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St. Peter’s has the unique position of being the oldest parish on Staten Island—with 175 years of service to Catholics.
“We are, and always have been, since the foundation 175 years ago the presence of Christ in this community. That doesn’t change. That is one of the beauties of celebrating anniversaries—they connect us to the past and to the future,” said Father Michael Cichon, administrator of St. Peter’s who is also pastor of Assumption-St. Paul parish.
St. Peter’s, considered the “mother church of Staten Island,” is a fixture in the New Brighton community.
The present church, built in the Neo-Romanesque style, is the third that the parish has called home. “When it was built, it had an international character to it in that the different parts of the church came from Italy and France and Germany about 110 years ago,” Father Cichon said.
“It’s just a magnificent space,” said Father Cichon in describing the church where he has ministered to the parish’s 360 families since last August.
From outside the hilltop church, there is a glorious view looking down on New York Harbor. A bell tower stands majestically atop the church.
The church building’s form follows its function as a place to bring the people of God together, Father Cichon said.
“That is where its value is found,” he said. “Its purpose is to bring people to Christ, and it has and will continue to fill that vocation for as long as God permits.”
Cardinal Dolan celebrated a Mass opening the anniversary year March 8. The co-vicars of Staten Island, Msgr. Peter Finn and Msgr. James Dorney, were among the concelebrants.
Msgr. Dorney, former pastor of St. Peter’s for 30 years before his retirement last year, received a standing ovation at the Mass.
“Msgr. Dorney is sincerely loved on the island,” Father Cichon said. “And as somebody who has been here for 30 years, he has played an immeasurably important role in the whole history of the parish.”
In the early days of the 19th century, before the church was built, Mass was celebrated in people’s houses. The first central located for Mass was an unlikely spot—an abandoned gun factory.
Father Ildelfonso Medrano, an exiled Spaniard, ministered to the some 100 Catholics on Staten Island in the gun factory beginning in 1839. Father Medrano was charged with leading all of the Catholics on Staten Island as well as Catholics from New Brunswick and South Amboy in New Jersey. Liturgies were held there until 1844 when the first church building was completed on the current site. The first Mass that year was celebrated on the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25.
In the 1890s, a fire destroyed that church and a new one was built. It was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day in 1903. The church was renovated in the 1960s and again in the 1990s.
When St. Peter’s opened the first Catholic elementary school on the island in 1853, the Sisters of Charity staffed it. In 2011, the elementary school merged with St. Paul School and is now known as St. Peter-St. Paul Elementary School.
Girls and boys high schools opened at St. Peter’s in 1917. The boys’ high school is staffed by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, with Brother James Kelly, F.S.C., as president and John Fodera as principal. The girls’ high school closed in 2011.
In the parish’s day-to-day life, one of the major groups is the Holy Name Society. “They are involved in about every aspect of the parish,” Father Cichon told CNY.
“The most important thing they do is pray. From there all of their ministerial functions flow—whether its advising me on the buildings and grounds, our financial situation, or hosting the annual Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner.”
The 10 men active in the society have been involved in managing the details of the 175th anniversary. “None of those things could happen without the Holy Name Society,” he said.
Parishioners, who include many senior citizens, are faith-filled and good Catholic men and women. Father Cichon, quoting St. Paul in describing the parishioners, said, “When one aspect of the body is praised, we all share in that glory.”
The church has shared a long and storied history with that of the borough it calls home.
“It’s obviously giving us a place of pride within the community,” Father Cichon said. “It’s wonderful to know how the Catholic community has developed on Staten Island and beyond is due to our history.”
