St. Vincent’s Academy was founded on June 23, 1845, when Father Jeremiah Francis O’Neill brought six Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy from Charleston, South Carolina, to educate Savannah’s young women in the finest tradition of a Catholic educational institution. St. Vincent’s opened on the corner of Abercorn and Liberty Streets in Savannah as a private school and orphanage, with boarding facilities added a few years later. The early curriculum included Penmanship (both plain and ornamental), Astronomy, Composition of Fiction, Sacred and Profane History, Ancient Geography, Chronology, Mythology, and Embroidery. The early history of St. Vincent’s is intertwined with that of Savannah and the South. During the Civil War, eight year-old Maggie Davis, whose father Jefferson Davis was President of the Confederate States of America, became a student at St. Vincent’s. Her brother also came to the convent daily to recite his lessons. In 1919, St. Vincent’s became exclusively dedicated to educating young women of high school age, offering a program centered on academics and values to prepare them for active, effective roles in the societies of their times. From the antebellum period to the present, St. Vincent’s has met the challenge of producing intellectual, responsible and compassionate women. Our thousands of alumnae have made and continue to make significant personal and professional contributions to the world.