A Hundred Years of Catholicity, even in a small town like Lima, is a subject vast an delusive.  It not only challenges but defies the most painstaking attempts to reduce it to an historical chronicle.  The details of living that go to make up parochial life and develop it are so wide and varied, so small and apparently insignificant, so intangible and at times invisible, that it is only at very rare intervals that any event stands out as possessing historical significance.  Yet this silent and unobserved amassing of detail of thought and word, and action, this unseen merging of the human elements of labor and prayer, this gradual flowering of the insignificant into strong and beautiful virtue, create great forces and put them into action an so men’s lives are shaped and influenced in matters that are of tremendous earthly and eternal importance.  Such is the life story of St. Rose Parish of Lima.

FIRST CATHOLIC SETTLERS

             Catholicism came to Lima in the year of 1834 in the person of Thomas Martin, a native of County Tipperary, Ireland.  He was its first representative and exponent here.  From the vantage point of one hundred years the solitary figure of the lone Irishman is strikingly impressive.  A stranger in a strange land, he faced an entirely new way of life that was filled with difficulties and hardships of many kinds.  He had courage and self – reliance and determination that the challenge of obstacles would only increase.  With his native resilient personality, he could face and accept adversity; he could be hurt monetarily but not disabled permanently.  To a ready adaptability to new ideas and new ways, he joined a constant adherence to the teachings of his Roman Catholic faith, the beliefs and practices of which were entirely foreign to those about him and often looked upon with distrust and misunderstanding, if not with ridicule and positive hatred.  Here again his courage kept him loyal and devoted to his religious faith.  He is a type of the many Irishmen who in succeeding years followed him to Lima.

Although the Jesuit missionaries preached the gospel to the Seneca Indians in this area during the seventeenth century, Thomas Martin was the first permanent Catholic settler in Lima.  He arrived in 1834 from County Tipperary, Ireland.  Fellow Irishmen:  John Brennan, James Egan and Michael Courneen soon followed and formed the nucleus of the future St. Rose of Lima parish.After that arrivals were more frequent.  Opportunities for Catholic worship and the reception of the sacraments were not available and so these hardy pioneers were accustomed to journey on foot Rochester to hear Mass, to be married, to have their babies baptized and to receive the other sacraments. 

FIRST MASS

        Initially, Martin and friends hiked to Rochester to hear Mass, get married and have their babies baptized.  But in 1842, they either rented or borrowed a horse and buggy (no Lima Catholic was rich enough to own a horse then), drove to Rochester and brought a priest home to celebrate Mass in the Brennan home.  It can easily be imagined with what joy these poor, faithful sons of the Church received word in 1842 that Mass was to be celebrated in Lima.  Father Murphy came from Rochester and offered up the Holy Sacrifice in the house of John Brennan.  For the second Mass in the village, Thomas Martin borrowed or rented a team of horses and a sleigh, drove to Rochester and brought out Father Tierney.  After this Father Tierney came to say Mass and the old settlers said that they remembered Father Tierney walking from Rochester to Lima for that purpose.  It must have been remembered that at that times no Catholic was wealthy enough to own a horse.  After Father Tierney, Father French and Father Carroll came occasionally to say Mass.  The congregations on these occasions must have been very small for when Father O’Connor came from Canandaigua in 1848 for the purpose of organizing a parish and building a church, there were only eight or nine Catholic families here.  He called them together in the old town house and celebrated Mass there.  After that he said Mass in the John Brennan residence.  Of these eight or nine families, no more than fifteen persons were able to contribute to the building fund.  However, this small number donated a total sum of $350.00.  Some of the names and amounts of the contributions are as follows:  William Fallon, $20.00; John Brennan, $30.00; Thomas Martin, $25.00; Ned Grant, $5.00; Michael Courneen, $20.00; John Haggerty, $20.00; Michael Boyle, James Egan, James Lockington.

ORGANIZERS

             The first men to start the church were Michael Hogan, John Grace, Thomas Martin, Jerry Malone, Michael Courneen, John Brennan, James Egan, William Fallon, Patrick Hendricj, James Lockington, John Haggerty, and Richard Heaney.  John Haggerty paid the first money for the church, $20.00.  The land for the church was given by Tone Yorks, a non-Catholic, for the nominal sum of $35.00.  Mr. Yorks also worked on the construction and bossed the job of raising the little church.  The church building was competed in 1849.  John Murphy and Philip Brennan made the tabernacle.  John Murphy was the server at the Mass in these early days.

             In 1851 Father O’Connor was succeeded by his cousin Father Kenney who stayed but a short time.  In the same year Reverend C. Tierney was appointed pastor and because of the needs of an evergrowing congregation found it necessary to build a slight addition to the church.

FIRST RESIDENT PASTOR

             Reverend William Quigley came in 1853 and was the first resident pastor.  He purchased the John Brennan house, the present Bawden residence, for $1,000.00.  Father Quigley in turn was succeeded by Father Walsh who remained in Lima for only a short time.

            During Father M. Thomas McGuire’s pastorate, 1854-1858, several important developments took place.  He enlarged the church building considerably, and built on the sacristy.  At this time it was necessary to provide room for Catholics from Honeoye Falls, Rush, Mendon, West Bloomfield, Livonia, Conesus, and Avon.

PAROCHIAL SCHOOL

But the building program continued.  As more children filled the pews each Sunday, these same parishioners, primarily laborers and servants, built a one-room school house during Father McGuire’s pastorate in 1856.  Although the “scholars” had once attended a temporary school in a shed behind the Brennan home, it was a crude affair where the children knelt on the floor to write their ABC’S on boards stretched across tree

stumps.  The new school was located behind the church.  When the large brick church was built in 1870, the little wooden church was moved and attached to the school, making three rooms.

  It was a frame building about thirty by forty feet, and stood on the ground now occupied by the present rectory.  It is a tribute to the ambition of the families of this congregation that even in their poverty they were anxious to provide educational advantages for their children that had been denied to them in the land of their birth.  The teachers of the school during these years were lay teachers.  The first teacher was a Mrs. Fox, a widow.  She was followed by Molly Welch.  The third teacher in the school was Miss Margaret Egan, who taught for five years. The Sisters of St. Joseph picked-up the teaching reins in 1875.  When high school courses were added to the curriculum in 1889, this country school became the first Catholic high school in the Rochester diocese.

CEMETERY

   In 1857 Father McGuire bought the burial ground from John Mooney, for the price of $600.00, $100.00 an acre.  William Murray and Jerry Malone signed the note.  Michael Courneen, who, as we have seen, was one of the first arrivals in Lima, was accidentally killed on August 8, 1858, and was the first adult buried in the cemetery.

             Following Father McGuire came Father Thomas O’Brien from the Immaculate Conception, Rochester.  He remained pastor for four years, that is to 1862.  He was succeeded by Father Clarke.

NEW CHURCH ERECTED

             In 1864 Father William A. Gregg became the pastor.  Under Father Gregg the congregation planned the most ambitious program in the entire history of the parish.  Visions of a large massive church approaching the proportions of a basilica were entertained.  And due to the sound architectural judgment of the pastor and the generous cooperation of the people, this vision materialized.  The large brick church accommodating  750 was built.  It is an excellent example of Romanesque architecture, with beautiful interior appointments, the altar of black walnut, the massive altar rail of mahogany.  The body of the church was furnished with strong, comfortable and becoming pews.  The church was well, substantially and beautifully built, and today after 130 years it stands strong and sturdy in an excellent state of preservation, a tribute to the foresight and generosity of the builders.  This was not accomplished without a great deal of difficulty.  When the walls were partly built, the entire front wall collapsed, the church was struck by lightning.  It was probably these mishaps that made priest, people and builders determined to complete a building of lasting qualities that would endure.  It may well be that misfortune, now forgotten, was the cause of the present excellent condition of the church which now excites the admiration of all.  The corner-stone was laid in 1870 and the church was dedicated in 1873. It was completed at a cost of twenty-one-thousand dollars. Although the statues which still line its walls were imported from Europe, St. Rose men and boys wielded trowels and mortar. The old wooden church was removed to the rear of the present rectory and reconstructed for school purposes.

LARGER SCHOOL

When the student enrollment expanded to almost two hundred pupils in 1875, there was a serious need for more classrooms (in 1880,the Lima population  was 2727).  However, it was not until 1894 that parishioners could afford a larger school, especially since they had already spent six hundred dollars for a burial ground (the Courneens and other County Tipperary folks are buried in the old north section), and bought a rectory and a home for their nuns.  Nonetheless, they dug deeper and built the two story brick building which still stands proud, with classrooms on the first floor and an auditorium/gymnasium on the second floor.  Alumni Bishop Joseph Hogan and his brother, Father Michael Hogan enjoyed the gym together with another alumnus, Chicago Cubs catcher, Ken O’Dea, who later donated gym equipment for other St. Rose “scholars.”

Saint Joseph nuns continued to rustle through the aisles in wimples and rosaries until 1968 when the school closed its doors shortly before the Lima and Honeoye Falls centralized.

Spanning the years following Father Gregg's pastorate, the parish was successfully led by several pastors including Father William Mulherron (1873-1877), Father M.J. Loughlin (1877-1879), Father Edward McCartney (1879-1884), Father Simon Fitzsimons (1884-1912), Father John Farrell (1912-1930), Father Patrick Neville (1930-1934).  During those periods, much was done to grow and expand our parish.  Under Father Fitzsimons tenure, the present school building was built and operated for over 70 years.

Over the past 70 years, St. Rose Parish has been led by basically three pastors (except for a brief 2 year stint by Father Raymond Moore from 1967-1969) Father Ball from 1934-1967; Father James Doyle from 1969-1999, and  Father Lawrence Gross who took over in 1999 and was also pastor of St. Paul of the Cross parish in Honeoye Falls until he retired in June 2010.

St. Rose of Lima will write another page in its history book.  In June 2010  it  joined its neighboring parishes, St. Paul of the Cross in Honeoye Falls and Saint Agnes in Avon under the spiritual direction of two assisting priests, Rev. Michael Upson and Rev. Richard Beligotti, and a pastoral administrator, Sister Karen Dietz, SSJ.