St. Anthony Messenger: The Hidden Sanctuary of Holy Angels

If a book were written about their 70 years of service, they say it would be titled Behind the Bushes. Every day, tens of thousands of cars make their way down Charlotte’s busy Wilkinson Boulevard, past giant, whimsical, topiary letters that spell Holy Angels. What goes on behind those bushes? Few know. I live a mile away, and I didn’t know. 

It was some Catholic thing, I figured, when I moved to Belmont, North Carolina. Follow the defunct trolley tracks north of Holy Angels for a mile and you’ll run into Belmont Abbey College, founded in 1876 by Benedictine monks. Follow the tracks south and you’ll end up on the far side of Holy Angels, on the grounds of the Sisters of Mercy, a convent founded in 1892. Take the tracks south a little more, and you’ll be in Belmont’s charming downtown, where shops like Bliss Gallery, Cherub’s Cafe, and the Cotton Candy Factory are run by Holy Angels and staffed with employees who have Down syndrome or other intellectual and developmental disabilities. Still I was unaware of the scope of Holy Angels until this story took me there—until I journeyed behind the bushes...

Read the remainder of this feature in the March 2025 issue of the St. Anthony Messenger HERE. This is the third article in a series that shares stories of ministries or organizations that are doing healing work in the world. Click HERE to subscribe to the St. Anthony Messenger.