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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2009 /  St. Patrick Parish, Detroit, celebrates 150th anniversary

by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published September 25, 2009

Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic Following last Sunday's 150th anniversary Mass, Archbishop Allen Vigneron chats with Isabele Melo, who has been attending St. Patrick since coming from Brazil to study at Wayne State University Medical School.

Detroit - St. Patrick Parish in Detroit's midtown area began life 150 years ago in what was becoming one of Detroit's wealthiest neighborhoods, but has spent more than a half-century in one of the city's poorest.

And although today's St. Patrick Church - on Parsons Street, between Woodward and Cass - doesn't stand on the same site as the first one, we're talking pretty much the same neighborhood.

Archbishop Allen Vigneron acknowledged the parish's "complex" history in his homily at last Sunday's Mass celebrating St. Patrick's 150th anniversary.

The archbishop said he wouldn't ask a question he usually asks at parish anniversary celebrations - whether any of the parish's "pioneers" were present - but added he was confident "they're here in spirit."

"For 150 years, you and all your predecessors have been faithful in proclaiming Jesus Christ," he told the congregation made up of regular parishioners, former parishioners, and many who maintain at least an occasional connection to the parish.

Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic Long-time parishioner George McMahon talks with Racine Dominican Sr. Mary Watson, founding director of St. Patrick Senior Center, after last Sunday's Mass.

With only about 100 members, Franciscan Fr. Tod Laverty, its pastor, said it is "an exciting and very profound challenge to sustain the life of this parish, particularly under these very difficult economic conditions."

"We want to be the witnesses of Jesus here. There is a tremendous sense of social justice, a desire to make a difference in this neighborhood, but we don't know whether we'll be able to survive long enough to bring that about," he said.

George McMahon, a member for 46 years, said St. Patrick Parish "has been very influential in my life." He and his wife, Pat, live just a half-block from the church, and have been very involved over the years in the parish's efforts to reach out to people in the Cass Corridor area.

"St. Pat's has always served the most marginalized people, whether they be immigrants, drug addicts, prostitutes or whomever," he said.

Jerry Dajnowicz, who has been a member of St. Patrick Parish since St. Dominic Parish - with which it was clustered - closed six years ago, said he likes St. Patrick because "this is a true community - everybody's happy here."

While the parish's small numbers don't permit the range of services it once offered, its food pantry remains active, serving about 450 to 500 people a month, said Floria Ellison, Christian Service director.

And Ellison said the parish members are "like a family - we know when someone is missing."

"My mother died last month, and so many parishioners were calling me, showing genuine concern," she added.

That family feeling has kept some people attached to the parish, either as regular members or occasional visitors, even after they have moved far from midtown Detroit.

And the parish's Irish heritage continues to be honored by members of the Fraternal Order of United Irishmen, who sometimes swell the congregation and help raise money to support the parish and the neighboring St. Patrick Senior Center.

Although the senior center, which occupies the neighboring building that once housed Girls Catholic Central High School and St. Patrick Elementary School, it is a distinct organization.

But the senior center provides office space for the parish and its facilities can be used as a social hall. And Sr. Mary Watson, OP, its semi-retired founding director, said many parishioners volunteer at the senior center, "so we support each other."

The parish dates to 1859, when Fr. James Hennessy of SS. Peter & Paul Cathedral Parish wanted to open a "chapel of ease" to serve the many Irish immigrants who were working as servants in the big new houses that were being built in the Piety Hill neighborhood (east of Woodward from about the Fisher Freeway to Mack).

Services were first held in a house, but construction of the chapel began in 1862 on Adelaide Street at John R, with later enlargement into a church. And that church, renamed SS. Peter & Paul, served as the diocesan cathedral from 1890-1937, after Bishop Samuel Foley gave the original SS. Peter & Paul to the Jesuits in exchange for them coming to Detroit and funding a high school and university.

Today's St. Patrick Church was built as the Chapel of the Little Flower in 1926, predecessor of the National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak. It was renamed St. Patrick Church in 1973 after the old church was closed.