Chesapeake City Ecumenical Association (CCEA)

Christians United in Service to the Community

Registered 501(c)3

St. Joseph Parish

We, the faithful of St. Joseph Parish, willingly accept our baptismal call to gather and worship as a community, to proclaim the Word of God and to serve in the image of Jesus Christ.

 

St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church 

A Mission  Church of St. Joseph’s Parish, Middletown, DE

Photo by Lewis Collins

Est. 1874

Sunday Worship 8:00 & 9:30 a.m.

Tuesday Worship 8:30 a.m.

301 Lock Street

North Chesapeake City, MD

888-433-1874

 

 

 

 

CCEA/Saint Rose Print Project

 

 Hall Rental Details

 

 

 

Saint Rose of Lima, T.O.S.D., was a Spanish colonist in Lima, Peru, who became known for both her life of severe asceticism and her care of the needy of the city through her own private efforts. Saint Rose of Lima was a beautiful girl who wanted to devote her life to God. To make herself unattractive to men, she rubbed pepper on her face. She spent her life in prayer and fasting, growing flowers to sell and help the poor. Her parents did not allow her to become a nun. So St. Rose joined the Third Order of St. Dominic instead, where she could continue to serve God at home. She is the patron saint of florists and gardeners. Her Feast Day is on 23 August.

Born: April 20, 1586, Lima, Peru

Died: August 24, 1617, Lima, Peru

CHESAPEAKE CITY — The charming red-brick building in north Chesapeake City, known as St. Rose of Lima, was built of Gothic design and when a cornerstone as blessed there on Aug. 30, 1874, some 500 people were in the audience for the auspicious occasion.

History does not offer us information on how many people were attendance on June 20, 1875, when the church was completed and dedicated, but Catholics from across Cecil County were invited to participate.

The Catholic parishioners of Immaculate Conception Church in Elkton prepared dinner for the festivities, and guests arrived in Chesapeake City aboard the steamer Lancaster, picking up passengers en route from Port Deposit, Perryville and Havre de Grace before landing at what became known as Schaefer’s Dock on the canal for their first view of the church. The Rev. Joseph Luke Barry, pastor of St. Patrick’s in Havre de Grace, sang the Solemn High Mass, assisted by the Rev. O’Connor of St. Peter’s Church in Baltimore and Father William Dallard of Immaculate Conception.

Many have speculated, then and now, why the new Catholic Church in Chesapeake City was named St. Rose of Lima. It was thought by historian and writer the Rev. Russell H. Perkins that the name was selected because St. Rose was the only native of the western hemisphere to have been canonized a saint. In any event, St. Rose became a mission of St. Francis Xavier located in Warwick.

After the ceremony in 1875, it took more than a year for the deed to be recorded in December 1876, and St. Rose of Lima was not turned over to Father Dallard until Jan. 24, 1877, who was replaced in 1878 by Father Charles H. Heichemer, S.J. The following year, on April 20, 1879, the Stations of the Cross were installed and blessed at St. Rose of Lima under Father Heichemer, who also performed the first baptism there, for a young African-American boy named Francis Moore in August 1881. In 1880, Father Heichemer also received John Lloyd into the church in June, performed the marriage ceremony for John and Susan Moliter in September. Between July 1879 and July 1880, he performed 14 funeral masses.

Over the years, the congregation began to dwindle at nearby St. Francis Xavier’s in Warwick so the Jesuit Fathers had a surveyor plat the property and St. Francis Xavier’s was turned over to the diocese in July 1898. By 1905, with the Elkton congregation growing, St. Rose of Lima was placed under Father Charles A. Crowley, a newly ordained pastor of Bohemia, the third diocesan priest in charge of the parish since the departure of the Jesuits (the previous diocesans being Fathers John Daly and Charles McGoldrick).

Father Crowley celebrated Mass at Middletown, Del., Chesapeake City and Bohemia on alternating Sundays, with two hours by horse and wagon required to get from Middletown to Chesapeake City. He would travel on Saturday afternoons and stay with Joseph Schaefer’s family, and Mr. Schaefer started the first in the church stoves before the congregation and priest arrived Sunday.

As the congregation of St. Rose of Lima was my no means large, but nonetheless continuous, maintenance and improvements to the structure were paid for through bazaars, pew rents and dues and funds raised by the ladies of the “Sanctuary Society.” John A. McCloskey, a summer resident of Chesapeake City, who hailed from Chester, Pa., contributed to having the church painted and a rail added to the front steps. He also donated a brass tabernacle door and a reed organ played by his daughter.

By 1927, however, with the widening of the C&D Canal to 90 feet, Chesapeake City ceased to be an important stop-over for ships, and St. Rose’s congregation took a noticeable dip. By 1929, after the stock market crash, times were difficult for the congregation and even the vaunted St. Xavier Farm was sold off to a local farmer. The ladies of St. Rose’s Church worked feverishly to raise funds through bingos and card parties with prizes offered from donors in Wilmington and Philadelphia. Through their strenuous efforts, the church survived the lean times.

On Jan. 19, 1955, the mission of St. Rose was independently incorporated in the State of Maryland, to prepare the church for becoming a parish itself. Two acres of land were acquired from the Sisters of Saint Basil the Great on Feb. 28, 1955, after Carrie Wright left her home and $5,000 to the mission, though it isn’t known if these funds went toward the purchase.

Outside influences changed things at St. Rose of Lima, but once again the congregants overcame when construction on the bridge trapped the Rev. John P. McLaughlin and others from reaching St. Rose for classes of instruction. On Oct. 10, 1965, it was announced that Sunday School would resume under three women who volunteered to teach classes after receiving training. Still St. Rose of Lima thrived, and four years later in 1969, Saturday evening Masses were instituted to alleviate crowding at Sunday Mass. That year, a baptismal font was also added in the form of the old font from Immaculate Conception in Elkton.

In 1973, the interior of St. Rose of Lima was repainted and new carpet installed. The Rosary Altar Society paid for the candelabra, vases and sacred vessels to be refinished, and a statue of St. Rose was imported from Spain and blessed with a special ceremony on the Feast of St. Rose. Other necessary elements such as new walkways, parking lot, air conditioning and a furnace were added. All of this was completed in time for the church to celebrate its 100th anniversary on Oct. 6, 1975, with a Mass followed by dinner and dancing at the former Madison House in North East.

By the 21st century, a 2000 census showed the number of registered families at St. Rose of Lima had grown to 200.