Introduction

History:
Home
Introduction
Beginnings
St. Mary, Rockport
Stone Church
Age of the Streetcar
We Become a Parish
New School
Fr. Calvey
Building Traditions
Altar & Rosary
Calvey Club
Main School Bldg
Depression Years
Youth Organizations
War Years
Post-war Years
Parish Cemetery
Building Years
Aspects of Parish Life
Pastorate of Fr. Kelly
Hunger Center
Changing Needs
R.C.I.A.
Pastoral Council
Reaching Out
Parish Staff
Year of Celebration
Parish Leaders
Daughter Parishes

Other sections:
Calendar
Church & ministry
Scenes
School
Organizations

A stone structure, no matter how impressive, does not make a church. People gathered in worship make a church. Nothing illustrates that better than the humble beginnings of St. Patrick Church in West Park.

With a church on practically every corner in 1998, it's hard to imagine a time when one of the closest Catholic churches was in the next county. For the 40 or so Catholic families living in the southern part of Rockport Township in the mid-19th century - mostly Irish immigrants, some German - the nearest formal place of worship was St. Mary's on the Flats. The other two Catholic churches in the area were St. Mary, Avon, and St. Mary, Elyria.

Between long journeys to Sunday Mass and occasional visits from the Cleveland pastor, these families sustained their spiritual life with private and communal prayer, reading the Bible, and the support they gave to each other.

The community was finally organized as a parish in 1848. On March 17, in the home of a parishioner, Bishop Amadeus Rappe of the fledgling Cleveland diocese said Mass, heard confessions and baptized members of the new congregation. Monthly services continued in parishioners' homes until a frame church was completed in 1854.

As the 2,100 families comprising St. Patrick Church celebrate the parish's 150th anniversary, they can be proud to be part of the legacy of faith which began so modestly on the feast day of the church's patron.