OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE AND ST. FRANCIS DE SALES PARISH
AN INTERWOVEN HISTORY

Our Lady of La Salette has a special significance in the life of St. Francis de Sales Parish. In the mid-1800’s Catholic families in Phoenicia, Allaben and Pine Hill grew into a thriving Catholic community. The Allaben Church, dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, was built in 1879. At the
time, Catholic Masses in Phoenicia were celebrated in the Odd Fellows Hall on Church Street. Rev. Francis Fagan arrived in Phoenicia in September of 1893 to serve the growing Catholic community. During his tenure, Father Fagan built the Pine Hill Church and dedicated it to St.
Vincent de Paul. Many years later, in the 1980’s, the church was sold when Father “Mac” McPartland was Phoenicia’s pastor. Upon Father Fagan’s departure at the turn of the century, Phoenicia, Allaben and Pine Hill returned briefly as missions to St. John’s Parish of West Hurley-Woodstock.
In 1902, New York Archbishop, Michael A. Corrigan entrusted care of the newly formed parish of St. Francis de Sales to the Missionary Fathers of La Salette. The La Salette order was founded seven years after the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September, 19, 1846 at La Salette, a small village located high in the French Alps. The first La Salette pastor was Rev. M. Julien Ginet, M.S., architect and builder of the current Phoenicia church. The cost of the church including pews, altar and stained glass windows was $9,000 dollars. With the help of local volunteers and generous donations of residents and summer visitors, the beautiful stone-constructed church was dedicated on Sunday, August 21, 1904. Later that year, the Missionaries of La Salette bought the land on which the Rectory now stands.

The Missionary Fathers of La Salette continued to pastor our growing Catholic community in the ensuing years. For a brief time during World War I, many La Salette fathers returned to France to help those wounded during the war. A diocesan priest, Rev. J.B. Scully, was assigned to Phoenicia. Father Scully made improvements to the rectory, church buildings, secured a parish hall and built a new garage. After World War II, the Missionary Fathers acquired land in

Boiceville to build another mission church. Upon completion in the late 1940’s, the church was dedicated to Our Lady of La Salette. Inspired by the La Salette Fathers and the Blessed Mother, a small group of women in the parish formed the Sodality of Our Lady of La Salette in early 1948. The women were dedicated to the spiritual and financial well-being of the parish. Members took care of the altar linens and cleaning the mission churches. In addition to initiating the first bingo games in the parish, the ladies regularly held bake sales, penny socials and other parish functions such as the annual May Crowning honoring Our Blessed Mother.

Apparition of Our Lady of La Salette

On September 19, 1846, the Blessed Mother appeared to two poor children, Maximin Giraud and Melanie Calvat, in the small village of La Salette in the Alps of France. They called her “the Beautiful Lady” and listened as she spoke with them about conversion, a world reconciled to her Son and a deepening of their faith in their everyday lives. Her last words to the children were “Well, my children, you will make this well known to all my people.”

Meditation Garden and Grotto

Across the street from the church is a beautiful shrine and grotto dedicated to our Blessed Mother. Statues of Our Lady of La Salette appearing to the children are displayed in the grotto. A path near the grotto leads to an adjacent Meditation Garden donated by Phoenicia resident, Dr. Raymond Lippert in memory of his fiancé, Christine McCarthy. At the closing of the Boiceville and Allaben missions in 2007, statues of Our Lady of La Salette and Our Lady of Lourdes from those churches were refurbished and moved to the back of the Meditation Garden. The difficult restoration work was made possible through the donations of beloved parishioner, Angie Valentino and Our Lady of La Salette Sodality. Longtime parishioner, Bud Devoti, worked tirelessly to restore one of the statues. Parishioners and visitors are invited to walk through this beautiful and peaceful area of our parish.

A Century of Pastoral Care

After a hundred years of service, the Missionary Fathers of La Salette left Phoenicia in 2003 because of a lack of priests. They returned pastoral care of the Phoenicia parish to the Archdiocese of New York.
St. Francis de Sales Parish is deeply grateful to the La Salette Fathers for their dedication and service to our parish. Since the mid-1800’s, missionary and diocesan priests together with parishioners have worked to build a strong faith community, and we continue that work to this day.
We are grateful to the Blessed Mother and our patron, St. Francis de Sales. We pray they continue to watch over our parish. May we all remain good friends in Christ as we share in God’s mission to live, love and spread the Good News.