Local

Virginia’s oldest parish

Katie Bahr | Catholic Herald

St. Mary Church in Alexandria, founded in 1795, is a spiritual home to more than 12,000 local Catholics.

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A crucifix, recently repaired after being damaged in August’s earthquake, hangs over the altar at St. Mary Church in Alexandria.

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St. Mary Church in Alexandria has been at its current location in Old Town since 1810.

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One of many stained-glass windows at St. Mary Church in Alexandria depicts Mary holding the baby Jesus.

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An angel statue watches over the graves in St. Mary Cemetery.

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A building at St. Mary School is seen beyond the St. Mary cemetery grounds in Alexandria.

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The steeple of St. Mary Church in Alexandria.

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St. Mary Parish was founded in 1795. A plaque in front of the church tells a portion of the parish’s history.

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A plaque on the side of St. Mary Church gives the mass schedule and the date when the parish was established.

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A statue of Mary is seen with roses blooming in a small garden on the grounds of St. Mary Church this summer.

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St. Mary Church in Alexandria has been a valued presence in
the Alexandria community for more than 200 years. Located
amongst the ever-changing restaurants and boutiques in Old
Town, the parish has been a solid and faithful friend to
Virginia’s Catholics for generations.

The oldest Catholic Church in Virginia, St. Mary was
established in 1795. At the time, Col. John Fitzgerald, an
early mayor of Alexandria and a friend of George Washington,
took up a collection to raise funds for the church. Local
tradition states that Washington made the first donation.

Once funds were available, the original chapel was built near
the Wilson Bridge in the South end of the city. Father
Francis Neale was the founding pastor.

In 1810, the church moved to its current location on South
Royal St. Sixteen years later, the building was expanded to
include a stone front, a sanctuary and trecepts that included
designated balcony seating where slaves could sit.


(Find out how the parish fared during the Civil War
years.)

In the 1830s, the original chapel was demolished, its bricks
used to build the Alexandria Lyceum. The land where the
original chapel stood became home to the St. Mary Cemetery
and, decades later, St. Mary School.

As the years have passed, Old Town Alexandria has grown and
so has the parish. Today, St. Mary is home to a lively
community filled with parishioners always willing to share of
their time and energy.

Father Dennis Kleinmann has been at the parish for more than
11 years. For the past seven and a half years, he has been
pastor.

For him, what makes St. Mary unique is its tradition.

“There’s a tremendous sense of tradition here and people look
for that,” he said.

Some of the challenges come, he said, in trying to work
around the busy schedules of parishioners.

“The majority of our parishioners live very busy lives,” he
said. “It was different when I was out in Winchester. There,
everything seemed to center on the parish life, but here it
is just one more thing that they have to do.”

To accommodate those busy schedules, the parish offers three
daily Masses and eight different opportunities to attend
Sunday Mass. Confession is offered every day and adoration of
the Blessed Sacrament takes place every Thursday.

The parish hosts a reflection series during Advent and Lent,
featuring weekly holy hours that include spiritual talks and
quiet prayer time. In addition, the parish hosts “Sermon on
the Mount,” a program which draws a number of parishioners
together for wine and cheese and presentations about various
spiritual topics. Similar to Theology on Tap, the programs
take place three to six Tuesdays in a row four times a
year.

“We started that ten years ago,” Father Kleinmann said. “It’s
an adult program, but in kind of a casual setting. It lets
people socialize, talk and then there are questions and
answers.”

Another tradition for the parish is its annual 40 hour
devotion during the days leading up to the parish’s feast day
– the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. In recent years,
the parish has also held an annual Corpus Christi procession
through the streets of Old Town, involving more than 200
people.

“We try to provide a lot of different spiritual
opportunities,” Father Kleinmann said. “We try to provide
opportunities for (parishioners) to deepen that spiritual
life and get to heaven.”

In terms of organizations, the parish is home to many,
including an active young adults ministry, a Legion of Mary,
a Catholic Daughters of the Americas, a Knights of Columbus
council that is shared with St. Joseph Parish in Alexandria,
and a new council of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which
held its first official meeting last month.

The parish has an active St. Vincent de Paul society, which
restarted back in 2002 and serves the entire city of
Alexandria, helping those in need to pay rent and medical
bills and learn how to budget and find employment.

“They do a great hands-on ministry,” Father Kleinmann said.
“They’re a real godsend.”

Other parishioners of St. Mary are very generous with their
time and money as well. After Hurricane Katrina, the parish
donated to diocesan collections, adopted a parish down in
Louisiana and sent a team of parishioners down to the area to
rebuild six houses. Over the course of a year and a half, the
parish donated more than 300,000 dollars to help the
hurricane victims get back on their feet.

Other fundraisers include a food drive over Thanksgiving, a
giving tree that supports the Gabriel Project and Migration
and Refugee Services, and the parish’s annual Christmas
baskets, which usually include a turkey and enough food for a
holiday meal.

“There really is a tremendous outpouring here in terms of
what we give to the poor,” said Father Kleinmann.
“Absolutely, we need prayer and sacraments, but we also
believe in giving witness to the love of Christ and trying to
see Christ in those less fortunate than ourselves, whether
they live in Mississippi or right here in Old Town, the
homeless or whoever that might be. That’s all a part of
spiritual life too.”

Betty McAndrews has been a parishioner at St. Mary for the
past 12 years. She currently serves as vice-regent for the
Catholic Daughters of the Americas.

“This parish is very active and involved,” she said. “There
are wonderful priests and lots of groups and our church never
fails to respond to any need.”

The church’s activities are spread out over nine buildings
spanning six blocks. Because of the urban setting, there is
little room for construction projects or building expansions.
Instead, much work going into preserving and maintaining the
historic buildings, the newest of which dates back to the
1940s.

Major changes to the church took place in the years following
the Vatican II council. More refurbishing came in 1985 and
then, again, within the last two years. Recently, the church
received new carpet and marble flooring.

Repairs were also necessary following August’s 5.8 magnitude
earthquake, which resulted in several broken or cracked
stained glass windows, a three inch crack in the church bell
tower and damage to Jesus’s right arm in the crucifix above
the altar.


(Read more about the damage from August’s
earthquake.)

For Father Kleinmann, one of the best things about St. Mary
is the school. The school was founded by the Sisters of the
Holy Cross in 1869 and the current school was built in the
1940s. With 725 students, it is the largest parochial school
in the Arlington diocese. Every week, Father Kleinmann visits
with students, teaching on Tuesdays and offering confessions
twice a week.

He believes school events like the annual Christmas bazaar
and Spring Fling – add a vitality to parish life. Other
annual parish events include a winetasting hosted by the
Catholic Daughters of America and a Oktoberfest every
Fall.


(Find out about a recent coat drive which students
participated in.)

“We try to provide things across the board to deepen
(parishioners’) spiritual lives, their lives of charity, but
also that social aspect as well,” Father Kleinmann said. “My
hope and prayer is that we’re providing what they need to
live more spiritual and more holy lives here and to
ultimately get to heaven someday.”

Quick Facts

St. Mary Church

310 S. Royal St.

Alexandria, VA 22314

703/836-4100

Pastor: Fr. Dennis W. Kleinmann

Parochial vicars: Fr. Michael J.R. Kelly and Fr.
Robert L. Ruskamp

In residence: Fr. Jean-Claude K. Atusameso

DRE/ CYO: Jeanne M. Guerin and Marianne Hussle

School:

400 Green St.

Alexandria, VA 22314

703/549-1646

Principal: Janet Cantwell

Students: 725

Mass schedule:

Sat.: 8 a.m., 5 p.m. vigil.

Sun.: 7 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 9:15 a.m., 10 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1
p.m., 5 p.m.

Weekdays: 6:30 a.m., 8 a.m., 12:10 p.m.

Parishioners: 12,100

Website: saintmaryparish.net

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