St. Mary's Parish, Toronto
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The job of building the first St Mary's fell to Bishop Armand Francois Marie de Charbonnel who through his many contacts overseas managed to acquire sufficient funds to build a "small church built of white brick 100 feet long and 42 feet wide".
In 1858 there was a contract for the "taking down, remodeling and rebuilding" of the first St Mary's church, this led to the creation of a second church unwisely built on the foundations of the first. This second St. Mary's was consecrated by Bishop Lynch on May 6th ,1860.
As time went on the second church also started to experience structural problems and although iron girders were installed, the decision was finally made to build the third (current) church. Under the direction of Fr. Francis Patrick Rooney and with the influence of the bishop of London John Walsh (former pastor of St Mary's), prominent architect Joseph Connolly was chosen to design the new building.
The corner stone was laid on the feast of the Assumption in 1885 and work commenced lasting four years and costing $70 000. The church was officially opened to the congregation on February 17, 1889 and was richly decorated with frescoes depicting various religious images in 1892. Once again, due to lack of funds the church spire was only completed in 1905.
Currently St. Mary's parish is undergoing a renaissance, both in the church structure and in the parish itself. The congregation continues to change and adapt to the diverse neighbourhood it serves, including urban professionals that are rapidly moving into the downtown core. What the future holds for St. Mary's only God knows, but whatever it is it will only add to the rich history it has acquired thus far.
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Ontario, Canada
Latitude: 43.65011 Longitude: -79.3829
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- Archives of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of TorontoEmail:archives@archtoronto.org
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Agency street/mail address:1155 Yonge Street, Suite 505
Toronto, ON M4T 1W2
