The history of St. Mary's Church in Dedham, Massachusetts begins with the first mass said in Dedham, Massachusetts in 1843 and runs to the present day.
From the first mass with only eight Catholics present, St. Mary's grew into one of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston. The first church constructed by the congregation was quickly outgrown, and so a second church was built on High Street. Designed to be a "cathedral in the wilderness," it is "the largest and most imposing church in the town" and "one of the most conspicuous edifices" in the town.
Several parishes have grown out of St. Mary's, most recently St. Susanna's. Today it has a large Life Teen program, and over 40 other programs for parishioners.
Early history First Catholics The history of Catholicism in Dedham begins in 1758, 120 years after the settlement of the Contentment Plantation and two decades before the American Revolution. During the French and Indian War, the British expelled over 11,000 Acadians from what is today Nova Scotia. Eleven of them resettled in Dedham, and though the town and the Massachusetts Bay colony were both officially Congregationalist, they were allowed to reside here as "French neutrals" until they returned to Canada in 1760.
After the Acadians returned to Canada in 1760, Dedham would not see another Catholic resident for decades. The townsfolk would not always be so welcoming. When an Irishman and his wife came to visit friends in the village of Dedham, the Selectmen asked them to leave as soon as possible.
The first Catholic who spent any length of time in Dedham was a Mr. Gill, who lived in what is today known as Riverdale, but was then called Dedham Island. The first few Catholics who lived in Dedham would have to travel 16 miles to St. Joseph's in Roxbury, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Franklin Street in Boston, or to St. Mary's in Waltham to attend Mass.
Early Masses By the early 1800s, a few Catholics had settled in Dedham. The first Mass in Dedham was celebrated in Sunday, May 15, 1843, in the home of Daniel Slattery, with eight Catholics present. An altar was set up by the window. At the time, Dedham and the surrounding area was part of the missionary territory of St. Mary's in Waltham. Though a large area, stretching as far west as Concord and as far south as Walpole, it is estimated there were fewer than 300 Catholics.
It was difficult for many to travel to Waltham, and so Strain offered to travel halfway to meet the Catholics in the outlying areas. Slattery offered his home and to provide Strain with transportation. For the next three years Slattery's 17-year-old brother-in-law, John Doggett, would bring Father James Strain from Waltham and back to minister to the needs of the small congregation.
By 1846, the Catholic community in Dedham was established enough that the town became part of the mission of St. Joseph's Church in Roxbury. The geographic boundaries of the town were much larger at the time, however, and only one Catholic boy lived in the central village in 1850. Fr. Patrick O'Beirne continued to say mass in the Slattery home.
Slattery was well regarded among his fellow Dedhamites and, when his wife died in 1849, the hands of the clock were stopped at the hour of her death. The unusual occurrence of a Catholic funeral mass elicited much interest around the town.
Slattery moved to Needham in 1854. This, plus the flood of Irish immigrants escaping the Great Famine necessitated holding Mass in the Temperance Hall, often by Father Patrick O'Beirne. Mass was also occasionally celebrated in the Crystal Palace on Washington Street. Worshipers came from Dedham, South Dedham, West Dedham, and West Roxbury. Ordained for less than a decade, the 33-year-old O'Beirne had charge of the Catholics in Dedham, Norwood, Randolph, Holliston, Walpole, and Needham, as well as Roxbury.
First church
The number and devotion of the first parishioners permitted a church to be constructed within 10 years. In 1856 the cornerstone was laid, and in 1857, the first St. Mary's Church was completed on Washington Street between Spruce and Marion Streets. It could seat 700 people.
On Easter Sunday, April 12, 1857, Father O'Beirne said Mass for the first time in a new church that could seat 600. Reading from the 20th chapter of John's Gospel, Father O'Beirne proclaimed the news of Jesus' empty tomb.
Parish growth The large growth in the number of Catholics in the area in the middle of the 19th century made the original St. Mary's too small. Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine in the 1840s, followed by Germans in the 1850s. There was also a considerable number of French Canadians. Italians and Eastern Europeans came later in the century. Many took up residence in East Dedham to work in the mills along Mother Brook. By July 1878, the church was out of repair and it had a mortgage debt of $3,000.
During this time, St. Mary's was responsible for the mission in South Dedham, which later separated and became the Town of Norwood. Like those closer to the center of town, South Dedhamites would travel to either Roxbury or to nearby Canton for Mass, but eventually Mass was offered several times a year in the home of Patrick Fahey. By 1860, a priest was available to say mass in South Dedham every other week.
During the Civil War, the Dedham Transcript wrote that "Almost to a man," the Catholic men of Dedham "answered Lincoln's call," and sadly "no church in Dedham lost so many men in proportion to their numbers as did St. Mary's." Their patriotism and deaths did much to counter the anti-Catholic bias that existed in town. The war put a great strain on O'Beirne's health, and in 1866 Fr. John P. Brennan, O'Beirne's nephew, became the parish's resident pastor.
In 1880, the pastor of St. Mary's was also responsible for churches in South Dedham, East Dedham, and West Roxbury. During this decade, Father Johnson was publicly raising the issue of discrimination against Catholics in the public schools. In 1885, as a member of the School Committee, he claimed the principal of the Avery School ridiculed Catholic students, and several years later had a lengthy debate with a Protestant minister via letters in the Dedham Standard about the "rank misrepresentation of the Catholic Church" in a history book adopted by the School Committee.
In 1890 there were an estimated 2,000 parishioners, including 957 Irish, 250 English-speaking Canadians, 58 French,19 Italians and 1 Portuguese. There were 400 students in the Sunday School classes in 1884.
Construction of the new church
In 1867, a house was purchased on High Street by Father John Brennan and was converted into a rectory. Plans were then made for a new church to be constructed at this location. The larger part of the church lot was purchased after Johnson's arrival in 1878. In February 1880, it was announced that Albert W. Nickerson, a Protestant who had business in Boston, had paid off the parish's $800 debt, allowing the congregation to commence work on a new building. This was welcome news, as the parish was bankrupt at the time.
Cornerstone ceremony
The cornerstone of the present church was laid at 3:00 on October 17, 1880 by Archbishop John Williams. A crowd of between 4,000 and 5,000 people attended, and special trains were run from Boston and Norwood to accommodate all those who wished to attend. It was one of the largest gatherings in Dedham's history.
The congregation marched from their present building on Washington Street to the site of the new church on the High Street for the ceremony. Included in the procession were the Holy Name Society, the Young Men's Lyceum, the Rosary Society, the Young Ladies Solidarity, the St. Aloysius Society of Boys, and the Children of Sacred and Holy Angels Solidarity.
The crowd included many of the leading citizens of Dedham as well as 30 priests. The clergy included Johnson, St. Mary's pastor, Father Theodore Metcalf of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross who served as Master of Ceremonies, and Father Joseph Henning of Roxbury who gave a homily. The Cathedral choir sang and Higgins's band provided music, as did the united choirs of Dedham.
Williams blessed the cornerstone and the place where the foundation was to be poured, as well as the white cross that marked the location of the future altar.
Construction The current church was constructed next door to the rectory Father Brennan established on High Street. A week before the cornerstone ceremony, on October 10, 1880, a building used as a bath by male parishioners of St. Raphael's in East Dedham was torn down in order to be used as a staging ground for the construction of the new church.
Shortly after construction began, a large about of solid rock was found below the surface which had to be removed. The interior walls were plastered by William B. Gould, an escaped slave who settled in Dedham. One of Gould's employees improperly mixed the plaster and, even though it was not visible by looking at it, Gould insisted that it be removed and reapplied correctly at his own great expense. Another contractor did not complete the work he was hired to do, delaying progress.
The new church was designed by Patrick W. Ford, an architect with offices on School Street in Boston, and built by Welch and Delano. They were charged with hiring 18 Dedham men to complete the basement, as well as a master mechanic to serve as superintendent. Construction began on June 28, 1880, and in 1883 The Dedham Transcript wrote that "The plastering of the new catholic church is nearly finished, the windows put in place, and everything betokens an early occupancy of the basement."
While the upper church was still under construction, the lower church was used for Mass and the upper portion for various fairs and other gatherings. The first mass was said in the lower church at 10:30 a.m. on October 24, 1886. The crowd was overflowing, and included 20 Protestants, many of local importance, and a choir from St. Peter's in South Boston. The church, though "in constant use," would not be completed for another 20 years after the cornerstone was laid.
Dedication
After 20 years of working, praying, and fundraising from the meager immigrant wages of many of the parishioners, the Upper Church was finally completed. It took so long that another architect had to take over but was, Father Fleming said, "almost too beautiful for ordinary use." One critic said that though some parishes in the area have more people than did the entire town of Dedham, "few parishes in Boston can boast of a more impressive Church" than St. Mary's. Another said it was second to none in the archdiocese.
The upper church was completed and dedicated by Archbishop Williams on September 9, 1900 at 10:00 a.m. In addition to Williams, Archbishop Sebastiano Martinelli, the papal delegate to the United States, attended, as did Bishop Denis Mary Bradley of New Hampshire. The crowd, numbered at 1,200, included the communion class and many prominent citizens of the Town, including Protestants. The dedication packed the church, requiring many to stand, and tickets were required to enter.
The ceremony began with a procession of clergy from the rectory to the church, where a prayer was chanted on the porch at the top of the stairs. The clergy then walked around the building, blessing the walls with holy water. Back on the porch, the litany of the Saints was said before the interior walls were sprinkled with holy water. A final prayer was said in the sanctuary to complete the dedication.
Martinelli then said the first mass in the upper church with a number of clergy from the surrounding areas present. Music was provided by a choir of 30, plus four soloists and part of the Germania Orchestra of Boston.
In his homily, which the Boston Globe published, Bradley said that