St Catherine of Siena Catholic Church

From Bhamwiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

St Catherine of Siena Catholic Church was a Catholic parish church in Pratt City. It was founded in 1881 and merged into St Patrick Catholic Church in Adamsville in 1988.

Father John J. Browne, resident pastor at St Paul's Cathedral in Birmingham, visited four Catholic families at Pratt Mines and led services at the home of engineer Thomas Devereaux there and soon made Pratt a regular monthly stop. On October 24, 1881 John Quinlan, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Mobile, purchased a 1-acre lot for a new parish church for $1 from the Pratt Coal & Coke Company. A frame building was hastily erected and became the home of St Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, a mission of St Paul's. In addition to Pratt City, the mission also served the rapidly-growing communities of Ensley, Wylam, Brookside, Edgewater, and East Thomas. A small Catholic school, taught by Mary Rabitte, was constructed next to the church in 1891.

In 1896 the mission had grown sufficiently to establish St Catherine of Siena as a parish. A new larger building was erected that year. It was joined to the schoolhouse, which was then newly staffed by three Benedictine sisters from Holy Angels Convent who commuted from Birmingham by the dummy railroad. Louis Galland was assigned as the parish's first resident pastor in January 1897 and a rectory was soon constructed for him on an adjoining parcel, purchased by Bishop Edward Allen from the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company for $10. On June 22, 1898 Allen purchased an additional parcel for $33.20 and a small convent was built for the schoolteachers, newly led by Sister Auxila. The Ancient Order of Hibernians was credited in a sermon by Father O'Reilly for helping the parish raise funds and labor for these building projects.

On December 10, 1917 the church and school were destroyed in a fire. It was reported that the fire in the unoccupied building originated with a faulty furnace. The parish rebuilt the schoolhouse in brick, and used it for church services until a new brick church building could be completed. It was dedicated by Bishop Allen on May 4, 1919.

On June 19, 1925 another early-morning fire destroyed the convent serving the parish school. The cause of that fire was not determined. The church was able to rebuild the sisters' domicile in brick as well.

During the pastorate of Joseph Sheridan, the parish ceded a strip of land to construct a new road. It was named Sheridan Road in his honor. During the long tenure of Alban O'Hara major renovations and improvements were made to the church buildings. A new St Catherine School was constructed in 1960, but it closed in 1968 with its students transferring to St Joseph Catholic School in Ensley. Soon later, the newly-established West Catholic Grammar School of Religious Education opened in the schoolhouse. The former convent was remodeled into a new rectory for Father Patrick Sullivan and the former rectory was torn down.

Sullivan led the process of St Catherine of Siena merging with three other parishes to form the new St Patrick Catholic Church in Adamsville. Their new building was dedicated in 1988 and the church building in Pratt, damaged by storms, was torn down.

Pastors

References