Saint Mary's Church

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August 1643 St. Isaac Jogues, Jesuit missionary and prisoner of the Mohawk Iroquois, crept away from his Indian captors during a visit to the Dutch Fort Orange ( Albany ). With the aid of the Dutch colonists he was hidden in a barn which stood on the spot of our present church. Escaping by boat to New York City, he returned to his Iroquois and eventually was killed by the Mohawks on the site of Auriesville, New York. September 1643 One month after St. Isaac Jogues escape, the Iroquois brought to Fort Orange another Jesuit captive, Fr. Antoine Poncet de la Riviere. This time the Indians were more careful about their prisoner. But Fr. Poncet did have the opportunity to administer the Sacrament of Penance for the first time on the site of Albany. He heard the confessions of a merchant from Brussels and a young man who was on the way to becoming a picturesque frontiersman and explorer Pierre Espret Radison. October 5th 1785 On this date the corner-stone of St. Peter s Church in New York City was placed. St. Peter s was not only the first Catholic Church in New York City but, it was the first permanent Catholic Church building in the whole State. April 30th 1789 General George Washington was inaugurated in New York as the First President of the United States under the federal constitution. On November 6th, Pope Pius V1 named Fr. John Carroll founding Bishop of Baltimore. The Diocese of Baltimore embraced all of New York State and the whole of the United States as it then existed. October 6th 1796 Albany Area Catholics met to organize as a congregation. Seeking legal status, they incorporated as The Roman Catholic Church in the City of Albany, and their certificate of incorporation was recorded on October 13. The state law by which they secured this status was that of April 6, 1784, which vested full control of church administration in a board of lay trustees. The first Board elected for St. Mary s was Thomas Barry, Louis LaCouteulx, Daniel McEvers, Terence O Donnell, James Robicheaux, Jeremiah Driskil, Michael Begley, William Donovan and Philip Farrel. ( LaCouteulx later moved to Buffalo and became a pioneer Catholic leader there. ) 179 7 Shortly after the incorporation in 1796 the trustees moved to build a church in Albany. ( Mass had already been offered there occasionally in the homes of Mrs. Margaret Cassidy and William Duffy. The celebrant was quite likely a Capuchin priest, namely Fr. Thomas Flynn, who was doing missionary work between Fort Stanwix the future Rome, New York and Albany in the period 1796 1804. September 13th 1797 As the plans for building of the first church of St. Mary s unfolded, the City Corporation of Albany, by unanimous vote, made the new congregation the gift of a church lot on Pine Street, between Barrack and Lodge Streets. Albany s Catholics were still few, and most of them were not prosperous. The trustees had therefore to look to others for donations such as Protestants at home, Catholics in other locales. Thomas Barry even turned to Canada for donations. Their drive was not completely successful, but most of the costs were covered. There being no priest on hand, apparently Thomas Barry laid the cornerstone on September 13, 1797. July 31st 1798 The Government of the State of New York officially designated Albany as the State Capitol. In the Fall, St. Mary s ( though not fully completed until 1807 ) was opened for use. It was the second permanent Catholic Church built in New York State, and it served as the parish church of Upstate New York. It was the first church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in post-revolutionary New York State. Fall of 1798 The original St. Mary s Church was very modest. The building was brick and about 50 feet square. The door opened on Pine Street. There was no belfry; only a cross on the pyramid roof identified it as a church. The sanctuary inside was no more than 12 feet square while galleries ran along the south and west wal