St. Brigid Catholic Church at 7801 Lowrance Road, Memphis, TN 38125-2825 US - About St. Brigid  

St. Brigid Church and Parish has flourished by the grace of Almighty God, and through the benevolence and generosity many families

History of Saint Brigid Church

Original Parish of St. Brigid:

St. Brigid Parish was founded and opened in 1870.  It was located in North Memphis at Overton and Third Streets in the “Pinch District.”  Its opening decade (1870-1880) is largely the story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic, in which St. Brigid’s Pastors, Father Martin and William Walsh, played heroic roles.  Their successor, Father Moening, a Franciscan, was mainly Pastor of St. Mary’s and was therefore a German Franciscan, an odd choice for an Irish at St. Brigid’s.  But how Irish was the congregation?  Among the first communicants were such names Smiddy and Zape, in a list of Foleys, Griffins, and the like.  In 1917, when Father James P. Whitfield became Pastor, the old church was remodeled.  The Parish operated a grade school throughout much of its history.  The church and school were finally closed in 1937-1938 when the new Pastor of St. Therese, Little Flower, was opened on Jackson Avenue by Msgr. James P. Whitefield.  The church records were transferred to St. Mary Church at Third and Market, located just a few blocks south of St. Brigid. The building of St. Brigid became a storage warehouse and was later razed and the site is now a vacant lot.

(Notes taken from “The Catholic Church in Tennessee”

The Sesquicentennial Story, by Thomas Stritch

The Catholic Center Press, 1987

New Parish of St. Brigid

            On July 1, 1992, the new Parish of St. Brigid was canonically erected by the then Bishop of Memphis, The Most Reverend Daniel Buechilen.  The Parish was to serve the Southwest Shelby County with its boundaries being: Winchester Road on the North; Germantown Extended and Crumpler Road on the West; State Line Road on the South; and the Collierville Town Line on the East. The Parish was formed from the South ends of Holy Spirit Parish and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Germantown.  Father Michael Stewart was named the first Pastor.  Twelve acres of land were purchased on Lowrance Road, West of Hacks Cross for the proposed church, offices, family life center and school with playing fields and parking lot.  Also, a home lot was purchases adjacent to the property on Thunderstone Circle West for construction of a Rectory.  St. Mark United Methodist Church on Winchester Road at Wyndyke offered their sanctuary to St. Brigid Parish as a temporary location for Saturday evening and Sunday morning Mass.

            The first Mass celebrated in the Parish was at St. Mark’s on November 22, 1992, the Solemnity of Christ the King.  In January, 1993 construction began on the rectory and Father Steward moved in May 15, 1993.  The groundbreaking ceremony was held March 21, 1993, for a multipurpose building which included a worship space seating about 170 people.  The first Mass was celebrated October 23, 1993 on the property.  The dedication of the new building by the Most Reverend J. Terry Steib, S.V.D., D.D., was celebrated Saturday, November 20, 1993, on the Solemnity of Christ the King, one year after the first Mass in the Parish was celebrated at St. Mark United Methodist Church.  The Parish of St. Brigid has Forty-Four Founding Families in November 1992.  There were seventy-nine families in the Parish as of November 1993.

            In August 2002 a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new sanctuary.  The first Mass celebrated in the new sanctuary was on August 30, 2003.  The Dedication of the New Building by the Most Reverend Bishop J. Terry Steib, S.V.D., D.D., was celebrated on September 8, 2003.  There were 200 families in the Parish as of August 2003.