Beginning in 1963, Masses were offered here until the construction of the current church

Fifty years ago on May 10, 1963 the third church for St. Aloysius parish in Hickory was dedicated by Bishop Vincent Waters. Msgr. Michael Begley (who would later become the first bishop of the Diocese of Charlotte) preached the sermon at the dedication Mass.

The former St. Leo Hospital in Greensboro

On April 26, 1906 the Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina, Abbot-Bishop Leo Haid, O.S.B., dedicated St. Leo's Hospital in Greensboro. Staffed by the Sisters of Charity, this hospital later closed and the building became the home of Notre Dame High School.

Belmont Abbey students pray at the grotto shrine in this undated photo

Clergy, religious and laity from across the Southeastern USA made a pilgrimage to the Lourdes Grotto Shrine on the campus of Belmont Abbey on March 25, 1908. The pilgrimage honored the 50th anniversary of the appearance of Our Lady in Lourdes, France. The shrine, from the beginning, was intended to be a place of prayer for vocations to the priesthood.

On March 2, 1970 Fr. Edmund McCaffrey, OSB was elected Abbot of Belmont Abbey. Abbot McCaffrey, who was born in 1933 and ordained to the priesthood in 1959, was the fourth abbot of the Monastery. He resigned from this position in 1975 and went on to serve as a priest for the Diocese of Charleston.