All Saints Catholic Church is located in Manassas Virginia. It is the largest Catholic Church in terms of parishioners with more than 21,000 registered parishioners; making All Saints the largest Catholic parish in Virginia in terms of number of parishioners.

Description

Since 2008, the church has had a

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

façade A façade or facade (; ) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loanword from the French language, French (), which means "frontage" or "face". In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important asp ...

, it features a

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

that weighs over 1,000 pounds, which was the original bell used at the first All Saints Catholic Church. The church's current design was designed by Intec Group; it has a seating capacity of over 1,500. It features a large sanctuary with a centrally located

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...

History

All Saints Catholic Church was founded in 1879, as a mission church with less than 100

parishioners A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

, its jurisdiction extended north to the

Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...

, east to

Woodbridge Woodbridge may refer to: Places Australia *Woodbridge, Western Australia formerly called ''West Midland'' *Woodbridge, Tasmania Canada *Woodbridge, Ontario England *Woodbridge, Suffolk, the location of **Woodbridge (UK Parliament constituency ...

and

Triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

, and west to the

Bull Run Mountains The Bull Run Mountains are a mountain range of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Virginia in the United States. They are located approximately east of the main chain, across the Loudoun Valley. The Bull Run Mountains, together with Catoct ...

. Bishop William Elder dedicated All Saints Catholic Church in August 1879, the

cornerstone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

was laid on November 29, 1878, which was a relic of the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

dug up from the previous Wooden Church foundation; this cornerstone was moved to the chapel in 1974. All Saints continued later opening a school in 1957, and a new church was built in 1974; this church had a seating capacity of 860, yet it would soon become inadequate for the huge amount of people that would attend each

Sunday Sunday (Latin: ''dies solis'' meaning "day of the sun") is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. Sunday is a Christian sabbath, day of rest in most Western countries and a part of the Workweek and weekend, weekend. In some Middle Ea ...

, as a result of overcrowding they offered nine weekend liturgies, and also two Spanish masses. At the time this was one of the first parish's to offer the

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

in Spanish. In 1995, All Saints launched a Building Fund Campaign to raise

money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: m ...

for a larger church over ($6,000,000 US) were raised in order to build the current church, the old church would be used as an activity center, though on special occasions such as

Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday is a holy day of prayer and fasting in many Western Christian denominations. It is preceded by Shrove Tuesday and marks the first day of Lent: the seven weeks of Christian prayer, prayer, Religious fasting#Christianity, fasting and ...

Palm Sunday Palm Sunday is the Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in each of the four canonical Gospels. Its name originates from the palm bran ...

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

and other important Catholic Holidays is used as a Church in order to prevent

overcrowding Overcrowding or crowding is the condition where more people are located within a given space than is considered tolerable from a safety and health perspective. Safety and health perspectives depend on current environments and on local cultural ...

. This led to the eventual development of nearby parishes: St. Francis of Assisi in Triangle (1947), Our Lady of Angels in Woodbridge (1959), St. Timothy in Centreville (1969), Holy Family in Dale City (1970), and Holy Trinity in Gainesville (2001). On November 1, 2008, the current church building opened, then bishop Paul S. Loverde attended, while Rev. Robert C. Cilinski, opened the ceremony and thus established the current day church; On September 3, 2017

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Michael Francis Burbidge Michael Francis Burbidge (born June 16, 1957) is an American Catholic prelate who has served as Bishop of Arlington since 2016. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 2002 to 2006 and as Bishop o ...

established St. Gabriel's Mission to expand the needs for a Spanish-speaking ministry as a result of All Saints Catholic Church.

References

{{Improve categories, date=May 2025 Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington Churches in Virginia Catholic Church Manassas, Virginia Roman Catholic churches in Virginia

Description

History

See also

References