Benedictine Military School in Savannah

Book excerpt: Benedictine Military School is perhaps the most enduring and successful of all of the apostolates founded by the Benedictine Order in Georgia. The school's legacy began in 1874 with the establishment of St. Benedict's Parish in downtown Savannah and the first monastery in the South at Isle of Hope in 1876. Benedictine College, as it was originally called, was begun as a boys' preparatory school in 1902 and was organized on a military basis in the tradition of the Citadel and other Southern military schools of the era. This book tells the unique story of "BC"--from its origins as a small, Catholic, all-boys' high school on Bull Street to the dramatic growth that led to the establishment of today's Modernist Seawright Drive campus on Savannah's suburban southside during the early 1960s. With over 7,000 graduates, it has become a tradition among several generations of Savannah families for their sons to attend the alma mater of their fathers and grandfathers.