Celebrate 150 Years of St. Patrick's in Colton

                        St. Patrick's Sesquicentennial Celebration

St. Patrick's Sesquicentennial Celebration

Please join us to celebrate the Liturgy on Saturday, November 8, 2014 at 6pm at St. Patrick's Church in Colton, NY. This Mass, celebrated on the vigil of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica will be in commemoration of one hundred fifty years of Catholic faith in Colton, NY. As Pope Benedict XVI stated in his Angelus Address on Nov. 9, 2008:

"Dear friends, today's feast celebrates a mystery that is always relevant: God's desire to build a spiritual temple in the world, a community that worships him in spirit and truth(cf. John 4:23-24). But this observance also reminds us of the importance of the material buildings in which the community gathers to celebrate the presence of God. Every community therefore has the duty to take special care of its own sacred buildings, which are a precious religious and historical patrimony."

Catholicism came to Colton, NY predominantly with the influx of Irish immigrants as a result of the potato famine in the 1840s as well as many French Catholics from Canada being drawn to the foothills of the Adirondacks for lumbering. These early Catholics had to travel by foot or horse to Ogdensburg, Waddington, Canton or Potsdam for Masses and the Sacraments.

In 1857 St. Mary's Parish in Potsdam was established as an independent parish and soon after Colton became  a station and then a mission of St. Mary's. As a "station" Mass in Colton was celebrated in a private home on the Wildwood Road.

It was in November of 1864 when 144 parishioners, predominantly Irish Catholics realized their prayers were answered when Father Patrick J. McGlynn, pastor of St. Mary's in Potsdam purchased the Universalist Church building on present day Riverside Drive in Colton, NY for $1200. It was in that same month that the newly acquired church was dedicated. 

In 1881 St. Patrick's received its first resident pastor, Rev. Thomas Plunkett, and thus being separated from Potsdam was truly an independent parish.

Through the years many renovations were done to the church building purchased in 1864 and remained as the site of worship for Catholics in Colton until the present St. Patrick's Church was built and dedicated in 1979, under the leadership of Rev. John Kennehan. The new church building was added on to the St. Patrick's-St. Paul's Parish Center which was built in 1963 and dedicated during St. Patrick's Centennial celebration in 1964 under the leadership of Rev. Peter Ward.

In the early years of St. Patrick's Parish there were three stations. When two of these were discontinued they became part of Holy Cross in Hopkinton and one became part of St. Paul's in South Colton. The Catholics in South Colton built St. Paul's Church in 1899 and the church was dedicated in 1900, being a mission of St. Patrick's Parish.

In 1988 through another reconfiguration of the parishes, St. Michael's Church in Parishville became a mission of St. Patrick's, with Rev. Lawrence Cotter as pastor.

Most recently in 2010, St. Paul's Church in South Colton and St. Michael's Church in Parishville have been named oratories, and St. Patrick's Parish has been linked with St. Mary's Parish with Rev. Msgr Robert H. Aucoin serving as pastor of both parishes.

Again, please join us celebrating 150 years of our great Catholic faith at Mass at St. Patrick's Church in Colton on November 8, 2014 at 6pm. St. Patrick-St Paul Altar & Rosary Society will host a reception in the parish center immediately following Mass.

Thank you to Mary Aiken for writing this article.