St. Mary's Piscataway

HISTORY MARCHES ON

by: Rev. Kevin T. Hart

St. Mary's Parish is the 4th oldest parish in the Archdiocese of Washington. Our history goes back to 1640 when Fr. Andrew White, who arrived with the first group of English settlers in 1634, baptized Chitomachen, chief of the Piscataway Indians. It was 198 years later that the "little" church was first built in 1838, and rebuilt in 1904 and was dedicated by the famous John Cardinal Gibbons.

The modern history of St. Mary's began in 1855 when Fr. Paul Repetti reopened the parish which had been closed since 1928. Fr. Repetti found that the church was in serious disrepair, and the cemetery completely overgrown with bushes and brambles, and many of the tombstones knocked over. Only in looking at the "little" church now, and the immaculately groomed cemetery, can you appreciate the tremendous work that Msgr. Repetti accomplished by the time he died in 1985.

Both Msgr. Repetti, and his successor, Fr. Robert Nagel, dreamed of a new church that would accomodate the growing parish and began the process of saving the money to realize that dream. The design and building of the "new" church took place under the leadership of Fr. Paul Norton. The motto of our parish, "Building on the Past for the Future," was certainly an apt one. The time between the building of the "little" church in 1838 and the completion of the "new" church in 1988 is exactly 150 years. It was exactly 10 years ago this month that Cardinal James Hickey be with us once again to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our parish. His schedule would not allow it. So we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of our "new" church in the early part of the coming year.

The history of a parish is not the history of a building, but the many histories of the people who built it, paid for it, prayed in it, rejoiced in it and grieved in it. From that standpoint, the real history of a parish is not something written, but something that is known only to God Himself. You and I are all part of that history, a history that marches on. But let us cast our eyes backward, especially during this month of All Souls, and remember in prayer all the many now gone home to the Lord. May we continue on the path of faith they trod, and continue to build up the Body of Christ at St. Mary's Parish, in which, through Christ, they continue to be members.