One of the decrees which resulted from that assembly was to call on all the bishops of the country to establish an outreach to the newly emancipated African-American slaves.

In keeping with this mandate, William Hickley Gross, C.Ss.R., at that time the Roman Catholic Bishop of Savannah, invited the Benedictine monks of St. Vincent Abbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to contribute priests to this mission in his diocese.

[3] In response to his invitation, Abbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B., the founder of Benedictine life in the United States, sent two German-born monks to Savannah in 1874.

[3] Soon after settling there, the monks were able to obtain some parcels of land on the Isle of Hope, off the coast of Savannah, where they opened the first monastery in the Southern United States.

[3] The ten monks of the mission, now operating under the authority of Belmont Abbey in North Carolina, made the decision to move to Savannah, where they established a monastery at 31st and Habersham Streets, adjacent to Sacred Heart Parish, which they then served.