{"id":1027,"date":"2009-02-19T07:45:00","date_gmt":"2009-02-19T07:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/02\/little-jeff-the-almost-catholic.html"},"modified":"2009-02-19T07:45:00","modified_gmt":"2009-02-19T07:45:00","slug":"little-jeff-the-almost-catholic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/02\/little-jeff-the-almost-catholic.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Little Jeff,&#8221; the almost-Catholic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Well, who&#8217;d a thunk?  <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/irishcatholichumanist.blogspot.com\/2009\/02\/confederate-president-almost-converts.html\">McNamara&#8217;s Blog<\/a> has this fascinating tidbit about the leader of the confederacy, who loved nuns and reputedly wore a Miraculous Medal: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p> <a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SZ1WKNJ8ZzI\/AAAAAAAAFJE\/yV6LUAJ29xQ\/s1600-h\/JeffersonDavisCaptured.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:left;margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;width: 118px;height: 200px\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SZ1WKNJ8ZzI\/AAAAAAAAFJE\/yV6LUAJ29xQ\/s200\/JeffersonDavisCaptured.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>When he was a child, future Confederate President Jefferson Davis attended Catholic school for a short while, the College of St. Thomas near Springfield, Kentucky. (In those days, &#8220;college&#8221; was a loose term meaning anything from grammar school through junior college.) <\/p>\n<p>Founded by the Dominican Fathers in 1812, St. Thomas was the first school west of the Appalachians, so many of its students were Protestant. But daily attendance at Catholic religious services was mandatory, and \u201clittle Jeff\u201d (as his teachers called him) thought about converting. Davis later wrote that he thought \u201cit would be well that I should become a Catholic.\u201d He talked to one of his teachers, Father Thomas Wilson, who suggested waiting a while because he was so young. Rather than discouraging him, this experience gave Davis a better impression of Catholics than ever. One biographer writes that \u201che remained prejudiced in their favor.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Davis was a lifelong Epsicopalian, but he wrote: \u201cWhen I was a child, the kindness of the Friars so won upon my affection that the impression has never been effaced, but has rather extended from them to their whole Church.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> There&#8217;s more, so be sure to visit the link for the rest.  <\/p>\n<p>Lest we forget, one of the most celebrated daughters of the south, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Margaret_Mitchell\">Margaret Mitchell<\/a>, was Catholic &#8212; and so was her iconic heroine, Scarlett O&#8217;Hara.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, who&#8217;d a thunk? McNamara&#8217;s Blog has this fascinating tidbit about the leader of the confederacy, who loved nuns and reputedly wore a Miraculous Medal: When he was a child, future Confederate President Jefferson Davis attended Catholic school for a short while, the College of St. Thomas near Springfield, Kentucky. (In those days, &#8220;college&#8221; was&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us","category-this-and-that"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Little Jeff,&quot; the almost-Catholic - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/02\/little-jeff-the-almost-catholic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Little Jeff,&quot; the almost-Catholic - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well, who&#8217;d a thunk? McNamara&#8217;s Blog has this fascinating tidbit about the leader of the confederacy, who loved nuns and reputedly wore a Miraculous Medal: When he was a child, future Confederate President Jefferson Davis attended Catholic school for a short while, the College of St. Thomas near Springfield, Kentucky. (In those days, &#8220;college&#8221; was&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/02\/little-jeff-the-almost-catholic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-19T07:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SZ1WKNJ8ZzI\/AAAAAAAAFJE\/yV6LUAJ29xQ\/s200\/JeffersonDavisCaptured.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Little Jeff,\" the almost-Catholic - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/02\/little-jeff-the-almost-catholic.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Little Jeff,\" the almost-Catholic - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"Well, who&#8217;d a thunk? McNamara&#8217;s Blog has this fascinating tidbit about the leader of the confederacy, who loved nuns and reputedly wore a Miraculous Medal: When he was a child, future Confederate President Jefferson Davis attended Catholic school for a short while, the College of St. Thomas near Springfield, Kentucky. 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