Dear Parishioners and Friends,
Three years from now, in 2029, our parish will celebrate its bicentennial as Connecticut’s oldest Catholic community. We were founded in 1829 and our first church building was a former Episcopal Church at the corner of Main and Talcott Streets. Eventually a new church, dedicated to St. Patrick, was constructed at the corner of Church and Ann Streets in 1851 (shown here). A fire destroyed that edifice in 1875 and it was replaced by the present church one year later. As many of you might remember, this church suffered another fire on December 30, 1956. After two years of reconstruction, the church reopened in the fall of 1958 under the title “St. Patrick-St. Anthony” when the latter parish of St. Anthony was merged with St. Patrick.
Our parish continued to serve the Catholic community of Hartford, and in 1990 the Franciscans of Holy Name Province were invited to come and reinvigorate the parish; the Franciscan Center for Urban Ministry was one of the fruits of that effort.
With a history as rich as ours, we wish to celebrate our past, as well as our present and future, with appropriate joy and solemnity. I have established a planning committee under the guidance of Marc Sherer. As the committee develops ideas and plans for the bicentennial, we will keep you informed of our progress. In the meantime, if you have any photos or other memorabilia that you think might be of interest, I invite you to share them with us. Over the past few years, parishioners have given me various items which I have added to our parish archives. We can always use more!
Fr. Tim Shreenan, O.F.M.
Pastor
It is important that when you give to any charitable organization, you are confident that the funds received are being used wisely. Be assured that your gift to the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal sup-ports the ministries and programs indicated in the 2026 Appeal literature! Organizations such as St. Anthony’s Bread for the Poor right here in our own parish received funding from the Appeal’s Vicariate Outreach Program that makes a difference in the lives of our local neighbors.
Join us, your parish community, and We Are One, by sharing your blessings with the less fortunate.
Please take a moment to watch the launch video here:
We hope you can help us meet our parish goal of $115,000. If you would like to make a gift, please mail in your pledge card. You may also visit the Archdiocesan website at www.archdioceseofhartford.org or call the Appeal Office at (800) 781-2550. Keep in mind that an early pledge will allow you to best use the monthly payment plan.
All funds contributed to the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal are used exclusively for the purposes outlined in the Appeal literature, which can be found at https:// archdioceseofhartford.org/appeal/. No Appeal funds are ever used for legal fees or settlements.