History of St. George Parish

St. George was founded in 1913 as a mission chapel built by Consolidation Coal Company to serve immigrant Catholic workers in its newly planned company town of Jenkins, Kentucky. By 1914 a frame church and rectory stood on 1.55 acres at the foot of No. 4 Hill, deeded to the Diocese of Covington. The parish was named for St. George in honor of Bishop George A. Carrell, the first Bishop of Covington and ancestor of the Jenkins family. From its earliest years the parish was both a spiritual center and a hub of the wider Letcher County mission territory, eventually giving rise to parishes in Hazard (1939) and Pikeville (1949).

Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity

In the early 1980s Father Edward Randall, OMI, then pastor of St. George, reached out to Mother Teresa of Kolkata and her Missionaries of Charity, asking whether they might consider a rural mission in the Appalachian coalfields. According to Catholic Extension, which has supported St. George for decades, Father Randall and his parishioners prayed for a sign. A rosebush beside the little church bloomed far earlier than normal — the first of what Catholic Extension calls the 'three miracles' of St. George — and shortly afterward Mother Teresa agreed to send sisters. She herself arrived in Jenkins in 1982 to open the Missionaries of Charity convent at 44 Cove Avenue, a street once reserved for top Consolidation Coal officials. Jenkins became the Missionaries of Charity's first rural American mission.

• Convent opened 1982 at 44 Cove Avenue
• First rural American mission of the Missionaries of Charity
• Sisters (mostly from India) still visit the poor, sick, elderly, and addicted in remote Letcher County hollows
• Painted inscription 'Mother Teresa Pray For Us' on the surviving Dunham High School addition

Buildings, Cemetery, and the Dunham School Site

The 1914 frame church and rectory still sit on the original 1.55-acre parcel along Little Elkhorn Creek. A separate Catholic cemetery — Holy Cross Cemetery — lies on a knoll below the B&O section of town and holds nearly sixty graves, most of them from the early years of the parish. On the uphill portion of the same Catholic property stood the wooden Jenkins Colored School (c. 1916) and later Dunham High School for African American children, served until integration in 1964. A c. 1950 concrete-block addition to that school still stands and is painted blue and white with the inscription 'Mother Teresa Pray For Us' on its south wall.

Mission Territory and Holy Cross / Whitesburg Chapels

Through most of the 20th century St. George functioned as the mission center for Letcher and Knott Counties, with the parish church in Jenkins, Holy Angels Chapel in McRoberts, and Our Lady of Fatima Chapel in Whitesburg. As diocesan directories reorganized, Mother of Good Counsel in Hazard (1939) and St. Francis of Assisi in Pikeville (1949) were carved out as separate parishes. Today the parish's mission chapel, listed by GCatholic, is the Church of the Holy Angels in McRoberts.

• Church of the Holy Angels, McRoberts (mission)
• Our Lady of Fatima Chapel, Whitesburg (historical)
• Mother of Good Counsel, Hazard (established 1939)
• St. Francis of Assisi, Pikeville (established 1949)

Pastoral Care and Parish Staff

St. George is currently administered by Rev. Prakash Verunkal and shares pastoral care with St. Francis of Assisi in Pikeville. Diocesan directories list about 24 households in the parish, making it one of the smallest in the Diocese of Lexington. The parish is part of the Big Sandy/Licking Deanery, whose dean is Rev. Rob Adams. Visitors can reach the parish office by phone or via its official Facebook page.