Saint Ignatius Church Hickory, Maryland
Harford County, Harford County, Maryland
Marker Inscription
Oldest Roman Catholic Church in continuous use in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Completed in 1792 by Sylvester Boarman, S.J., while in charge of the nearby Jesuit mission of St. Joseph at Priest's Ford. Early pastors of the church served Charles Carroll o… transcription continues on the marker
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The Story
In the rolling farmland of Harford County stands a church whose roots reach back to the Jesuit missionaries who kept the Catholic faith alive in Maryland — a colony founded as a rare haven of religious tolerance in early America. Completed in 1792 by Father Sylvester Boarman, a Jesuit tending the nearby mission of St. Joseph at Priest's Ford, Saint Ignatius rose in the first years of the new republic, when Catholics were only beginning to worship freely and openly. It is remembered as the oldest Roman Catholic church in continuous use in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the founding see of American Catholicism. Its early pastors even ministered to the family of Charles Carroll, the Maryland statesman whose name is woven through the nation's founding.
Why it matters
The church embodies Maryland's distinctive experiment in religious liberty and the emergence of an American Catholic community out of colonial-era missions into the freedoms of the new nation. As part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, it stands near the cradle of the Catholic Church in the United States.
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Related people
- · Sylvester Boarman
- · Charles Carroll
Themes & tags
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