Photo of the Day: Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home, Savannah, GA

Today would have been the 90^th birthday of the Southern novelist and short-story writer Flannery O'Connor. I owe it to her fiercely perfected talent and her fierce faith to post this photo I took this past November, on an afternoon trip to Savannah, of the outside of the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home.

O’Connor did not live here long—only 13 years, before her family relocated to a farm in Milledgeville—but it was enough to forge her. The house was deeded to her, and she still, in fact, owned it when she died, only 39 years old, of complications from lupus—the same disease that struck down her father in middle age.

Much to my chagrin, the home was closed that day when I visited. But I had seen it on my prior visit to Savannah, in fall 1999. I knew from the short tour of the house I took then that the interior reflected the comfortable middle-class lifestyle of her family, and that it included her baby carriage, her cradle and bedroom furniture.

For the devoutly Catholic O’Connors, their Savannah location was—to borrow a phrase—a godsend. The family worshipped at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (a landmark that I discussed in this prior post), just across Lafayette Square. Young Mary Flannery was baptized three weeks after her birth, in the cathedral; later, the building would be the site of her early education, at St. Vincent’s Grammar School, as well as her first communion and confirmation.

But back to the small Georgian row house at 207 Charlton Street that you’re looking at now. It was actually owned by maternal second cousin Mrs. Raphael Semmes (“Cousin Katie”), who had the garden and mansion next door. In Flannery’s mid-30s, as lupus forced her to use a cane, Mrs. Semmes accompanied her to Lourdes for a cure.

It was also, in the back of this house, that an amusing episode—one that “marked me for life,” she chuckled later—occurred. One of the five-year-old girl’s feats was training a “frizzled” chicken to walk backward. A New York newsreel company, Pathe, got wind of this and sent a cameraman down to record the action. Years later, as an adult, when she was not writing, she was indulging to the hilt her fascination with farm animals. (At one point, she raised 40 peacocks.)

O’Connor’s fiction—dark, violent, absurd at points—could be called Southern Gothic. Her private voice—highly intelligent, surprising, warm but sharply funny, unafraid to take on the central questions regarding her faith—can be heard unmistakably in Habit of Being (1979). Her collected works now form part of the Library of America, the handsome hardbound series of books dedicated to preserving the nation’s best literary tradition.

Photo of the Day: Stations of the Cross, Savannah’s Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

This is the third in a series, following my prior posts on the exterior and altar, of Savannah’s Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. I visited the landmark a month ago on an afternoon visit to Savannah.

Photo of the Day: Altar, Savannah’s Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

I had a prior post on its exterior, but the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is worth exploring in greater depth. I took this photograph on the same mid-November afternoon when I snapped the earlier shot of this magnificent Savannah landmark.  This immense main altar—9,000 pounds, no less—was, like the four side altars, carved in Italy of Carrar marble. The stained glass behind the altar was the handiwork of Tyrolean artists in Austria.

You can’t see it here, but there’s a Latin phrase inscribed on the main altar: Beati Qui Ad Cenam Agni Vocati Sunt. It comes from Revelation 19:9, translating as, “Blessed are they who are called to the banquet of the Lamb."

Photo of the Day: Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Savannah GA

I took this photograph while on vacation two weeks ago in Savannah. The memory of the first time I saw the Cathedral of St.John the Baptist, back in late October 1999, had lingered with me, and I wanted to make sure during my one-day trip back to the city that I took a shot of this cathedral built in the French Gothic style.

Luckily, the city trolley tour I took had a stop at East Harris Street, so I was able to snap this shot as well as several others inside, which I’ll post at a later time.

Far more people than I have been captivated by this building’s beauty. Today, an estimated 150,000 people visit this religious institution annually. Earlier this year, readers of TripAdvisor voted the cathedral one of their “Top 10 U.S. Landmarks” (a list that also includes, among other sites, Gettysburg, the Lincoln Memorial, and the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii).

Two years after this building was completed in 1896, a fire destroyed all but the outside walls and the two spires. Rebuilding began immediately, but it was not until 1912 that the redecoration of the interior was finished.

Speaking of the spires: Cathedral parishioners’ quarterly newsletter is called “The Twin Spires.” They truly represent an imposing landmark in a city filled with them.