Diocese of Lexington at 1310 West Main Street, Lexington, KY 40508-2048 US - A Short History of St. William and St. William Parish

It was the archbishop of Louisville, Paul McCloskey, who sent Father Paul Volk into this territory to see to the propagation of the faith in the mountains. Volk founded St. Boniface Church in Jellico and St. Sylvester Church was founded at East Bernstadt in April 1888. The church served the Catholics of the area through the work of the Benedictine fathers who were headquartered at Sacred Heart in Corbin. The Benedictines, of Cullman, Ala., saw to it that Mass was celebrated about once a month in the little mission churches at East Bernstadt and Jellico and beginning in 1904 in London. Father Ambrose Reger, OSB, founded St. Andrew Church on a 25x100-foot lot 25 feet west of Broad Street on the north side of West Fifth Street. The property had belonged to one a Catholic couple named Matthias and Alphonsa Fautz. He owned a tailor shop on the corner of Fifth and Broad. Paul Ryan, in his 1954 History of the Diocese of Covington, reported that the Fautz home was converted to a chapel and in July 1904 the first Mass was said there, though the month before, presumably while the home was being converted, Mass was said in the tailor shop. On October 20, 1905, Bishop Camillus Maes dedicated the new church in honor of St. Andrew. There is a vague historical indication that the initial intention was to name the London church St. Mary’s, though no documentation has been found to confirm or deny that presumption. By 1910 the seven Catholic families in London as the church was organized had grown to eleven, but in 1920 membership began to wane. The 1920 membership was seven families, in 1930 only two families were listed and in 1940 only one family was on the list. The year 1946 saw the Catholic presence in London blossom as the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth bought London’s Pennington General Hospital and moved their sisters in to operate it. With those sisters came a chaplain, who also served the handful of Catholics here. That relationship finally spawned the St. Andrew Parish on May 8,1949. And Father Cletus Gillson, of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, who had been sent to Marymount to serve as her chaplain less than a year earlier, was named pastor. In 1950 membership jumped by 3,700% from a single family in 1940 to 38 families in 1950. The men coming home from World War II who, often for the first time, had been exposed to Catholic military chaplains began to show an interest in the church and some began to take instruction, and non-Catholics married to Catholics also showed an interest in the Catholic Church. Father Cletus began his pastorate here with the mission to establish a Catholic school and build a new church to replace the more-than-50-year-old church on the Fautz property. His work in London spanned a decade, and in the first half of that work he helped establish a church in Manchester (Clay and Laurel counties were originally a part of the St. Andrew Parish) and build a combination modern church/school in London. That building was dedicated in 1954 and later that year was renamed for St. William at the request of Archbishop William O’Brien, president of the Church Extension Society. He asked that it be named in honor of Bishop William Mulloy. So in late 1954 St. Andrew became St. William. There was a school operated by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth that served as many as 50 students each year from 1950 through 1975. The Sisters of Charity left the school in 1972 and other sisters were hired to keep the school in operation through its last three years. Trinitarian Fathers Pierce O’Connell, Bernard McDonald, Gerald Swift, Ignatius Fonash, Columban Schloer, Vernon Danenmann and Philip Bronk followed Father Cletus and the church continued to grow. By 1980 the membership had grown by about 700% from the 11 families in 1910 to 80 families. In 1984 it was determined by the Diocese of Covington that the parish could become self-supporting and the Trinitarian priests were replaced by diocesan priests. Father Jay Thesing was the first diocesan priest, followed by Father Jerry Stern. In this, the final year of the 20th Century, St. William has taken another giant step as it dedicates on April 9, 2000, a new church. This church, which will seat 500-plus, replaces the 160-seat church dedicated in 1954, which replaced the church which seated 40 dedicated in 1905. © MM, C.K. & V.H. Greene

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