About St. John the Baptist · Cranfield, Mississippi
St. John the Baptist is a small rural Catholic mission church located in Cranfield, an unincorporated community in Adams County, Mississippi, between Natchez and Roxie along the old Mississippi Central Railroad line. It is one of four historic missions that grew out of Holy Family Church in Natchez and is today the last surviving mission of that group. The mission belongs to the Diocese of Jackson and is staffed by the Josephite Fathers (SSJ) of Holy Family Parish in Natchez, sharing an administrator with Holy Family in Natchez and St. Anne in Fayette. Weekly Sunday Mass is celebrated at 1:00 PM in the small wood-framed church, with confessions heard beforehand.
- Established
- 1916
- Patron
- St. John the Baptist
- Rector
- Reverend Anthony Okwum, SSJ (Administrator, serving Holy Family – Natchez, St. Anne – Fayette, and St. John the Baptist – Cranfield)
- Diocese
- Diocese of Jackson
Why belong here
St. John the Baptist offers a rare opportunity to worship in one of the smallest, oldest mission churches still active in the Diocese of Jackson — a centenarian rural chapel where the windows are opened to the Mississippi countryside on Sunday afternoons. Mass is celebrated once a week at 1:00 PM, with confession heard beforehand, and the mission is tied into the broader pastoral care of Holy Family in Natchez through the Josephite Fathers. Visitors and hunting-season worshippers from Louisiana are regularly welcomed alongside the local Cranfield congregation.
Mass times at St. John the Baptist
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Sunday 12:30 PM (before Mass), or by appointment
St. John the Baptist Mission, Cranfield
St. John the Baptist is a rural Catholic mission church in Cranfield, Mississippi (Adams County), on the former Mississippi Central Railroad between Natchez and Roxie. It belongs to the Diocese of Jackson and is served by the Josephite Fathers (SSJ) of Holy Family Parish in Natchez. The mission church is small — a wood-framed building seating roughly fifty people — and is reached off U.S. Highway 84, seven miles past the Roxie–Cranfield exit.
- Parish type: Mission (mission of Holy Family, Natchez)
- Diocese: Diocese of Jackson
- Clergy: Josephite Fathers (SSJ)
- Phone: (601) 445-5700
- Address: 260 Cranfield Road, Cranfield, MS 39661
History: From the Fleming Family to a Centenarian Mission
The mission's story begins with the Fleming family, Irish Catholics who came from County Mayo in the late 1870s. Settled outside Cranfield, the Flemings could only get to Mass at St. Mary's in Natchez on Easter and Christmas. When Father Matthew Morrissey, SSJ, arrived at Holy Family in Natchez in 1901, he learned that the Fleming family's eldest son Holliday had a multiracial family whose children had never been sacramentally enrolled. Morrissey brought them to Holy Family for baptism and the other sacraments under the Fleming name, then turned his attention to building a local church. After years of small appeals, Morrissey built the church on land donated by Mrs. Boggart, a local Catholic. The mission priest and the older Fleming children — both Black and white — did much of the construction themselves. Bishop John Gunn, SM, dedicated the completed St. John the Baptist Mission on September 3, 1916, preaching on the Good Samaritan. Three sister missions (Harriston, Laurel Park, and Springfield) have since closed; Cranfield remains as a witness to Morrissey's missionary outreach in southwest Mississippi. On November 6, 2016, Bishop Joseph Kopacz joined more than 100 people for the centennial Mass, with overflow seating under tents among the trees.
- Founding: dedicated September 3, 1916
- Founder-builder: Father Matthew Morrissey, SSJ (Josephite)
- Dedicator: Bishop John Gunn, SM
- Source history: written in 1945 by Father Arthur Flanagan, SSJ, then pastor of Holy Family
- Centennial: November 6, 2016, with Bishop Joseph Kopacz
The Fleming Family and the Mission's Construction
Cranfield's founding story is inseparably the Fleming family story. The immigrant patriarch's family went to Mass at St. Mary's in Natchez only on Easter and Christmas. After Father Morrissey met them, the Fleming children — including Holliday's African American descendants, registered under the Fleming name — were brought to Holy Family for sacraments. Years later, when the mission church was built on Mrs. Boggart's donated land, the older Fleming young men were among the builders, and they etched their names into the steeple, a detail still recalled by descendants such as Linda Floyd.
- Flemings immigrated from County Mayo, Ireland, late 1870s
- Holliday Fleming's children received sacraments at Holy Family under the Fleming name
- Mrs. Boggart donated the church land
- Fleming descendants' names inscribed in the steeple
Parish Life and Sacramental Schedule
St. John the Baptist is a one-Mission-a-week community: Sunday Mass at 1:00 PM, with the Sacrament of Reconciliation heard beforehand at 12:30 PM (or by appointment). The Diocese of Jackson lists it as a mission of Holy Family, Natchez, sharing an administrator. Given the church's size (~50 seats), the wider Holy Family cluster — including the historic St. Francis School and its bus from Natchez, which once brought Cranfield children to CCD — remains the practical center for many sacramental and educational needs.
- Sunday Mass: 1:00 PM, English
- Confession: Sunday 12:30 PM (before Mass), or by appointment
- Tied administratively to Holy Family, Natchez
- Seasonal visitors: Louisiana hunting-camp worshippers
Clergy and Pastoral Care
Cranfield is administered together with Holy Family in Natchez and St. Anne in Fayette, all under the same Josephite pastor. The Josephites (Society of St. Joseph, SSJ) have staffed Holy Family since 1895, when Bishop Thomas Heslin invited them to serve the African American Catholic community of Natchez. Cranfield benefits from that continuity of Josephite missionary care, originally embodied by Father Morrissey and today carried on by Reverend Anthony Okwum, SSJ, as Administrator of the three linked parishes.
- Administrator: Reverend Anthony Okwum, SSJ
- Pastoral cluster: Holy Family – Natchez; St. Anne – Fayette; St. John the Baptist – Cranfield
- Religious institute: Josephite Fathers (SSJ)
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Father Matthew Morrissey, SSJearly 1900s–1916
Josephite founder-builder of the Cranfield mission; arrived at Holy Family, Natchez, in 1901 and became known as the 'Father of Missions' in the southwest corner of the diocese.
- Father Arthur Flanagan, SSJ
Pastor of Holy Family who in 1945 wrote the history of the Cranfield mission that is the source for most of what is known about its founding.