St. John`s Catholic Church

About this property

St. John's Catholic Church, established in 1834, is an historic Roman Catholic parish church in Worcester, Massachusetts. It is the oldest established Catholic religious institution in the city, and the oldest Catholic parish in New England outside of Boston. On March 5, 1980, its 1845 church building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Catholics immigrated to the Worcester area as early as 1826. Most of them were Irish people hired to build the railroads and the Blackstone Canal. When they first settled, they had no clergy with them. Since all of the churches were Protestant, Robert Laverty, a private citizen, petitioned Bishop Benedict Fenwick of Boston to assign a priest to celebrate mass in Worcester. In result, Father James Fitton, a Boston native, visited Worcester monthly starting in 1834. He laid the foundation for a church on Front Street, known as "Christ's Church". That structure was completed in 1836 and served as a church, rectory, Sunday school, and infirmary. After 2,000 parishioners had joined the church, a new building was needed. The current building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was constructed at number 44 Temple Street in 1845 and dedicated in honor of St. John in 1846. Besides that building, Father Fitton established Mount Saint James Seminary, which became the College of the Holy Cross in 1839. The Society of Jesus bought the school in 1843, and still own and operate it today. From 1836 to 1848, the Penobscot Indians visited the church each winter from Maine. The current presbytery in use was built in 1865. When the Diocese of Springfield was established in 1870, Father Patrick T. O'Reilly was appointed the first Bishop of Springfield. He made the house the chancery for Springfield, and kept his pastorship at St. John's. When the Worcester Diocese was established in 1950, St. John's was (and still is) known as "The Mother Church of the Diocese". However, because of the architectural elements, St. Paul's Parish on Chatham Street was selected as the cathedral for the See of Worcester. A Novena of Grace in honor of St. Francis Xavier had been held every March 4–12 since 1922. The first charismatic prayer group in Worcester began meeting in 1970. The group is still active. A vigil mass at 9:15 PM on Saturday has been held from the 1980s to 2008. On Labor Day weekend in 2004, the interior ceiling collapsed into the sanctuary, destroying the altar and baptistry. Mass was celebrated that weekend on the parish lawn and from thenceforth at sister parish, Ascension Church, on Vernon Street, until the beginning of 2005. That weekend, masses were moved to the basement church, where space was limited. All celebrations of Confirmation and First Communion were moved to St. Paul's Cathedral to accommodate the large crowd.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Worcester County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Worcester County.

More historic places in Massachusetts

Browse all historic places in Massachusetts.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Massachusetts history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.