The Church of St. Anselm and St. Roch is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

parish church in the

Archdiocese of New York The Archdiocese of New York () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the New York (state), State of New York. It encompasses the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York ...

, located at 685 Tinton Avenue in the

Mott Haven Mott Haven is a primarily residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is generally bounded by East 149th Street to the north, the Bruckner Expressway to the east and south, and the Harlem ...

neighborhood of the

Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It was established in 1891 and is staffed by the

Order of Augustinian Recollects The Order of Augustinian Recollects (OAR) is a mendicant Catholic religious order of friars and nuns. It is a reformist offshoot from the Augustinians, Augustinian hermit friars and follows the same Rule of St. Augustine. They have also been kno ...

. Previously it was staffed by

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monks.Remigius Lafort, S.T.D., Censor,
The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Volume 3: The Province of Baltimore and the Province of New York, Section 1: Comprising the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, Buffalo and Ogdensburg.
'. (New York City: The Catholic Editing Company, 1914), p. 381. ''Note:'' This includes an
''Accompanying photographs''
/ref>

Building

The present church was built 1918 in the

Byzantine Revival Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Or ...

style. Its design is inspired by the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

Istanbul, Turkey Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With a population over , it is home to 18% of the population of Turkey. Istanbul is among the largest cities in Europe and in th ...

. It is an approximately two-story brick building topped by a large dome surrounded by a series of smaller domes. The designs was credited to Gustave Steinback and his noted ecclesiastical architectural firm by the '' AIA Guide to NYC'' (1978) and according to Steinback's own claim to the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

for its registry filings. However, the '' AIA Guide to NYC'' (2010) has revised the architect of the design to Anton Kloster. Other guides have also attributed the work to Kloster.''See'' Thomas J. Shelley, ''The Archdiocese of New York: the Bicentennial History,'' (New York:

/ Strasbourg: Éditions du Signe, 2007), p.216, 219. It is possible that Kloster worked for Steinback at the time. The church interior, supported by Romanesque Corinthian marble columns, is decorated with geometric mosaics. Art historian Annie Labatt sees the influence of the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in the apse. The adjacent school is a four-story, brick building with

terra cotta Terracotta, also known as terra cotta or terra-cotta (; ; ), is a clay-based Vitrification#Ceramics, non-vitreous ceramicOED, "Terracotta""Terracotta" MFA Boston, "Cameo" database fired at relatively low temperatures. It is therefore a term used ...

accents in the

Classical Revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

style. The church and school were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2014.

Parish

The parish was organized in July 1891 to serve the German Catholic community and entrusted to the

Benedictines The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly Christian mysticism, contemplative Christian monasticism, monastic Religious order (Catholic), order of the Catholic Church for men and f ...

. The first pastor was Abbot Alexius Edelbrock. It became a dependent priory of St. John's Abbey in Minnesota. The original church on 151st St. was dedicated in 1893. In 1908 a brick school was built, which opened for classes in 1909. It was originally staffed by the Dominican Sisters of Blauvelt. In 1912 a playground was added, probably the first attached to a Catholic school in New York. In addition to their parish work, the monks at St. Anselm's also served as chaplains to the

Corpus Christi Monastery Corpus Christi Monastery, founded in 1891, is the oldest monastery in the United States of nuns of the Dominican Order. It is an offshoot of Notre-Dame-de-Prouille Monastery, the first monastery of nuns founded by Dominic de Guzman, founder and n ...

of Dominican nuns at Hunt's Point, the Sevilla Children's Home, and supervised the order's mission in the Bahamas. In the early 1900s, the parish sponsored a Fife and Drum Corps.

Augustinian Recollects The Order of Augustinian Recollects (OAR) is a mendicant Catholic religious order of friars and nuns. It is a reformist offshoot from the Augustinian hermit friars and follows the same Rule of St. Augustine. They have also been known as the "D ...

took over responsibility for administering the parish; its ethnic make-up has evolved to reflect Spanish and Latin American heritage.

Pastors

* Alexius Edelbrock O.S.B., 1891 - September 1907 * Bernard Kevenhorster O.S.B. (prior), October 1907 - * Fr Andres Alava, O.A.R., 1985 to 1992, (admin) *Fr.Antonio Palacios O.A.R (2003-2016) (Pastor)

Church of St. Anselm and St. Roch

Fr.Antonio Palacios O.A.R (2015-2016) Fr. Enrique Salvo (2016-2021). Fr. Micheal Eguino (2022-Present) fr. damian baker was the pastor in the 1950s to early 1960s

Church of St. Roch

The Church of St. Roch was founded in 1899 as a national parish to serve Italian Catholics. The first pastor was Rev. John Milo. The original church building was located on 150th St. near Robbins Ave. Later, a larger church was constructed on Wales Ave. The new church, designed by

Anthony J. DePace Anthony J. DePace (1892–1977) was an American architect who designed numerous Roman Catholic churches throughout the Northeastern United States area during the mid to late 20th century. Early life and education DePace was born on July 13, 189 ...

of DePace and Juster, was dedicated in 1932. For many years in the mid-twentieth century the parish put on a Passion Play. The parish's ethnic composition developed to reflect immigrants from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Mexico. In 1974 the archdiocese transferred parish administration to the Augustinian Recollects of the Province of St. Nicholas of Tolentine, based in Madrid. From 1985 to 1992, due to low attendance, St. Roch's became a mission parish of St. Anselm's, also in the care of the Recollects. In 2015 the parish of St. Roch was merged with St. Anselm's. Effective November 2017, the St. Roch's church building was desacralized.

Pastors

References

External links

Church of St. Anselm and St. Roch website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Anselm's Church, Bronx, New York Properties of religious function on the National Register of Historic Places in the Bronx Christian organizations established in 1891 Byzantine Revival architecture in New York City Romanesque Revival church buildings in New York City Neoclassical architecture in New York City Roman Catholic churches completed in 1918 Roman Catholic churches in the Bronx Gustave E. Steinback church buildings Church buildings with domes 1891 establishments in New York (state) Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Neoclassical church buildings in the United States