Most Holy Trinity Church, Mamaroneck

Most Holy Trinity Church

Most Holy Trinity Church's front facade
Most Holy Trinity Church
40°57′01″N 73°43′52″W / 40.9501456°N 73.7311748°W / 40.9501456; -73.7311748
Location 320 East Boston Post Road
Mamaroneck, New York
Country United States
Denomination Roman Catholic
History
Founded 1874
Dedication 1886
Architecture
Functional status Special occasion use
Style Gothic Revival
Completed 1886
Administration
Parish Most Holy Trinity-Saint Vito
Archdiocese Archdiocese of New York
Clergy
Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan
Pastor(s) Msgr. James E. White

Most Holy Trinity Church, located on the Boston Post Road, is a historic Roman Catholic church in the Latin Right parish of Most Holy Trinity-Saint Vito in the Archdiocese of New York, in Mamaroneck.

Parish history

Most Holy Trinity Church began as St. Thomas Church, built in 1867. It was a mission of Blessed Sacrament church in New Rochelle N.Y..The mission became a parish in 1874, then the present church was built by 1885 and renamed Most Holy Trinity.[1]

Most Holy Trinity was originally known as the church of St. Thomas when it stood at the corner of Spruce Street and Boston Post Road. The founder Reverend Thomas McLaughlin was a pastor in New Rochelle and visited the Mamaroneck area once a month by wagon to attend to any parochial details. During his tenure, 12 churches were built in the original territory of his jurisdiction and Mamaroneck was one of them. It was an old tradition that father McLaughlin visited Mamaroneck once a month, saying mass in private homes and in the "Old Red House" which stood at the bank of the Mamaroneck River near Prospect Avenue, in the rear of the Hook and Ladder Company. During this time, baptisms, confirmations, first communion and marriages of the Mamaroneck Catholics took place in New Rochelle at a church called Saint Matthews, the first Catholic Church in New Rochelle. This church was later named Blessed Sacrament.

One of the parish's early pastors, Rev. Isidore Meister, was responsible for the construction of a new stone church building. Parishioners helped collect and save money and the project was completed in 1886. The new building was dedicated on Sunday, August 15, 1886 by Archbishop Corrigan. Since then, succeeding pastors worked to add on to the parish with a school, convent, rectory and gymnasium.

Most Holy Trinity Parish School (1st-8th grade), originally erected in 1928, was run by the Sisters of Charity of New York. At its inception the Sisters, living at Saint Vincent's Retreat Center (presently the Hospital), traveled to and fro by surrey driven by the church custodian, Patrick Murphy. They commuted for 28 years until a convent was built on site in 1914. The Franciscan Sisters of Hastings also taught at the school. The school closed in 1987.[2]

On November 2, 2014 the Archdiocese of New York announced as part of its "Making All Things New" round of church closures that Most Holy Trinity Parish would be merged with the Parish of Saint Vito also located in Mamaroneck, New York. As of August 2015,[3] the church is part of the newly formed parish of Most Holy Trinity-Saint Vito with no regularly scheduled masses occurring at Most Holy Trinity Church. The parish is served by the Knights of Columbus, Council 2247.[4]

Church art and stained glass windows

Most Holy Trinity Church is known for its beautiful stained glass windows. The windows depict the following:

Left side of the church (from front to rear): The Annunciation (Tabernacle area),

Holy Trinity Altar

Saint Stephen, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Saint Joseph with the child Jesus, Saint Ann with the child Mary, and Saint Isidore the Farmer.

Right side of the church (from front to rear): Saint Catherine of Alexandria (Baptismal area), Saint Bridget of Sweden, Saint Patrick, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Peter, Saint Gertrude the Great, and Saint Philip.

Above the altar (from left to right): Saint Athanasius, Saint Jerome, Saint Augustine, Saint Ambrose, The Holy Trinity (center), Saint Matthew, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Isidore of Seville, and Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Roof Level (Left side, front to back): Handing of the keys to Saint Peter, The Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus healing the sick.

Roof Level (Right side, front to back): The Annunciation, The Nativity, and the finding of Jesus in the Temple

Pastors

The first pastor of Holy Trinity was Father Christopher A. Farrell. Other former pastors include: Bishop Joseph P. Donahue, 1913 to 1924, who eventually became vicar general of the archdiocese of N.Y., Father Francis P. Duffy, who served there in the early part of the twentieth century (Duffy was known as the chaplain of the Fighting 69th Regiment in World War I), and also Father Thomas Kelly, 1942 to 1952, who had been the confessor of Rose Hawthorne, daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne and the founder of the Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer. More recent pastors have included Msgr. Thomas Darby, 1969 to 1976, and Msgr. John Mulroy, 1976 to 1989. Father Joseph F. Irwin[5] was appointed to Mamaroneck in 1989. He was succeeded by Father Robert P. Henry in 2012 who served until the merger in 2015.[6]

Msgr. James E. White is the current Pastor of Most Holy Trinity-Saint Vito Parish.[7]

Holy Trinity Tabernacle

References

  1. ↑ http://cny.org/stories/Parish-of-Life,3006?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=Father+Irwin&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=&sub_type=stories&town_id
  2. ↑ http://www.mhtmamaroneck.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71&Itemid=95
  3. ↑ http://archny.org/documents/2015/2/33_Saint_Vito_Mamaroneck___Most_Holy_Trinity_Mamaroneck.pdf
  4. ↑ http://www.knightsofcolumbusmamaroneck.com/
  5. ↑ http://www.archny.org/parish-search/index.cfm
  6. ↑ http://cny.org/stories/Clergy-Appointments-,7795?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=mamaroneck&search_headline=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=&sub_type=stories&town_id=
  7. ↑ http://www.stvitochurch.com/
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