St Anthony of Padua Church is a

Roman Catholic 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 ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

Mossley Hill Mossley Hill is a suburb of Liverpool and ward of Liverpool City Council. Located 3.5 miles southeast of the city centre, it is bordered by the suburbs of Aigburth, Allerton, Childwall, Garston, and Wavertree. At the 2001 Census, the popul ...

, Liverpool. It was built from 1931 to 1932 by the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

Order of Friars Minor Conventual The Order of Friars Minor Conventual (O.F.M. Conv.) is a male religious fraternity in the Catholic Church and a branch of the Franciscan Order. Conventual Franciscan Friars are identified by the affix O.F.M. Conv. after their names. They are ...

. It is on Queens Drive opposite

Liverpool College Liverpool College is a coeducational day and boarding school in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, England. It was one of the thirteen founding members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, Headmasters' Conference. History Liverpool Coll ...

. The church was one of the first started by the friars coming from New York in the re-establishment of the Conventual Friars in England after the

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

History

Foundation

In 1906, the

, the Conventual Franciscan friars came to England. Two Maltese friars, Fr Bonaventure Sceberras and Fr Roger Azzopardi started a

mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

Portishead, Somerset Portishead ( ) is a town and civil parish in the North Somerset unitary authority area, in the county of Somerset, England. With a population of 26,366 at the 2021 Census, the town is located on the Severn Estuary opposite Cardiff and Newport, W ...

that became St Joseph's Church. In 1910, the friars started

St Anthony of Padua Church, Rye St Anthony of Padua Church is a Roman Catholic Parish church in Rye, East Sussex, England. It was constructed from 1927 to 1929 and replaced a church built in 1900. It is situated on Watchbell Street to the south of Lamb House. It is served by th ...

in East Sussex.History
from thegreyfriars.org, retrieved 18 May 2021 In 1926, friars came from

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

to Mossley Hill in Liverpool. The site of the church was bought from

Liverpool City Council Liverpool City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. Liverpool has had a local authority since 1207, which has been reformed on numerous ...

and the adjacent Elmsley House was bought to be a friary and parish hall.

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

Mossley Hill – St Anthony of Padua
''Taking Stock'', retrieved 18 May 2021

Construction

On 7 November 1926, a temporary church was opened by the

Archbishop of Liverpool The Metropolitan Archbishop of Liverpool is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool and Metropolitan bishop, metropolitan of the Province of Liverpool (also known as the Northern Province) in England. Th ...

Frederick Keating Frederick William Keating (13 June 1859 – 7 February 1928) was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served first as Bishop of Northampton from 1908 to 1921, then Archbishop of Liverpool from 1921 to 1928. Biography Born in Bir ...

. In 1931, building work started on St Anthony of Padua Church. In 1932, the church was opened and

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

.St. Anthony of Padua - Mossley Hill, Liverpool
from thegreyfriars.org, retrieved 18 May 2021 The architect was Anthony Ellis and the cost of the church was £16,500. In the construction of the church, the friars told Ellis to use the same

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

plan as Assumption Church in Syracuse. Assumption Church was built in 1859 and is the

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral church, or ...

of the Conventual Franciscans in the northeast United States.

Developments

In 1933, an organ was installed in St Anthony of Padua Church, it came from the German Church on Renshaw Street in Liverpool. From 1947 to 1955, the friary was a

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

for the Conventual Friars in Britain. In the 1950s, a marble

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a Church (building), church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular a ...

and painted murals were added. From 1962 to 1963, the murals in the apsidal sanctuary were replaced by ones painted by Giuseppe Lerario OFM, which depict

Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by medieval theologians, it was not defined as a ...

, the pope and bishops of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

as well as murals of

St Anthony of Padua Anthony of Padua, OFM, (; ; ) or Anthony of Lisbon (; ; ; born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; 15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese Catholic priest and member of the Order of Friars Minor. Anthony was born and raised by a wealthy ...

and

St Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone ( 1181 – 3 October 1226), known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italian mystic, poet and Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. Inspired to lead a Christian life of poverty, he ...

Parish

The friars continue to serve the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

.Alan Weston
Meet Liverpool's real-life Father Teds, Mossley Hill's Franciscan friars
''

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St. Paul's Square, Liverpool, England. It is published Monday through Sunday, and is Liverpool's da ...

'', 1 January 2016, retrieved 18 May 2021 There are four Sunday Masses in the church at 6:00pm on Saturday and at 08:00am,10:00 am and 12:00 pm on Sunday.

Church and friary

File:Friary of St Francis, Mossley Hill.jpg, Friary File:St Anthony of Padua, Mossley Hill side.jpg, Side of church

References

External links

* *
St. Anthony of Padua - Mossley Hill, Liverpool
from TheGreyFriars.org
St Anthony of Padua
from

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Anthony of Padua Church Liverpool Roman Catholic churches in Liverpool Romanesque Revival church buildings in England 1926 establishments in England Roman Catholic churches completed in 1932 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom Conventual Franciscan churches in the United Kingdom