Some scholars speculate that the first Mass on the mainland of the New World was held on the shores of nearby Sapelo Sound in 1526, though this remains a source of academic inquiry. As to the history of the Catholic Church in Darien before the establishment of Nativity of Our Lady, the church website notes, “According to the 1845 Catholic Directory, Darien is listed as a mission that was regularly attended to by priests from Savannah, St. John the Baptist Church, now the cathedral of the diocese of Savannah, which was established in 1850. In 1897, The Marist Fathers took over the spiritual care of the people living in Brunswick and the surrounding area. As of 1899, the Catholic Directory begins listing the mission in Darien as Nativity of Our Lord and is attended to every second Sunday.”

Beginning in 1912 and for the next decades, Mass was celebrated in the home of Captain Frank and Minnie Dean in The Ridge. Captain Dean (c. 1863-1948) was one of the last of the old time river pilots working in Sapelo Sound during Darien’s timber boom, retiring in the 1920s. “Rev. Msgr. James E. Moylan, Administrator of Savannah-Atlanta officiated, along with the general pastor of territory, Rev. Philip Hasson, SM. The church was described as a “modern replica” of Spanish missions that had been established along the coast. It took a year to build under the direction of Rev. Leo F. Ziebarth, SM, Assistant Pastor.”