• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
The drawing of the original Catholic church in Annapolis is by Nathaniel Worden, an architect and graduate of St. Mary's Elementary School (1986) and St. Mary's High School (1990). (Courtesy of St. Mary's, Annapolis)

Annapolis parish marks historic milestone

February 6, 2023
By Tom Worgo
Special to the Catholic Review
Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News

Maryland’s Protestant colonial government banned Catholics from public worship from 1704 until 1776. Few Catholics lived in Annapolis. Yet there was one prominent and influential family among them: the Carrolls.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his father and grandfather before him, held private liturgies in their home chapels from 1695 to 1823. John Carroll, a cousin and Jesuit priest, celebrated Mass in the Carroll chapel and later became the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States and the first archbishop of Baltimore. 

In 1821, Charles Carroll tasked his granddaughter, Mary Anne Caton Patterson, with the project of building Annapolis’ first Catholic Church and in 1823 conveyed about an acre of land to build on Duke of Gloucester Street. The small, one-room, 30 feet-wide and 36-foot-long brick building opened in 1823 as St. Mary Church. It sat on the site of the current parish school’s primary building (built in 1879-80) and had a capacity of 150.

The photo of the first Catholic church in Annapolis shows the church circled. (Courtesy Maryland State Archives)

Today, a large and thriving St. Mary’s parish community is preparing to celebrate the bicentennial of the opening of the parish’s original church. The parish will hold a special 7 p.m. Mass Feb. 9. Redemptorist Father Patrick Woods, pastor, will preach the homily, focusing on the challenges Catholics faced in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Afterward, there will be a reception next to the church in the Carroll House – originally built in the 1720s – which will include a talk on St. Mary’s first church by Robert L. Worden, who has been St. Mary’s archivist for 41 years.

Today, St. Mary has 10,000 members, including 2,000 Hispanics. The original church is long gone, but its successor (dedicated in 1860) is much larger and more ornate. 

“I don’t think anyone planned we would have one mega-parish,” said Father Woods, a priest for 49 years, including the last four at the Annapolis parish. “Our 13 Masses are always filled every weekend with about 700 people. Some are standing. There are a lot of young families and they feel the church has a unique character.”

The present church was built in the Gothic architectural style with a single steeple. Some of its most striking features are its large Gothic main altar and a shrine to Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

“Many people want to get married here, even if they’re not from our parish,” Father Woods said. “When you walk into our church you know you’re walking into history.”

Worden, 77, an Annapolis resident who has been attending the church since 1971, loves to see how first-time visitors react.

“A lot of people come here for the first time, and when they walk in, they look awestruck,” he said. “You see them taking pictures in amazement.”

Jan Sharik Baker, 70, still feels that sense of amazement. She has been coming to St. Mary off and on for years, and the Severn resident always makes it a point to visit the church and its nearby cemetery. Her great-great grandmother, Anna Doyle Geoghan, started attending the church after she arrived from Ireland with her husband, John Joseph Geoghan. All in all, five generations of her family have attended St. Mary.

“Whenever I go to Annapolis, I visit the church and go to St. Mary’s Cemetery,” Sharik Baker said. “I have five family members buried there, including my great-great grandmother. I love to sit in the church’s prayer garden. I feel at peace there. I feel a sense of home. That’s where my roots are.”

There are many parishioners like Sharik Baker who are aware of the church’s history and the Carroll family. A descendant of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Steve Carroll attended St. Mary for a few years up until the mid-1990s when he moved overseas.

“What the Carrolls were known for was that they were a very wealthy family,” Worden said. “They were also one of the most prominent Catholic families in colonial Maryland, and well known for standing up against the Protestant government.”

Read More Local News

Catholic Charities’ William J. McCarthy Jr. named Loyola’s Business Leader of the Year

Sister Joan Cooper, O.S.F., dies at 94

Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history

Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81

RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints

Archdiocese dispenses with meatless obligation for St. Patrick’s Day

Copyright © 2023 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Tom Worgo

Tom Worgo is a freelance writer based in Annapolis.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history
  • Movie Review: ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’
  • RADIO INTERVIEW: Dining with the Saints
  • Sister Elizabeth Ellen Kane, O.S.F., dies at 81
  • Legendary communist-era priest, Father Blachnicki, was murdered, Polish authorities confirm

| Latest Local News |

Catholic Charities’ William J. McCarthy Jr. named Loyola’s Business Leader of the Year

Sister Joan Cooper, O.S.F., dies at 94

Pathfinders: Five Archdiocese of Baltimore women who made history

| Latest World News |

Vatican envoy warns UN General Assembly racism mutating and ‘reemerging’ globally

‘We all need to do more’: House hearing demands action over Nicaragua regime’s anti-Catholic persecution

Notre Dame Cathedral reopening date announced as reconstruction on its famous spire wraps up in eastern France

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Vatican envoy warns UN General Assembly racism mutating and ‘reemerging’ globally
  • ‘We all need to do more’: House hearing demands action over Nicaragua regime’s anti-Catholic persecution
  • Notre Dame Cathedral reopening date announced as reconstruction on its famous spire wraps up in eastern France
  • AI and the meaning of life: Tech industry turns to religious leaders
  • Movie Review: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4, a festival of fatality’
  • Pope calls European bishops to be prophetic voices for peace
  • En la frontera de México y EE.UU., defensores de migrantes que buscan asilo hacen un llamado a la acción
  • At U.S.-Mexico border, migrants’ advocates call for action on U.S. asylum policy
  • Jewish parents challenge California ban on special education funds at religious schools

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED