CELEBRATING OUR 175th
“Few And Far Between”
It was more than 200 years ago when Jesuit and Redemptorist missionaries braved the mountainous terrain of western Virginia to serve the few Catholic families who had settled in the region. These visits, however, were infrequent. Like the Apostles and first disciples, these missionary priests relied on the hospitality of those they encountered, sleeping where they could – a barn, a cave, under the shade of a tree, or if blessed enough in the humble home of a kind soul. They ate what they could, packing staples for their journey, but when those ran out their mission and well-being depended on the people who lived in the hills and valleys of this land.
Their efforts though were not in vain.
By 1818 more Catholic families settled in western Virginia following the completion of National Road.
The first Masses in Virginia were celebrated in homes, on farmland, along creeks, and tops of mountains. A growing Catholic population resulted in the need to establish the Richmond diocese, encompassing the entire state of Virginia, in 1820.
By 1821, Wheeling had its first Catholic church constructed St. James Parish – on land donated by Noah Zane at the corner of 11th and Chapline Streets in Wheeling. However, the was a church was not assigned a resident priest – Fr. Francis Rolof – until 1828.
