Blessed Sacrament pilgrimage highlights history, memories
Blessed Sacrament, Norfolk, celebrated its centennial anniversary this month with a journey through time and through the city, covering more than 200 years and six miles of pavement.
Around 100 parishioners gathered Saturday, May 8, for a walking tour of the west side of Norfolk — beginning downtown from the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, the first Catholic parish in Virginia, to Newport Avenue, where Blessed Sacrament stands. A shuttle bus was made available, too, for those who preferred to ride.
“It’s a pilgrimage through history, retracing the foundations of Catholicism in Norfolk,” Charles McPhillips, one of the event’s organizers, said.
Father Eric Ayers, pastor of Blessed Sacrament and episcopal vicar of the Eastern Vicariate, explained that the parish originally considered organizing a trip for the occasion, but the pandemic prompted them to look for a way to celebrate closer to home.
The change in plans had a serendipitous effect for many, making the pilgrimage a day not only for history, but for memories: of weddings, baptisms and confirmations, and of parish picnics and basketball games against rivals at Sacred Heart.
“It’s an emotional journey for me,” said McPhillips, whose family immigrated to Norfolk from Ireland in 1919 and have, over the years, held ties to all five sites on the pilgrimage.
“These are all places that hold memories for a lot of us,” CeCe Turrietta, a parishioner of 50 years, said. “Memories that are very dear.”
Cradle of the community
“Congratulations,” said Father James Curran, pastor of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception. “Our oldest grandchild has turned one hundred.”
The pilgrims began their journey through time at St. Mary, the cradle of Catholicism in the diocese. Founded in 1791, it was originally known as St. Patrick Church.
By 1842, a stone church had replaced the original chapel, McPhillips said as he recounted a brief history of the parish, but troubles came in 1855, when Yellow Fever ravaged the congregation and Father Matthew O’Keefe faced threats from members of the anti-Catholic Know-Nothing party, who insisted that he celebrate segregated Masses.
When St. Patrick burned down in 1856, it was widely believed to be the work of Know-Nothing supporters.
Father O’Keefe worked tirelessly, McPhillips said, and managed to raise funds to build a new church, completed in 1858 and called St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.
It’s a lesson in perseverance and hope, Father Ayers said, to consider how our predecessors worked “in a time of racial and religious injustice,” through Yellow Fever and Spanish Flu and through two world wars.
“They have kept the faith for us,” he said. “It’s good to remember those on whose shoulders we stand.”
Walk by faith
After leaving the beautifully restored Gothic Revival church, the pilgrims headed along West Bute Street, where they paused along a seemingly ordinary stretch of sidewalk.
“On the other side of this YMCA,” McPhillips said, laughing at the marked contrast between the first two sites on the pilgrimage schedule, “over by the light rail tracks, is where Sacred Heart used to stand.”
If Blessed Sacrament is the grandchild of St. Mary, McPhillips said, it’s the child of Sacred Heart, a parish formed in 1894 to serve the growing neighborhoods of West Norfolk.
While no sign of the original building remains, its round, stained-glass window depicting the Sacred Heart is displayed in the “new” Sacred Heart, a Florentine Renaissance style church built in 1925 — just a walk along the Hague away and the third stop on the centennial pilgrimage.
Tale of two parishes
At Sacred Heart, Father Ayers recounted how, in 1905, Father Richard Drake, then pastor of the parish, opened St. Francis de Sales mission chapel in Lambert’s Point. The chapel soon became overcrowded, however, when construction of the Norfolk Naval Base at the advent of WWI caused the city’s population to skyrocket, leading to the need for a new parish. Hence, Blessed Sacrament was born.
In 1921, Father Leo Ryan dedicated a small, stone, Gothic church located at the corner of Colley Avenue and 37th Street, and although the building houses a Pentecostal church today, many parishioners still cherish fond memories of the old Blessed Sacrament.
“It’s a beautiful little church,” Deborah Alberti, a parishioner of nearly 70 years and chair of the centennial committee, said. “There’s something humble and quaint about it.”
The old church marked the fourth stop on the pilgrimage, and Alberti said she was glad for the chance to visit it again.
“It’s nice that we can have this, to remember,” she said. “History so easily gets forgotten.”
Every stone is essential
From Colley Avenue, the crowds threaded over the Granby Street Bridge, finally arriving along the oak-lined street of Newport Avenue and gathering in the sanctuary of Blessed Sacrament Church, built in 1965 and renovated in 2002.
“Each layer of stone is essential to the unity of the structure,” Father Ayers said, reflecting on the day and noting that community is forged in the connections built between the current generation and in the legacy that they leave for the next generation.
“What will our role be?” he asked.
Afterward, alumni of Blessed Sacrament School, which operated from 1952 to 1988, held a reunion in the parish hall, where they looked over old photographs and reminisced about former teachers, talent shows and field trips.
Meanwhile, at a parish cook-out outside, a few children convened on the playground — children who will one day have their own Blessed Sacrament stories to tell.
The day they walked six miles through the city and across the Lafayette River will, doubtless, be among them.
Editor’s note: A video on the centennial pilgrimage of Blessed Sacrament, Norfolk, can be viewed on the Catholic Diocese of Richmond’s YouTube channel.