Saint Wilfrid's 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 ...

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 ...

run by the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

, in the city centre of Preston,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. It was built in 1793 and is situated between Fishergate and

Winckley Square Winckley Square is situated near the centre of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, England, at the west end of Avenham. The history of Winckley Square has been documented by Marian Roberts. The square was first established in 1801, aro ...

on Chapel Street.

Dedication

The church is dedicated to

Wilfrid Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and beca ...

(c.633–c.709), an English bishop and saint. He founded a monastic community in

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Within the boundaries of the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, the ...

and was Bishop of Northumbria from 664–668 and 714–732. Saint Wilfrid must have had a particular devotion in Preston, because the original parish church, the present-day St. John's Minster, was originally called St Wilfrid's. However, it changed its dedication to

St. John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

in 1581, and again to St. John the Evangelist in 1770, meaning that when St. Wilfrid's church was built in 1793, there was no confusion between the two.

History

Founding

The first post-reformation Catholic church in Preston was established by Jesuits in 1761, St Mary's in Friargate. This church, now demolished, soon became too small and was replaced by St Wilfrid's which was begun in April 1792 and finished 14 months later and cost £4,000.St Wilfrid's History Page
The church was built before the Restoration of the English Catholic hierarchy, which probably explains why such a large church is relatively discreet in the landscape of Preston city centre. Instead of being at right-angles to the street, it is parallel and does not have a surrounding green space or a spire to make it more distinctive. The driving force behind the building of the church was Father Joseph 'Daddy' Dunn, a Jesuit who continued ministering as a Catholic priest during the

suppression of the Society of Jesus The suppression of the Society of Jesus was the removal of all members of the Jesuits from most of Western Europe and their respective colonies beginning in 1759 along with the abolition of the order by the Holy See in 1773; the papacy acceded ...

. The first stage of building the church was to have plain brick edifice with a balcony around the three sides facing the altar inside. However, soon the congregation outgrew the church and it was decided not only that the church needed expanding, but it needed to be grander.

Remodelling

In 1878 a new '

sodality In Christian theology, a sodality, also known as a syndiakonia, is a form of the Universal Church organized in a specialized, task-oriented society, as opposed to a local, diocesan body (a ''modality''). In English, the term ''sodality'' is most ...

' chapel and confessionals were added and the inside of the church was remodelled. One of the architects of this remodelling was in fact a Jesuit priest, Fr. Ignatius Scoles SJ, son of the architect

Joseph John Scoles Joseph John Scoles (1798–1863) was an English Gothic Revival architect, who designed many Roman Catholic churches. Early life and education Scoles was born in London on 27 June 1798, the son of Roman Catholic parents Matthew Scoles, a joiner, ...

, who designed the

Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, also known as Farm Street Church, is a Catholic parish church run by the Society of Jesus in Mayfair, Central London, England. Its main entrance is in Farm Street, though it can also be acc ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, St Ignatius Church in Preston and the Church of St Francis Xavier in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. This new stage of building work was finished in 1880. Ten years later, stone cladding and terracotta and stone carvings were added to the exterior and elaborate marbles from all over Europe were fixed to the interior walls and columns. The final church, after renovations of 1996, still looks fresh and bright. Unusually for a Catholic church today, St Wilfrid's was never really re-ordered for the post-

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

liturgy. It retains the altar rails and high altar with very little modification.

Ministry

The church is still administered by the

whose community is next door on

, and who ran the nearby

Preston Catholic College Preston Catholic College was a Jesuit grammar school for boys in Winckley Square, Preston, Lancashire, England. It opened in 1865 and closed in 1978, when its sixth form merged with two other schools to form Cardinal Newman College. History T ...

until its closure in 1978. The church itself is open daily during shopping hours and is a place of quiet and prayer for young and old alike. The adjacent parish centre hosts various activity groups, such as the local

Society of Saint Vincent de Paul The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP or SVdP or SSVP) is an international voluntary organization in the Catholic Church, founded in 1833 for the service of the poor. Started by Frédéric Ozanam and Emmanuel-Joseph Bailly de Surcy and named ...

and Christian Life Community.St Wilfrid's Parish Groups
/ref> It also houses a sanctuary bookshop which sells religious items such as

rosaries The Rosary (; , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), formally known as the Psalter of Jesus and Mary (Latin: Psalterium Jesu et Mariae), also known as the Dominican Rosary (as distinct from other forms of rosary such as the ...

missal A missal is a liturgical book containing instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the liturgical year. Versions differ across liturgical tradition, period, and purpose, with some missals intended to enable a priest ...

s and

crucifix A crucifix (from the Latin meaning '(one) fixed to a cross') is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the (Latin for 'body'). The cru ...

es.

Gallery

File:Tympanum over the entrance to St Wilfrid's Church, Preston - geograph.org.uk - 1640719.jpg, Entrance to the church File:Side chapel in St Wilfrid's Church, Preston - geograph.org.uk - 1640730.jpg, Side chapel in church

References

External links

Saint Wilfrid's Church, Preston
{{Jesuits in Britain

Preston, St Wilfrid Preston, St Wilfrid Preston, St Wilfrid Preston, St Wilfrid Preston, St Wilfrid Preston, Wilfrid Roman Catholic churches completed in 1794 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom 1794 establishments in England Neoclassical church buildings in England