St. Louise de Marillac at 320 McMurray Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15241-1616 US - Our Church's History

~ A Pilgrim Church ~

The present site of St. Louise de Marillac church was the center of the enormous rural Baldesberger estate of the 1800’s. Mrs. Walter Baldesberger was a dedicated Catholic and had great devotion to St. Francis of Assisi, the saint for all times. For these reasons, it was her hope and dream that a Catholic Church would be built on this land some day.

This hope and dream became a reality in 1961 when Bishop John Wright established St. Louise de Marillac Church within the boundaries of the original farm area. Reverend John Schonhardt, first pastor, began renovation of the standing buildings. Thus, he was able to provide a convent for the Felician Sisters, members of the Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi, in the Baldesberger farmhouse. Within a year, a building was constructed to serve as a temporary church and school. On Christmas Day, in 1963, the first mass was celebrated in the newly established St. Louise de Marillac church. Reverend Raymond Vollmer became pastor in 1973 after the sudden death of Fr. Schonhardt.

Reverend Robert Reardon, made pastor in 1978, recognized the growing need for a more permanent and much larger church building. Lucian Caste, architect of the original building, was contracted to design and build the new church. On August 23, 1981, the doors of St. Louise de Marillac Church were opened to God’s pilgrim people.

We are a pilgrim people, members of the Pilgrim Church of God. As pilgrims, we are called to celebrate the Father’s love and life, in ways known and yet unknown to us. Our journey to the Father has begun (at birth) and we must continue to live as a faith-filled community constantly dying and rising in the everydayness of life.

As we live together in faith, we discover the Father’s unending love for us and respond to Him in gratitude and praise. Throughout our pilgrimage, we realize that “there is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven.”

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8