Located in Middleburg, a small town in Loudoun County with a
population of less than 1,000, St. Stephen the Martyr
Parish started as a mission church in 1957, when Father
Albert Pereira, then pastor of St. John the Apostle Parish in
Leesburg, would travel to Middleburg to celebrate Sunday
Mass. About 107 local Catholics attended the weekly Mass,
celebrated in the Middleburg community center.
This continued until the early 1960s, when a familiar face
started coming to the makeshift church – President John F.
Kennedy. He and his family rented a home in nearby Glen Ora
for weekend visits and wanted to attend Mass with the local
community. With the arrival of the presidential parishioner,
the small church community had to learn to work around secret
service agents, reporters and gawkers. During this time,
Richmond Bishop John C. Russell permitted the community to
build a proper church for the mission.
“The community thought it was a little unseemly (the
president) was going to Mass at a community center, so they
got a group of people together – 10 or 15 of the original
parishioners – to put up the seed money to have a parish
built,” said Father William Schardt, who has been pastor of
St. Stephen the Martyr for five years.
The church was built in 1963, with a room specially designed
for the president’s use with bulletproof glass and a phone
line that connected to the White House. The president
attended five Masses at the church before his death in
November of that year. The last Mass he attended was only 12
days before his assassination.
Years later, in 1975, St. Stephen the Martyr was named a
parish, with Father Walter Malloy as the first pastor. The
same year, a rectory was built on the property.
As the years passed, the parish grew into its own devout
community, but also developed ecumenical friendships with
other Middleburg churches. Every year, the parish works with
local Christian communities for an ecumenical Thanksgiving
service, a summer vacation Bible school and an annual free
church homecoming celebration, which commemorates a church
several denominations of Christians used for worship during
the early 19th century.
For more than 10 years, the parish has been involved with
Seven Loaves Services, a food pantry started by Rev. Martin
Spillman, a former minister at the Middleburg United
Methodist Church, in 1994. Last year, the pantry served 670
families more than 200,000 pounds of donated food.
“It’s all made possible through the area churches coming
together and providing the funding,” said George Lengauer, a
parishioner of St. Stephen the Martyr since 1986.
As the Catholic community in Middleburg and the surrounding
areas of Clarke, Loudoun, Fauquier and Prince William
counties has grown, St. Stephen the Martyr has made
adjustments to accommodate the increasing numbers. At first,
the parish made do by having multiple Masses at the same
time, at the church and the school gym of nearby Notre Dame
Academy.
“We are a very rural parish, or we were once upon a time,
taking parts of Prince William County and Loudoun County and
Fauquier County,” Father Schardt said. “All those people were
coming here for Mass and we were really overrun.”
In 2000, the parish began “Masses of convenience” in other
areas to reach out to Catholics who were unable to travel to
Middleburg every week. These Masses were celebrated in
Haymarket and South Riding and continued until 2005, when
Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde declared them missions: St.
Katharine Drexel in Gainesville and Corpus Christi in
South Riding.
(Read
more about the missions here.)
Today, the parish and both missions are thriving. St. Stephen
the Martyr has 873 registered parishioners; St. Katharine
Drexel celebrates Masses at Bull Run Middle School in
Gainesville and counts 1,452 registered parishioners; and
Corpus Christi has Mass at Hutchison Farm Elementary School
in South Riding with 3,400 registered parishioners. The
result is a Catholic community that spans distance and
numbers and works together for the greater good of the Church
in the surrounding areas.
Keeping it all together is a staff that splits its time
between locations and plenty of volunteers – parishioners who
come early on Sundays to set up chairs in school gyms and
clergy who take time out of busy Sundays to help with
Masses.
“When the two missions were started, we really shared staff
and programs and tried to keep things as common to the three
places as possible,” Father Schardt said. “In the early days,
having to rely on visiting priests with each place was very
confusing. Even today, there are Sundays and I’ll wonder
where I’m supposed to be.”
Today, Father Schardt serves as pastor of St. Stephen the
Martyr and St. Katharine Drexel. At Corpus Christi, Father
Michael G. Taylor serves as parochial administrator. Visiting
priests fill in the gaps.
Trudy Maher is director of liturgy and music for St. Stephen
the Martyr and St. Katharine Drexel. For her, one of the best
things about the parish is the way the community works
together to keep things running.
“The people in the community have responded so well to take
active roles – ushers, eucharistic ministers, lectors,” she
said. “They all perform these services with such grace and
faithfulness. They’re always there.”
At St. Katharine Drexel, volunteers work together to operate
a meal delivery program for those who are ill, as well as a
food pantry that is run with St. Paul Anglican Church in
Haymarket. Last year, through a parish bake sale, churchgoers
were able to raise enough money to provide 60 families with
complete Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
All of this cooperation has resulted in communities that,
though distinct and separate, are close-knit and devout.
“I’ve only been here just over three years and the first
thing I noticed was at this location, how the people came to
Sunday Eucharist and participate so beautifully and how
welcoming and warm and kind the people here are,” Maher said.
“It’s very clear that liturgy is the source and summit of the
Faith and Father takes that very seriously and embraces it
wholeheartedly.”
At St. Stephen the Martyr, parishioners enjoy the small-town
atmosphere and the easy community vibe.
“It’s wonderful on a Sunday morning to have such a small
community to celebrate with and to get to know everyone,”
Father Schardt said. “It’s very different from a
thousand-seat church.”
Lengauer agreed, calling the parish “wonderful.”
“I like it being small because you get to know your fellow
parishioners. You don’t even have to have a social event to
get to know them; you can get to know them by seeing them
here every Sunday and after Mass and in the local community,”
he said.
And even though the mission churches are set in public
schools, parishioners say they are not lacking in holiness or
community.
“The thing about St. Katharine is, it’s by its own definition
a church without walls. The people are what hold it together.
Their spirit of holiness creates this church every Sunday,”
said Katherine Frick, who has been pastoral coordinator of
St. Katharine Drexel for four years. “We don’t have the huge
building, we don’t have the statues, but we do have the
people.”
In the future, Father Schardt hopes both missions will be
able to grow into independent parishes with permanent church
buildings. In the meantime, he and his staff will continue to
work hard to keep the deep sense of spirituality alive at St.
Stephen the Martyr and the missions.
Quick facts
St. Stephen the Martyr Church
23331 Sam Fred Rd.,
Middleburg, Va. 20117
540/687-6433
Pastor: Fr. William B. Schardt
Deacon: Jack M. Ligon
DRE: Dennis Pierce
Mass schedule:
Sat.: 5 p.m. vigil
Sun.: 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 5 p.m (Spanish)
Weekdays: 9 a.m.
Parishioners: 873;
St. Katharine Drexel Mission
14535 John Marshall Hwy.,
Suite 210,
Gainesville, Va., 20155
703/753-8444
Pastor: Fr. William B. Schardt
Pastoral Coordinator: Katherine D. Frick
Mass Schedule:
Sun.: 8:30 a.m., 10 a.m.
At Bull Run Middle School,
6307 Catharpin Rd.
Gainesville, VA 20155
Parishioners: 1,452
Corpus Christi Mission
Corpus Christi Catholic Center
15100 Enterprise Ct., Suite 300,
Chantilly, Va., 20151
703/378-1037
Parochial administrator: Fr. Michael G. Taylor
Deacon: Nicholas J. La Duca, Jr.
DRE: Theresa McGuire
Mass Schedule:
Sat.: 5 p.m. vigil
Sun.: 8:30 a.m., 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m.
Mon. and Fri.: 9:30 a.m.
Tues. and Thurs.: 12:15 p.m.
Weekend Masses at Hutchison Farm Elementary School
42819 Center St.
South Riding, Va. 20152
Parishioners: 3,400
