Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander (1865-1947) was born to recently emancipated slaves on St. Simons Island, Georgia. She became the only African American set aside in the order of deaconess in The Episcopal Church.

In 1998, Bishop Henry Louttit, Jr. named her a Saint of Georgia by the Diocese of Georgia with a feast day of September 24 and the process began for recognition by the whole Episcopal Church. After study, the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music voted to recommend that the Episcopal Church add Deaconess Alexander to Lesser Feasts and Fasts (Major Feasts are those like Christmas and Easter) which happened in 2018.

For those wishing to celebrate this feast, the prayer and readings for the day are online here as a PDF: Deaconess Alexander Propers

The video above is a short documentary shares on Deaconess Alexander, who labored long and hard for the education of poor blacks in Georgia’s Glynn and McIntosh Counties. She helped establish Good Shepherd Episcopal Church and its parochial school in Pennick, which is west of Brunswick, Georgia. She also established and helped run the St. Cyprian’s School at St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church in Darien.