St. Patrick Catholic Church is a parish of the

Catholic Church 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 ...

Meridian, Mississippi Meridian is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, eighth most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 35,052 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Mississippi, ...

, in the Diocese of Jackson. Its historic

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, located at 2614 Davis Street, was designed by

Alfred Zucker Alfred J. R. E. Zucker (January 23, 1852 – August 2, 1913)
Guillermo ...

. Since 1995, St. Patrick's, the historically African-American parish of St. Joseph, and St. Joseph of Cupertino at

Naval Air Station Meridian Naval Air Station Meridian or NAS Meridian is a military airport located 11 miles northeast of Meridian, Mississippi in Lauderdale County and Kemper County, and is one of the Navy's two jet strike pilot training facilities. History On July 16 ...

have operated as the Catholic Community of Meridian, sharing pastoral and administrative staff. Catholic missionaries from Paulding County arrived in 1853, and the community build its first church on the site in 1866, with 12 families on the roll. Its first resident parish priest, Fr. Louis Vally, arrived in 1868. Under his leadership the parish grew considerably, starting its

parochial school A parochial school is a private school, private Primary school, primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathem ...

in 1873 and acquiring land for its convent in 1877. It was also during Vally's tenure that the current

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

was built, in 1886.

Church

The church was designed by Alfred J.R.E. Zucker, a German-American architect then based in Vicksburg. The church is a modified cruciform structure of brick. At its entrance is a four-story square tower with a round arch

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

. Its lancet stained glass windows are set in compound pointed arches in slightly recessed bays. It 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 1979.

School

St. Patrick School was established in 1873, and housed in a dedicated facility adjacent to the church. It was staffed by the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...

for much of its history. In 1924, its separate boys' and girls' schools were merged into a single

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

K–12 K–12, from kindergarten to 12th grade, is an English language expression that indicates the range of years of publicly supported primary and secondary education found in the United States and Canada, which is similar to publicly supported sch ...

school. It is today a preK–6 institution.

References

Roman Catholic churches in Mississippi Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Mississippi Gothic Revival church buildings in Mississippi Roman Catholic churches completed in 1886 Churches in Meridian, Mississippi National Register of Historic Places in Lauderdale County, Mississippi 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson {{Mississippi-RC-church-stub