SS Rita and Patrick

SS. Rita & Patrick
Fillmore and Eagle Streets, Buffalo NY (1920 - )

St. Patrick's, Seymour and Emslie Streets (1854 - 1981)
St. Monica's, 206 Orlando Street (1912 - 1995)

Saints Rita and Patrick Parish is the consolidation of three parishes as result of Buffalo's shrinking population. In 1981, St. Rita's and St. Patrick's merged. St. Rita's smaller and newer church became the home of the combined parish and the former St. Patricks was demolished.

In 1995, following the mandatory retirement of Monsignor William A. Setlock, St. Monica's Parish was closed. The ninety families of St. Monica's elected to join SS. Rita and Patrick's. On the feast of St. Monica, they held a ceremonial walk to the top of the Seneca Street bridge where they were met by members of SS. Rita and Patrick's. In the procession parishioners carried their statue of St. Monica, which now stands in front of SS Rita and Patrick's. St. Monica's was demolished in 1999.

Saint Rita's was formed to serve the needs of Slovakian's who settled in Buffalo in the 1890's and early1900's. This was a period of Austro-Hungarian immigration that is also marked by the formation of several Magyar churches in Buffalo and Lackawanna. Although Slovakian history goes back thousands of years it has only been since the fall of the Iron Curtain that there has been formal country of Slovakia. Before that they were reluctant members of Czechoslovakia and of the Magyar's in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Here is a link for the history of Slovakia.

The formation of St. Rita's was not easy and came to fruition after ten years of hard work by the Sacred Heart Society. The society was formed by Joseph Lovas and his son Paul in 1910. Not only did the society need to raise funds to build a church but they also needed to recruit a Slovakian pastor. In 1918 they found their pastor in the Rev.Louis Smelko and on September 5th 1920, St. Rita's was formally dedicated.

References:
Houses of Worship: A Guide to the Religious Architecture of Buffalo, New York (1995), Masters Thesis by James Napora.

	Next to the church is this Statue of St. Ann, the inscription reads " To the honor and glory of Saint Ann, and in loving memory of Suzanna Sekelsky and John Sekelsky who were among the original founders of this parish.". The statue was erected in 1958. History of St. Rita's written in 1929 by Rev. Thomas Donohue, D.D. Yahoo Map
		Kostol is Slovakian for Church.

Saint. Patrick's Friary on 102 Seymour Street, to left is where the former St. Patrick's Church stood.

The picture of St. Patrick's (above) is from a souvenir booklet celebrating the consecration of Bishop Colton in 1903.

Originally named St. Vincent de Paul, St. Patrick's was renamed in 1858 following the closing of Old St. Patrick's on Ellicott and Batavia (Broadway) Streets.

History of St. Patrick's written in 1929 by Rev. Thomas Donohue, D.D.

Yahoo Map

This is the lot where St. Monica's once stood.

History of St. Monica's written in 1929 by Rev. Thomas Donohue, D.D.

Yahoo Map

Text of Buffalo News articles about the closing of St Monica's on August 19, 1995 and its demolition on November 10th 1999.

MEETING ON SENECA ST. BRIDGE TO SYMBOLIZE UNION OF TWO PARISHES

Published on August 19, 1995
Author: MIKE VOGEL - News Staff Reporter
© The Buffalo News Inc.
Bridging a boundary that once separated Buffalo neighborhoods, members of two Catholic parishes will join this month in a ceremony that will close one aging church and strengthen another.

On Aug. 27, Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz will lead parishioners from St. Monica's Catholic Church in their last parish Mass -- a celebration that will end with the carrying of a statue of St. Monica from her 82-year-old Orlando Street church to the Seneca Street bridge over city railroad tracks. At the top of the bridge, the procession will be welcomed by the congregation of SS. Rita & Patrick Catholic Church, the parishioners' new home.

"We will walk up to the top of the bridge and meet them at noon," said the Rev. Ronald Pecci, pastor of SS. Rita & Patrick at Fillmore Avenue and Eagle Street. "That's sort of the bridge that marked the dividing line between the two neighborhoods."

The ceremony, with color guards and a bagpipe band, will mark a consolidation of parishes under the Diocese of Buffalo's "New Visions" plan, designed to help the diocese meet a future with fewer priests.

With the retirement of Monsignor William A. Setlock at the end of May, a month after he reached the mandatory retirement age of 75, parishioners at St. Monica's had to confront that future immediately. The diocese told them it could provide neither a new pastor or a part-time priest, for a small and declining congregation in a region with other churches nearby.

"St. Monica's has gone down considerably in the last 15 years, in terms of its size and its programs," Father Pecci said.

Father Pecci, who also serves as regional coordinator for the region that includes the Old First Ward and part of the East Side, was named administrator of St. Monica's in June. Parishioners were given surveys to determine whether they wanted simply to disperse or to join another parish as a group.

St. Teresa's on Seneca Street or St. Stephen's and the Shrine of St. Jude on Elk Street seemed possibilities, but almost all of the 90 families surveyed saw it another way.

"The majority, 87 percent, chose to go to SS. Rita & Patrick, which surprised everyone, including me," said Father Pecci.

The union melds cultures. The Slavic heritage of St. Rita's, the original church, joined to an Irish legacy when the former St. Patrick's Church was closed and demolished, now gains St. Monica's traditions as well. And while St. Monica's always has been run by diocesan priests, SS. Rita & Patrick is a Franciscan-administered parish.

But the parishioners of St. Monica's saw an advantage in joining a small parish.

"They wouldn't get lost, as they might have at a larger parish like St. Teresa's," said Father Pecci.

The union is not a merger. St. Monica's will close and its debt to the diocese will be retired, as the parishioners join their new church en masse.

"The operations out of there will cease as of Aug. 27," Father Pecci said. "The group chose that date because it happens to be the feast of St. Monica, and it falls on a Sunday this year."

Father Pecci and parishioners from both churches have been paving the way for this consolidation for several months. Parishioners attended each other's church picnics, and about 80 members of SS. Rita & Patrick Church joined St. Monica's parishioners for a church pot-luck supper.

Three St. Monica's parishioners also have been elected to the SS. Rita & Patrick parish council, and Father Pecci said "there aren't a lot of new people to get to know."

The Sunday ceremonies will cement the bonds that already have formed. After the 10:30 a.m. Mass celebrated by Bishop Grosz at St. Monica's, the statue of the church's patron saint will be carried ceremonially from the church and placed on a carrier for the procession through Orlando and Seneca streets.

Participants in the Fillmore Avenue church's 11 a.m. Mass will meet the procession at the bridge at noon, and after prayers of welcome the combined group will escort the statue the

three-quarters of a mile to SS. Rita & Patrick.

Knights of St. John, parish Girl Scout and Brownie troops, a color guard from Leonard Post Jr. Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars, of Cheektowaga and the Caledonia Pipe and Drum Band will take part in the procession.

The statue of St. Monica will be installed in a place of honor at SS. Rita & Patrick, and some church furnishings will be moved for use by the newly-consolidated parish, Father Pecci said.

The aging St. Monica's building, with a second-floor school built over the church itself, will be taken over by the diocese.
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DEMOLITION OF ST. MONICA'S NEARS COMPLETION

Published on November 10, 1999
Author: DAVE CONDREN

News Religion Reporter
© The Buffalo News Inc.
St. Monica's Catholic Church, which served residents of Buffalo's Old First Ward for more than 80 years, soon will be only a memory.

A demolition crew from Arric Corp. of Lancaster is expected to finish removing rubble from the three-story church and former rectory at 206 Orlando St. by Nov. 24. The work, undertaken by the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo at a cost of $200,000, began in June. Monsignor David M. Lee, diocesan communications director, said the 18,000-square-foot site will be graded, seeded and maintained by the diocese until a decision is made on a new use for the land.

The demolition was expensive and time-consuming, Monsignor Lee said, because it involved removing asbestos and large storage tanks that held fuel oil used for heating the complex.

The church building contained worship space on the first floor, a school on the second floor and a parish hall on the third floor.

The church closed Aug. 27, 1995 -- the feast of St. Monica -- a brief time after its pastor retired and the congregation declined to about 90 families. The diocese said it could not provide a new pastor or part-time priest to serve the parish, which was founded in 1912.

The Sunday that the parish closed, Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz offered the last Mass in the church and then led parishioners, carrying a statue of St. Monica, in a procession to the Seneca Street bridge over city railroad tracks. There they were met by members of SS. Rita and Patrick Church, the congregation that most members of St. Monica's chose to join.

SHARON CANTILLON/Buffalo News