St. Michael Parish -  spiritual home
for immigrants for 175 years

by Lou Baldwin
Special to the CS&T

It was a parish of immigrants when it was founded, and it is still a parish of immigrants.

The only difference Cardinal Justin Rigali may find when he celebrates the 175th anniversary at St. Michael Church in Kensington on Sept. 24 is that, as in many other North Philadelphia parishes, the Irish brogue of the past has given way to other accents, especially Spanish.

“We are stable. We are in the midst of a neighborhood revival, and looking forward to the future,” said Father Herbert J. Sperger, the pastor of St. Michael and also nearby Immaculate Conception Parish.

St. Michael parish is small — it has 350 families — but it remains an active worshipping community in Philadelphia in which most of the older congregation are the heirs of the rich and colorful Irish, German, English-speaking past, while the newer members are mostly Hispanic Catholics who are building their own traditions with devotions and sodalities.

In its beginnings, St. Michael’s was not always a place of peace and harmony. The parish was founded in 1831, with Father Terence J. Donaghoe as its first resident pastor, and its original church was completed in 1834.

Most of the founding congregation were poor immigrants from Ireland’s troubled northern counties — Tyrone, Armagh, Derry. Just a decade later St. Michael Church, along with St. AugustineChurch, was burnt to the ground in what is generally termed the “Nativist riots.”

But even though the period was a time of anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, most of the rioters were not native Americans. They were Orangemen — Irish Protestants who carried their anti-Catholicism with them when they, too, emigrated from Northern Ireland.

The government restored calm and St. Michael’s was rebuilt, partly through an indemnity paid by the civil authorities.

During the same period St. Michael’s was host to a happier event.
 

In the early 1830s a small group of young Irish women were encouraged by Father Donaghoe to form a new religious congregation: the Daughters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin. For a time, they conducted a school at Second and Jefferson avenues, then, in 1844 they left Philadelphia for the frontier in Dubuque, Iowa, where they became firmly established — with the further guidance of Father Donaghoe, who followed them West.

“They were one of the first congregations founded in America. We still have contact with them,” Father Sperger said.

St. Michael’s underwent another trial in July 1856. A parish Sunday School excursion ended in tragedy, when its train crashed near Camp Hill. Fifty-nine people died, including Father Daniel Sheridan, an assistant pastor. Ambler, Pa., is named for Mary Ambler, an area Quaker woman who was among the first to arrive to give medical assistance to the survivors.

Still, St. Michael Parish flourished. A permanent school was established, with the boys taught in earlier years by Christian Brothers, and the girls by Sisters of St. Joseph.

It was always a working class parish, according to the parish historian, Jerry Burns. But St. Michael included some well-to-do members too. Charlie Kelly, the district attorney in the 1930s, married a St. Michael’s girl and lived in the parish — but most people were more likely to work in places such as Cramps Shipyard, Stetson Hats, Kenny Funeral Supply Spangler Envelopes, or the nearby Schmidt’s, Orttieb’s and Gretz breweries.
 

Burns’ own family may be fairly typical. Parishioners since St. Michael’s foundation, they owned one of its original cemetery lots (since dispossessed for church expansion). His great grandfather —according to family lore — was arrested during the 1844 riots. On one side, his great-grandfather was a stonemason; another owned a stable.

Burns’ grandfather was a fireman; his father worked at Cramps, and for the railroad. He is a retired postal employee. When he was a child the school (which closed in 2000) had about 900 children — two classes to each grade — and there was a commercial department for high school-age students that continued until 1986. Among its numerous religious vocations were the future bishops, Philip R. McDevitt, John J. McCort, and John J. Graham.

During World War II, there was a constant hum of factories working around the clock. Burns can remember the eerie silence when they all closed for one week around the Fourth of July holiday.

For a time the parish had a summer camp for the kids near SpringCity, the legacy of a deceased pastor. The parish dwindled as people moved on to newer neighborhoods, and one-by-one the factories closed.

“The Spanish community was very small when I got here. It isn’t now,” said Zoilo Martes, who moved to Philadelphia from Puerto Rico about 50 years ago, and has been a deacon assigned to St. Michael’s for the past 16 years.

“But we are multi-cultural, We aren’t just Latinos or Irish or German,” Martes said of St. Michael Parish. “We are all God’s family — and we help each other, we love each other, and worship together.”

The neighborhood continues to change, and Deacon Martes sees that as a sign of hope: “People are moving in, And I see a great future.”

Geri McTear, a fourth generation parishioner, and the third generation of her family to sell real estate, also sees the neighborhood being renewed, and even expensive new housing being built.

McTear’s great-grandfather moved to St. Michael’s from St. Patrick Parish at the turn of the last century, and she and her mother still live in the home of her grandfather, Thomas McTear. He was president of the St. Michael’s Literary Association for five terms, and he was a lay trustee of the parish: “His generation is a tough act to follow, and we have a sense of pride in what was accomplished.”

St. Michael Church is still beautiful, she said. And Father Sperger “has been wonderful.”

As a child, she remembers how crowded the school was, as was the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass, with the church filled with children and an overflow crowd of adults, mostly parents, up in the gallery.

In another sign of renewal, the Christian Brother and the Sisters of St. Joseph are back. They have taken over the former convent as the coeducational La SalleAcademy, teaching classes in grades three-through-seven for children of low income families who face academic challenges.

“The Christian Brothers first came here in 1858, and left in 1920,” Father Sperger said. “Both La SalleCollege and La SalleCollegeHigh School had their beginnings here. …

“Our theme this year is 175 years of life and faith and learning,” he said. “I’ve been emphasizing our commitment to Catholic education, and the formation of children. The closing event of our anniversary year will be the confirmation of 30 children.” 
 

Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.

Questions or Comments?  Gerry Burns