Milestones In Faith for week of May 17
St. Francis Xavier Church, Park Slope
Founded in 1886-the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor—St. Francis Xavier Church offered its first Mass in September of that year, in the parlor of a brownstone on the corner of Carroll Street and Sixth Avenue in Park Slope. The house at 243 Sixth Avenue, now houses the Sisters of St. Joseph, who serve the parish and its school.
The congregation very quickly outgrew its first church building, erected in December, 1886, and nicknamed “The Tin Church.” The parish family moved to the new building on President St. acclaimed for its design. Architect Thomas Houghton constructed the church of granite, trimmed with Indiana limestone. Bishop Loughlin, then bishop of Brooklyn, dedicated the new church building on May 15, 1904.