Passaic parish welcomes Bishop

PASSAIC  The parish community of St. Nicholas here welcomed Bishop Serratelli, who celebrated the vigil Mass for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time during his pastoral visit Aug. 10. The Mass was a bi-lingual English/Spanish celebration for the community.

The parish’s history began in the early 1860s, when Franciscan friars from the former St. Boniface Parish in Paterson, began attending to the Catholics who lived in the city of Passaic. In 1868, Bishop Bayley appointed a pastor for the Passaic parish and a combination church and school was built on Prospect Street. After a fire destroyed the building in 1875, the church was rebuilt on the same site. The present church was built on Washington Place in 1885. The parish also organized the first St. Mary’s Hospital. The rectory building now houses the Passaic Neighborhood Center for Women.