Brief History of Catholic Immigrant Churches in Albany

The following information was culled from my SUNY Albany 2005 Masters Thesis, From Acceptance to Renunication: Das Ende von Albanys Deutschtum. It briefly describes the origins of the various Catholic immigrant churches in Albany.

The immigrant or national church was the foremost non-familial institution that German enclaves organized around.  The church sought to preserve religious customs from the old country.  Ethnicity, language, and religion were closely intertwined.  The German belief held that the loss of language would preclude the loss of faith.  Intense devotion to religion and nationality exhibited among Germans, in general, was especially evident among priests.  Zealous German priests linked orthodoxy with language.  They campaigned to preserve the German language and customs.  Their slogan was “language saves faith.”[1] Both German pastors and parishioners had an aversion to the English language.  Their dislike was based on the fear that false teachings would creep in with the new language.[2] At the same time, the German language represented the old culture and brought to life memories of the past.  This was evident in parish devotional life, and the parish school was one institution that transmitted the cultural heritage to the children of immigrants.[3] (For Albany’s parishes and synagogues that organized schools for their congregations see Table VI.)  After German unification, Germans that immigrated especially in the 1880s and 1890s brought with them a militant patriotism and thus reinforced the natural tendency to retain the language of the Vaterland.[4]

Table VI: Albany’s Parochial Schools to 1912[5]

Parish	Denomination	Church Established	Predominant Ethnicity	School Established	School                         Closed
St. Mary’s	Roman Catholic	1798	Irish	1829
Beth El	Jewish	1822	Jewish	1849	See Beth Emeth
St. John’s	Roman Catholic	1839	Irish	1843	1975
St. Paul’s	Lutheran	1841	German	1841	1904
St. Joseph’s	Roman Catholic	1843	Irish	1846	1978
Holy Cross	Roman Catholic	1849	German	1864 (Elem) 1900 (HS)	Open        1919
Anshe Emeth	Jewish	1850	Jewish	1852	See Beth Emeth
German Evangelical Protestant	Evangelical	1850	German	c. 1852	1901
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception	Roman Catholic	1852	Irish	1861	1992
St. Matthew’s	Lutheran	1854	German	1855	1905
St. John’s	Lutheran	1857	German	1864	N/A
St. Patrick’s	Roman Catholic	1858	Irish	1906	1980
Trinity	Evangelical	1860	German	N/A	N/A
Our Lady of Angels	Roman Catholic	1867	German	1867	1986
Church of the Assumption	Roman Catholic	1869	French	1880	1916
St. Ann’s	Roman Catholic	1870	Irish	1908	1976
Our Lady Help of Christians	Roman Catholic	1880	German	1875	1975
Sacred Heart of Jesus	Roman Catholic	1884	Irish	1855	1981
Beth Emeth	Jewish	1885	Jewish	1894	1905
St. Casmir	Roman Catholic	1903	Polish	1910	Open
St. Anthony’s	Roman Catholic	1912	Italian	1912	1974

Most Germans worshipped in the Lutheran, Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths.  However, there were other religious sects that had German parishes in Albany: the Baptists, the Methodists, and the Reformed Protestant.  Of these religions, the Roman Catholic faith had the most numerous immigrant church parishes in Albany.  In these churches, services were said in native languages: French, Italian, Polish, and Lithuanian.  Simultaneously, the Catholics also had seven English language parishes by 1900.  Baptist, Lutheran, and Methodist parishes held services in either German or English, while Jewish synagogues worshipped in either the English, German, or Hebrew languages.  Today, empty ethnic churches litter the streetscape of Albany.  They are a reminder of the importance of the church as a focal point in the long disappeared ethnic enclaves of Albany.

Roman Catholicism

During pre-Revolutionary years, Roman Catholic priests lamented their inability to care for the Catholic German element in their flocks.  In 1741 the first German priests arrived in the English colonies.  Reverend Matthew Pekari noted that at the beginning of the American Revolution, the German Catholics outnumbered their coreligionists among the English in many localities.[6] At this time in Albany, Catholics were a minority to the Dutch Reformed and Lutheran faiths.  Later, Catholics made up an average of over thirty-five percent of the total German immigration to the United States during the years following the Civil War.  They totaled approximately 700,000 in number from 1865 to 1900 and became the largest Catholic immigrant group arriving in the States.[7] Catholics also became the most populous of all religious faiths in Albany.

In the nineteenth century the parish was the focal point of Catholic life in Western Europe, and the church transplanted this parochial structure to the United States.  Ideally, geographical boundaries defined the size of the parish, but in American cities it was not that simple.  Germans were unable to understand English preachers just as the Irish were incapable of fathoming the subtleties of French sermons.  For this reason ethnic diversity intensified with each successive wave of immigrants settling in American cities.  The concept of national parishes emerged, based more on language than on geography.[8] Albany’s first Roman Catholic Churches were English language parishes that served the English speaking Catholics of Albany, mainly the Irish: Saint Mary’s, established in 1798; Saint John’s, in 1839; and Saint Joseph’s, in 1843.  When other ethnicities, such as Germans, Poles, French, and Italians, moved into the city, ethnic or national churches came into existence.  Immigrants wanted separate churches where their traditional religious observances and customs might be carried out.  They desired to hear sermons in their mother tongue, go to confession as they had learned to confess from early childhood, and to take an active part in parish life through their beloved societies that served as social clubs and organizations of mutual support.  This unity and support helped preserve European Catholic traditions and identity.[9] However, it was not unusual for Albany’s Catholic immigrant churches to be located proximate to one another, sometimes within the same block.  The German Holy Cross church was located within one block from the French Church of the Assumption and two blocks from the Italian Saint Anthony’s Church.  Also, the German Our Lady of Angels was just one block east of the Irish Saint Patrick’s Church and approximately three blocks from the Polish Saint Casmir’s Church.  Our Lady of Angels Church was also across the street from Saint John’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church and two blocks from the Irish Episcopal Grace Church on Clinton Avenue.  Obviously, many parishes overlapped.  This demonstrates the coexistence of various ethnic groups within the same neighborhood.

The growth of Catholic schools as an ethnic institution was a response to the rapid development of a Protestant-based public school system, often guided by people who felt themselves alienated from America’s dominant culture.  To assure their cultural survival, the ethnic parishes built up a community school system to preserve their national language and heritage, which were in danger of being lost in a new environment.[10] Saint Mary’s Church on Pine and Lodge Streets established Albany’s first Catholic parochial school in 1829.  The early school occupied the basement of the church.  Saint John’s Church on South Ferry and Dallius Streets followed next in 1843.  The third Catholic parochial school was founded by Saint Joseph’s Church in 1846.  The German Holy Cross Church created the fourth Catholic school in 1848.  Characteristically, German Catholics advocated parish schools as soon as the parish was established.  German Catholic parishioners were convinced that the preservation of their faith required the maintenance of the German language and culture and that this was best accomplished through Catholic schools.[11] (See Table VII for a select list of the enrollment in Albany’s Catholic immigrant schools for the years 1910 through 1920.)  According to the data compiled for the Catholic Encyclopedia in 1909, there were over two thousand Catholic congregations that used the German language either exclusively or in combination with English in their sermons and songs.[12]

Table VI: Enrollment in the Schools of Albany’s Immigrant Catholic Churches[13]

School	Ethnicity	1910	1911	1912	1913	1914	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919	1920
Assumption	French	58	80	84	94	50	45	52	NA	NA	NA	NA
Holy Cross	German	174	186	180	188	179	182	158	166	138	107	110
Our Lady of Angels	German	301	352	357	361	356	362	370	356	366	370	370
Our Lady Help of Christians	German	177	172	159	164	141	161	170	176	185	180	180
St. Anthony’s	Italian	85	92	90	91	124	132	137	194	200	133	112
St. Casmir’s	Polish	150	183	193	236	233	253	281	342	413	419	353
Source Page		759	569	586	573	682	647	572	570	469	433	529

Previous to 1869, the 130 French Canadian Catholics in Albany did not have a permanent place for religious services.  A group of 150 individuals formed the Saint Jean Baptiste Society, which became the nucleus of the Church of the Assumption.  The church was incorporated on October 12, 1869, and its cornerstone laid on December 12, 1869.  The church had a seating capacity of 700 persons.  Reverend Joseph Brouillet, pastor of Assumption, offered the Sisters of the Holy Names from Hochelaga, Canada a salary of $400 a year for teaching in the school.  Two Sisters arrived on September 1, 1880, and registered one hundred children for classes that were taught in the basement of the church.  Contrary to expectations, registration declined until, in 1915, there were approximately sixty children registered in five grades.  French immigration into Albany slowed, and on September 20, 1916, classes at the Assumption school were discontinued due to a lack in enrollment.[14]

The Polish Catholics of Albany founded Saint Casmir’s parish in 1893 and built a small but ornate church on Sheridan Avenue in the upper Sheridan Hollow section of the city.  Saint Casmir’s pastor, Reverend Bartholomew Molejkajtys, was anxious to provide the children of the parish with a Catholic education.  His yearning was fulfilled when a school was eventually built in 1909.  Lay teachers taught the pupils until September 1917, when they were replaced with the Sisters of the Resurrection.[15] Today, the school remains open and managed by the Albany Catholic Diocese as it serves minority families of the neighborhood.  Amid tears and anger Saint Casmir’s held its last service on Sunday, August 29, 2004.

The Italians of Albany formed their own enclave in the vicinity of lower Madison Avenue, below the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.  By the early 1900s the Italians had become the city’s third largest Catholic ethnicity behind the Irish and Germans and also the last major Catholic faction to immigrate to America before immigration was drastically curtailed in 1920.  In 1908 Saint Anthony’s Church was erected on the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and Grand Street.   The church’s pastor, Reverend Francis Buono, realized that a school would soon be necessary to educate the parish children.  In 1909 a school was founded and employed seven lay teachers until the Sisters of Saint John the Baptist were invited to teach the children in 1917.  This religious community remained until 1920, when they decided to discontinue their services because of the lack of Sisters.  The Sisters of Saint Joseph immediately replaced them in September 1920, until they were replaced by the Sisters of the Presentation.  According to religious scholar Sister Mary Ancilla Leary, Italian parish schools rarely gave instruction in Italian.[16] The school and church closed when many of the Italian residents moved from the Madison Avenue neighborhood to westward sections of the city on account of the creation of the Empire State Plaza.

The last of the Catholic immigrant churches in Albany was founded by the Lithuanians.  Lithuanian immigration into Albany and its neighboring cities increased between the years, 1905-1916.  By 1916 approximately four hundred Lithuanian families resided in the Capital District.  They attended various Catholic churches, but they desired to worship in their native language.  Therefore, in 1916 they formed the Saint George’s Society and were granted permission from the Bishop to allow Father Constantine F. Szatkus, a priest from Pennsylvania, to care for their spiritual needs.  On March 17, 1917, Saint George’s Society was transformed into Saint George’s parish.  A church was soon built on Livingston Avenue.  The parish prospered until the early 1990s.  In 1993 only twenty members remained in the parish.  Most communicants had either died or moved away.  Fortunately, the church was saved from closure because Father Kofi Amissah, who was serving one mass on Sundays for the African-American community, persuaded Bishop Howard Hubbard to keep the church open as a Black Apostolate.  Permission was granted, and the church is again growing and thriving.[17] (This church has since closed)

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[1] Dolan, The Immigrant Church, p. 70. Frederick C. Luebke, “The Immigrant Condition as a Factor Contributing to the Conservatism of the Lutheran Church” Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly 38(2): 19-28.

[2] Paul T. Dietz, “The Transition From German to English in the Missouri Synod From 1910-1947” (Bachelor of Divinity Thesis, Concordia Seminary, 1949), p. 78.

[3] Dolan, The Immigrant Church, p. 110.

[4] Alan Niehaus Graebner, “The Acculturation of an Immigrant Lutheran Church: The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, 1917-1929” (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1965), p. 12.

[5] Sister Mary Ancilla Leary, The History of Catholic Education in the Diocese of Albany (Ph.D. dissertation, The Catholic University of America, 1957), pp. xlvi-xlviii. Notes from the Roman Catholic Diocese Archives.

[6] Reverend Matthew Pekari, “The German Catholics in the United States,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society 36 (December 1925): 318.

[7] Colman J. Barry, “The Catholic Church and German-Americans” (Ph.D. dissertation, St. John’s University, 1953), p. 7.

[8] Dolan, The Immigrant Church, pp. 4-5. Phillip Gleason, The Conservative Reformers: German American Catholics and the Social Order (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1968), pp. 8-10.

[9] Dolan, The Immigrant Church, p 70. Greenberg, Workers and Community, p. 120. For Albany’s early Catholic Church origins, see Byron, Irish America, pp. 35-37. The German Catholic Central Verein grew out of the mutual benefit societies that had been organized in many German Catholic parishes. Gleason, The Central Verein, 1900-1917, p. 8.

[10] Marvin Lazerson, “Understanding American Catholic Educational History,” History of Education Quarterly 17(3): 298. Dolan, The Immigrant Church, pp. 102, 111.

[11] Luebke, Bonds of Loyalty, p. 36. Leary, The History of Catholic Education in the Diocese of Albany, p. 135.

[12] Rippley, The German-Americans, p. 115. Luebke, Bonds of Loyalty, p. 35.

[13] Proceedings of the Common Council of the City of Albany, Volume II, [reports] 1910-1920 (Albany: The Argus Company, Printers, 1910-1920), pages are listed in the chart.

 [14] Leary, The History of Catholic Education in the Diocese of Albany, pp. 55-56. Michael J. Louden, ed. Catholic Albany: An Illustrated History of the Catholic Churches and Catholic Religious, Benevolent and Educational Institutions of the City of Albany (Albany: Peter Donnelly, 1895), pp. 261-262. Phelps, comp., The Albany Hand-Book, p. 59.

[15] Leary, The History of Catholic Education in the Diocese of Albany, pp. 87-88, 134-135. Charles W. Blessing, ed., Albany Schools and Colleges, Yesterday and Today (Albany: Fort Orange Press, Incorporated, 1936), p. 44.

[16] Leary, The History of Catholic Education in the Diocese of Albany, pp. 91-93. Blessing, ed., Albany Schools and Colleges, Yesterday and Today, p. 44.

[17] American-Canadian Genealogical Society, St. George, Albany: NY: Marriages, Baptisms, Burials (Manchester: American-Canadian Genealogical Society, 1999), p. 1.