R.M. Visuals
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
n the early 1850s, Hillsborough County commissioners deeded property at Ashley Drive and Twiggs Street for a Catholic church. The property later was exchanged for land at Florida Avenue and Twiggs. In 1859, a little frame church was erected on the site of the present Sacred Heart Church. It was blessed on Trinity Sunday and named St. Louis Parish in honor of King Louis IX of France, a leader in the Crusades, and in memory of Fr. Luis Cancer, a Dominican missionary from Spain who was martyred on the shores of Tampa Bay in 1549. St. Louis parish was officially constituted in February of 1860 with the arrival of Fr. Charles S. Mailley as resident pastor. The 27 year old priest had been recruited in France only a few months earlier.
The parish grew along with Tampa. Anticipating the need for a larger facility, two wings were added to its modest building in 1883, nearly doubling its seating capacity. A dreadful yellow fever epidemic took a heavy toll on the populace in 1887-88. The parish lost three pastors within a year, two of them in rapid succession. Bishop John Moore of the Diocese of St. Augustine had lost nearly a quarter of his priests to the malady and had no one else to send to this beleaguered area.
Jesuit Pastoral Leadership
He turned to the Jesuits of the South, where 63 year old Fr. Philippe de Carriere, S.J. volunteered to take the post. The parish remained under Jesuit auspices from 1888 until 2005.
By 1891, the Jesuit missionaries had assumed the spiritual care of Catholics in most of South Florida. St. Louis parish stretched all the way to Key West, including its former diocesan church of Mary, Star of the Sea. The missionaries who covered this vast area have been credited with establishing at least 30 parishes and countless missions and stations over the next half century.
Sacred Heart Catholic Church
n the early 1850s, Hillsborough County commissioners deeded property at Ashley Drive and Twiggs Street for a Catholic church. The property later was exchanged for land at Florida Avenue and Twiggs. In 1859, a little frame church was erected on the site of the present Sacred Heart Church. It was blessed on Trinity Sunday and named St. Louis Parish in honor of King Louis IX of France, a leader in the Crusades, and in memory of Fr. Luis Cancer, a Dominican missionary from Spain who was martyred on the shores of Tampa Bay in 1549. St. Louis parish was officially constituted in February of 1860 with the arrival of Fr. Charles S. Mailley as resident pastor. The 27 year old priest had been recruited in France only a few months earlier.
The parish grew along with Tampa. Anticipating the need for a larger facility, two wings were added to its modest building in 1883, nearly doubling its seating capacity. A dreadful yellow fever epidemic took a heavy toll on the populace in 1887-88. The parish lost three pastors within a year, two of them in rapid succession. Bishop John Moore of the Diocese of St. Augustine had lost nearly a quarter of his priests to the malady and had no one else to send to this beleaguered area.
Jesuit Pastoral Leadership
He turned to the Jesuits of the South, where 63 year old Fr. Philippe de Carriere, S.J. volunteered to take the post. The parish remained under Jesuit auspices from 1888 until 2005.
By 1891, the Jesuit missionaries had assumed the spiritual care of Catholics in most of South Florida. St. Louis parish stretched all the way to Key West, including its former diocesan church of Mary, Star of the Sea. The missionaries who covered this vast area have been credited with establishing at least 30 parishes and countless missions and stations over the next half century.