Saint Bede Catholic Church (Williamsburg, Virginia)

Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham on display in Saint Bede Catholic Church after being removed during renovations of the Shrine.

The first Catholics in the Virginia Peninsula were two Dominican friars, accompanied by 37 Spanish and Portuguese troops and guided by a converted Algonquian, in August 1566. Ten Spanish Jesuits founded St. Mary's Mission, known more commonly as the Ajacán Mission, in 1570.[3] One posited location for where they disembarked is present-day College Creek.[4] The entire encampment of Spanish missionaries and Native American converts was massacred by Powhatans in 1571 with the exception of a single convert boy, who was rescued by Spanish forces from Florida the next year.[5]

In September 1923, Mexican immigrant and professor Carlos Eduardo Castañeda arrived at the College of William and Mary to teach Spanish. As the faculty leader of the Gibbons Club, formed on 11 December 1923, he and thirty students agitated for a priest from Newport News to come to Williamsburg in order to fulfill their Sunday Mass obligations.[6] In 1929, $25,000 was given by Margaret Burns to the Diocese of Richmond for "mission churches in Virginia," with the money going towards two lots purchased with the support of College President J. A. C. Chandler.[6]

Banner for Saint Bede Church depicting Our Lady of Walsingham and coat of arms for the Diocese of Richmond.

In 1932, the Catholic College Chapel was constructed to meet the growing needs of the Catholic students and staff at the College. The chapel was dedicated to Benedictine monk St. Bede the Venerable in October 1932.[6] In 1939, the chapel was dedicated as a parish.[2] On 1 February 1942, Saint Bede's first pastor Fr. Thomas Walsh dedicated the parish to Our Lady of Walsingham. The church was blessed in 1942.[7]

The parish purchased a building originally constructed as a fraternity home adjacent to the original location of Saint Bede, 601 College Terrace, for use as housing by the USO, in which thousands of soldiers and families stayed. On 16 September 1947, the Sisters of Mercy opened Walsingham Academy, a private Catholic school, in this building. After the school's move, the building served as a rectory and is now a privately-owned home.[8]

In 2003, the parish opened a church off of Ironbound Road in Williamsburg, about 1.5 miles from the original chapel. While the title of Saint Bede Catholic Church passed to this new structure, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham remained a part of and is managed by the parish.[9]

The ordination of Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia Bishop Susan Haynes was originally scheduled to take place on 1 February 2020 in Saint Bede.[10] Petitions seeking for Catholic Bishop Barry Knestout to rescind the invitation towards the Episcopalians resulted in international coverage of the controversy.[11] On 17 January 2020, the Episcopal Diocese announced they were moving the ordination to a different church in Williamsburg, citing that the event was "causing dismay and distress" in the Saint Bede community and invoking the warning of St. Paul against "pursuing behavior that might cause problems for others within their community."[10][12]

Like other parishes in the Diocese of Richmond and around the world, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced the cessation of public Masses and the cancellation of other parish activities on 15 March 2020.[13]

The present location of the Saint Bede parish church is composed of a primary church and three wings, two above ground and one beneath the courtyard. The wings were a 37,000 foot addition for the purpose of providing space for fellowship and community events.[14] The wings were completed in 2016 and also house the parish offices for finances and clergy.[15]

In 2005, the church's pipe organ was completed.[1] It is named for the former pastor of Saint Bede Monsignor William H. Carr.[16] The main organ is 32 feet (9.8 m) tall with 183 keys.[17] The organ features 54 ranks and 43 stops with pontifical trumpets in the separated processional organ. Due to noise-dampening foam, there exist certain peculiarities in the organ's sound, such as the least favorable place to hear the organ being directly in front of it.[1]

In 2019, two mosaics were added to the church, flanking the organ. The mosaics, produced by Italian mosaic studio Ferrari & Bacci, depict the communion of saints.[18] Eventually, there are plans to add further art on the 32 other panels that circle the church.[19][20] The mosaics are constructed in Barsanti marble off of paintings by Venezuelan-Italian realist Ramiro Sanchez, whose work has previously been displayed at the nearby Muscarelle Museum of Art.[21][22]

Fr. Walsh was appointed the first pastor of Saint Bede and the College Chapel in 1939. With the 2 February 1942–Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple–dedication of the Saint Bede parish to Our Lady of Walsingham, Fr. Walsh commissioned a statue depicting the Marian apparition done in the same style of that present at the Slipper Chapel, itself based on that from the Walsingham Priory.[7] The dedication of Saint Bede church to Our Lady of Walsingham is possibly attributable to Fr. Walsh's personal devotion to the apparition and visit to Europe in 1934 and possible pilgrimage to Walsingham that year.[26] In 2016, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recognized the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham as the first national shrine in the Diocese of Richmond.[27]

The Williamsburg House of Mercy, a social outreach organization, is located on the campus of the Shrine. Formerly called the Saint Bede Outreach Center, it traces it legacy to the 1960s, when Sister Berenice Eltz, R.S.M. left her teaching position at Walsingham Academy to serve in a social ministry role at Saint Bede parish.[25][28] The Catholic Student Center is located on the bottom floor of the same building.[29]

Since the opening of the Ironbound church, the Shrine has been referred to as the "Old Saint Bede" and "CCM Chapel" in reference to the Catholic Campus Ministry that operates from it. Several renovations have been undertaken to expand the Shrine and meet ADA compliance standards. As of February 2020, the Shrine building is closed for further renovation; however, the adjacent House of Mercy building continues to host Mass for the downtown and college community.[9]

For the 24 September Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, congregants of both Saint Bede and Episcopal Bruton Parish–along with their respective student ministries–participate in an rosary procession carrying the Marian statue from Colonial Williamsburg to the Shrine. At the Shrine, there are ecumenical vespers.[27][30]

Campus ministry

Ecumenical covenant signed by Bishop Walter Francis Sullivan of the Diocese of Richmond and Bishop Coadjutor Charles Vaché of the Diocese of Southern Virginia and representatives from the Catholic Student Association and Canterbury at William & Mary

In 1865, the College reported a single Catholic student.[31] By 1939, 114 Catholics attended the College or lived in the nearby community.[26] As of 2019, an average of 225 students attend Sunday Mass at the Shrine, with an average of 25 students attending daily masses at the Shrine or in the Wren chapel.[32]

The Gibbons Club was founded in 1923, later renamed the Newman Club after the establishment of the parish.[33] The Newman Club was later renamed to the Catholic Student Association. Alongside their Episcopalian equivalent, Canterbury, the CSA signed a covenant–committing both organizations to ecumenical actions–in the Wren Chapel on 24 January 1977. The CSA and Canterbury formerly cooperated in running a chapter of Covenant Players.[34] The student ministry was again renamed to its present title, Catholic Campus Ministry, in line with the names of other campus ministries within the Diocese of Richmond.[35][36] The Catholic Student Center, located alongside the Shrine, is colloquially known as the "Catacombs" or "Cats."[29]