Nashville is the undisputed music capital of America. Most visitors to the city will plan their stay around the sites related this musical heritage, whether is the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium (the former home of the Opry), a walk along Music Row, the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum, the National Museum of African American Music, or a visit to the RCA recording studio. Walking Nashville’s Broadway, lined with the city’s “honky tonks” (small live music venues) could also very well expose you to the next generation of country music stars. While country music may not be to everyone’s tastes, it is the one genre whose lyrics do not shy away from witnessing Christian faith and one can only marvel at the talent that has emerged from Nashville’s stages and recording studios by the grace of God.
St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows
In the heart of the downtown, next to the state capitol, is the church of St. Mary of the Seven Sorrows. This was the first Catholic church and cathedral in the city. It is the perfect place to pause amidst the excitement of Nashville to reflect on the Seven Sorrows that Our Blessed Mother endured, as depicted in the interior artwork: the prophecy of Simeon in the Temple, the flight to Egypt, losing the Child Jesus, the Way of the Cross, the crucifixion and death on the cross, taking Christ’s body down from the Cross, and the laying of Christ’s body in the tomb. It is one of the rare churches in the United States dedicated to this devotion.
Within the church is the tomb of Bishop Richard Prius Miles, the first bishop of Nashville and one of the pioneer priests of Tennessee. Bishop Miles was a Dominican friar who was largely responsible for establishing permanent parishes across Tennessee in the mid nineteenth century. He successfully brought in several Dominican friars to serve as permanent pastors in these churches, reversing the drain of priests who were only residing temporarily among Tennessee’s frontier communities before being called away to ministry in other larger cities in the U.S. When Bishop Mile’s body was exhumed in 1978, one hundred years after his death, it was found to be incorruptible, a fairly convincing mark of sanctity. There is a group of Nashville parishioners who continue to advocate for his cause for canonization (learn more here).
Congregation of St. Cecilia (the “Nashville Dominicans”)
The Dominicans continue to play a central role in Nashville to this day, and those “in the know” on such matters, would surely agree that the Nashville Dominicans are one of the most popular religious orders in all of the United States, continuing to generate a vocations boom of young women to join the order. Nowhere else in Nashville is the joy of Christ best experienced than when encountering these sisters at their mother house.
The congregation has a particular charism for teaching and is now active in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia teaching 15,000 students from kindergarten to College, including its own college campus – Aquinas College – in south Nashville. It is also one of the most popular congregations in the U.S. According to its website, the congregation counts over 300 Sisters, with a median age of 36 and 58% under the age of 40. It is nothing short of a miracle that a congregation that started off so small in the Bible Belt on the eve of the Civil War, has grown into such a thriving and vibrant religious community today.
Pilgrims are welcome to visit the lovely grounds of the community’s St. Cecilia Motherhouse, set on 32 acres in north Nashville. The St. Cecilia chapel is particularly stunning and visitors are welcome to join the Sisters in their thrice daily prayers. For families travelling with young girls in tow, there could be no better opportunity to expose them to the joy and serenity that comes from a religious life than spending some time with this youthful congregation of Sisters in prayer.
A visit to the Motherhouse is also an occasion to reflect on the namesake of the congregation – St. Cecilia – an often over looked early Roman martyr, a young bride whose devotion to serving Christ as a virgin ended up converting her pagan husband to the faith and ended up leading to their execution. Her body was found incorruptible after one thousand years of burial, when it was exhumed in the sixteenth century.
The Nashville miracle
The story of Catholic Nashville would be incomplete without mentioning the recent miracle that occurred in the suburb of Dickson in 2015. Dickson is the hometown of the Schachles family, whose son Mikey was diagnosed in the womb with both Downs Syndrome and an incurable illness – fetal hydrops – for which the doctors gave zero chance of survival. The family prayed for the intercession of Fr. Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus, promising to name their son after him if cured of the illness. Sure enough, Mikey was born alive on May 15, 2015, the same day that Fr. McGivney had established the first Knights of Columbus Council and was declared cured of the fetal hydrops. This was the miracle that was later approved by the Vatican, clearing the way for Fr. McGivney’s beatification in 2020.
Before leaving town
While the sites linked to country music dominate the city, they are by no means the entirety of what Nashville has to offer. In the downtown, you can find a full scale replica of Greece’s Parthenon (which doubles as the city’s art gallery), visit the Tennessee State Museum, or take self guided tour of the one of the oldest continuously operating State Capitol’s in the country. The tomb of former President James Polk is located on the grounds of the Capitol. Nearby is the famed Hermitage, the long time home and “southern White House” of President Andrew Jackson. Other “only in Nashville” experiences include viewing the largest collection of European cars at the Lane Auto Museum or touring the Johnny Cash Museum. And not to be overlooked, Nashville is a fantastic sports town, home to both the NHL’s Nashville Predators and the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.
CATHOLIC CONCIERGE 
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