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Saint Bede Catholic Church in Williamsburg, Virginia is a Roman Catholic parish in the Diocese of Richmond. The National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, located adjacent to the campus of the College of William and Mary, is a part of the parish.

History

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. On posited location for where they disembarked is present-day College Creek. 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.

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. 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.

In 1932, the Catholic College Chapel was constructed to meet the growing needs needs of the Catholic students and staff at the College. The chapel was dedicated to Benedictine monk St. Bede the Venerable in October 1932. In 1939, the chapel was dedicated as a parish. 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.

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.

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.

Parish

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.

Ministries and services

There are over 60 ministries, social groups, and organizations that operate in or with the support of the Saint Bede parish, including:

• Knights of Columbus
• Legion of Mary
• Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts Troops 1932
• HOPE Pregnancy Resource Center
• Ancient Order of Hibernians
• Spanish- and English-language catechesis
• House of Mercy, a service for the homeless and economically marginalized that operates in a building adjacent to the Shrine.

National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham

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. 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.

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 left her teaching position at Walsingham Academy to serve in a social ministry role at Saint Bede parish. The Catholic Student Center is located on the bottom floor of the same building.

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.

Campus ministry

In 1865, the College reported a single Catholic student. By 1939, 114 Catholics attended the College or lived in the nearby community. The Gibbons Club was founded in 1923, later renamed the Newman Club after the establishment of the parish. 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.

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. 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. The Catholic Student Center, located alongside the Shrine, is also known as the "Catacombs" or "Cats."

References

1. ^ "Our Parish History". bedeva.org. Saint Bede Catholic Church. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
2. Erickson, Mark (8 May 2013). "A lost Spanish mission on the York River". dailypress.org. Daily Press. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
3. "The Virginia Martyrs". nationalwalsinghamshrine.org. National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
4. "Colonial Period: Ajacan, The Spanish Jesuit Mission". marinersmuseum.org. Mariners Museum. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
5. ^ Spike, Michèle (2018). The Holy House: A History of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham Williamsburg, Virginia. Legion of Mary. p. 38.
6. ^ "History". nationalwalsinghamshrine.org. National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
7. "History". walsingham.org. Walsingham Academy. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
8. ^ "Restore the Holy House". nationalwalsinghamshrine.org. National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Archived from the original on 10 February 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
9. "Saint Bede Catholic Church". GuernseyTingle. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
10. "Parish Life Groups and Apostolates". bedeva.org. Saint Bede Catholic Church. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
11. ^ "Our History". williamsburghouseofmercy.org. Williamsburg House of Mercy. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
12. ^ Spike, 40.
13. ^ "Catholic Student Center". tribecatholic.org. William & Mary Catholic Campus Ministry. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
14. "Religious Beliefs of Students". Special Collections Research Center Wiki. William & Mary Libraries. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
15. "Gibbons Club". Special Collections Research Center Wiki. William & Mary Libraries. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
16. "Annual Report". tribecatholic.org. William & Mary Catholic Campus Ministry. Archived from the original on 10 February 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
17. Thompson, Camille. "College of William and Mary: Off the Record". College Prowler. p. 155. Retrieved 10 February 2020.
18. "Tribe Catholic". tribecatholic.org. William & Mary Catholic Campus Ministry. Retrieved 10 February 2020.