Old St. Joseph's Church is a church in

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, and was the first

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church in the city. The church was founded in 1733; the current building was dedicated in 1839.

History

Old St. Joseph's Church was founded by Joseph Greaton (1679–1753), an English

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

who came to

from

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in 1729 to establish a mission. He originally celebrated

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in his house at 321 Willings Alley. Father Greaton built the first chapel in 1733, almost certainly a house-chapel attached to his residence. The right of

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

in the

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from ...

to worship at the Romish Chapel was challenged the following year"Old St. Joseph's Catholic Church", VisitPhilly
/ref> by the deputy governor of Pennsylvania. The

Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from ...

ultimately decided not to ban celebration of Mass and cited

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quakers, Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonization of the Americas, British colonial era. An advocate of democracy and religi ...

's Charter of Privileges as controlling, despite the English penal laws. Nowhere else in the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America. The Thirteen C ...

could Catholics enjoy public worship to the extent possible in 18th-century Philadelphia. In 1757, the chapel was replaced by a larger church. The

Marquis de Lafayette Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette (; 6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (), was a French military officer and politician who volunteered to join the Conti ...

and the

Comte de Rochambeau Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (1 July 1725 – 10 May 1807) was a French Royal Army officer who played a critical role in the Franco-American victory at the siege of Yorktown in 1781 during the American Revolutionary War. ...

both worshiped at St. Joseph during their time in America."Old St. Joseph's Church & National Shrine", USHistory.org
/ref> Men from the American and French armies celebrated high mass at St. Joseph's after the victory at Yorktown. In 1793, a yellow fever epidemic swept the central area of Philadelphia, killing a tenth of the population. Old St. Joseph's established an orphanage to care for some of the many children left without families due to the epidemic. Fathers Egan, Carr and Hurley, James Oellers, Cornelius Tiers, Joseph Eck and John F. Hoares were among the most active benefactors of the orphans. At a meeting in 1806 by sanction of father Egan it was resolved to form : The Roman Catholic Society of St Joseph for the Maintenance and Education of Orphans, page 118 The church became racially integrated in the 1790s when slaves fleeing a revolution in

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settled in Philadelphia and some joined the church. St. Mary's Charity School educated these immigrants, ultimately leading to the establishment of St. Peter Claver School in Philadelphia in the 19th century. Nearby

St. Mary's Church St. Mary's Church, St. Mary the Virgin's Church, St. Mary Church, Saint Mary Church, or other variations on the name, is a commonly used name for specific churches of various Christian denominations. Notable uses of the term may refer to: Albania ...

, built in 1763, was used for grander occasions, and was visited by public dignitaries such as George Washington and John Adams.

Parish

Old St. Joseph's Church remains an active parish of the

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, run by the Jesuit fathers, with Daily Mass at 12:05pm Monday through Saturday, and Sunday Masses at 7:30am, 9:30am, and 11:30am.

Architecture

The church structure is nearly impossible to see from the street. One story relates that

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advised Father Greaton to protect the church, since religious prejudice existed in the largely

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city at the time. The front wall of the church is a party wall to a neighboring structure and so provides no means of entry. The entrance from Willings Alley remains through a narrow arch with iron gates, which opens to an unassuming courtyard that conceals the nature of the church building. (On two occasions, in 1740 and 1755, Quakers helped defend St. Joseph's original chapel to prevent Protestant mobs from destroying it.) Today the only entrances to the sanctuary are on either side, toward the back of the church, because there are unrelated buildings before and behind the church building on Walnut and Fourth Streets. The present church is the third on the site and was dedicated in 1839. Parishioner John Darragh was the builder-architect. In 1886, major renovations were undertaken by architect John J. Deery. Other renovations by architects Walter Francis Ballinger and Emil George Perrot took place in 1904."Old St. Joseph's Church", Historic Campus Architecture Project, Council of Independent Colleges
/ref>

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's ''"The Angelic Exaltation of St. Joseph into Heaven'' (1886), a circular painting in diameter, is affixed to the ceiling. It depicts St. Joseph surrounded by angels with an infant Jesus on his lap bearing lilies, the flower associated with the saint. Done in the Italian Neoclassical style that dominated Catholic churches in the late 19th century, it has been recognized as historically significant by the Philadelphia Historical Commission. The large painting of the Crucifixion, above the altar, was executed about 1840 by parishioner Sylvano Martinez.

Education

The designated parochial school for Old St. Joseph's Church is St. Mary Interparochial Grade School.

Legacy

Eight Catholic dioceses trace their roots to Jesuit missionaries from Old St. Joseph's.

St. John Neumann John Nepomucene Neumann (, , ; March 28, 1811 – January 5, 1860) was a Bohemian-born American prelate of the Catholic Church. An immigrant from Bohemia, he came to the United States in 1836, where he was ordained, joined the Redemptorist o ...

founded the Beneficial Savings Fund Society at Old St. Joseph's in 1853.

St. Joseph's University Saint Joseph's University (SJU or St. Joe's) is a private Jesuit university in Philadelphia, Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The university was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1851 as Saint Joseph's College ...

and

St. Joseph's Preparatory School St. Joseph's Preparatory School, known as "St. Joe's Prep" or simply "The Prep", is an urban, private, Catholic, college preparatory school run by the Society of Jesus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The school was founded in 1851 ...

were founded at Old St. Joseph's in 1841 and 1851, respectively.

References

External links

*
Saint Mary Interparochial School
{{Authority control 1733 establishments in the Thirteen Colonies 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Churches completed in 1839 History of Philadelphia Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia Roman Catholic churches completed in 1757 Roman Catholic churches in Philadelphia Society Hill, Philadelphia Society of Jesus in Pennsylvania