Parish History
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St. Bridget, St. Stanislaus Kostka and St. Dominic are nestled in the beautiful foothills of the Green Mountains. St. Bridget and St. Stanislaus Kostka are located in the quaint towns of West Rutland and Proctor, Vermont. The Churches have served area Catholics for over 150 years. An area once rich in marble deposits, the towns became home to many people of diverse cultures.
These cultures gave rise to the rich histories of St. Bridget, St. Stanislaus Kostka, and St. Dominic Parishes. We invite you to come and experience our parishes as we join together as one Catholic family in the worship of our Father.
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A History of St. Bridget Parish
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The Charter of the township of Rutland was grated to Josiah Willard of Winchester, N.H. on September 7, 1761. This township included the present city of Rutland, and the towns of Rutland, West Rutland, and Sutherland Falls (now called Proctor). The first named grantee was John Murray, who had lived in Rutland, Massachusetts and who probably named this town.
What is now West Rutland (and originally Rutland, West Parish) was settled about this time. The settlers were farmers and a few tradesmen who came from Connecticut and Massachusetts. In 1773 a sufficient number of people were here to found a Congregational “Meeting House”. More arrived in the 1790’s and early 1800’s and a small village developed. In about 1840 “Rutland, West Parish” was comprised of a Congregational Meeting House, two stores, a tavern and about twenty dwelling places. (Gazeteer of Vermont-Tadock Thompson-1842).
Probably the first Catholic to settle here was John Hanley. “Some adventurous Irish immigrants came here in the 1830’s”. (Souvenir of the Golden Jubilee-1910). More of them settled in Castleton where a building was bought and converted into a church in 1835. Father Jeremiah O’Callaghan, the Apostle of Vermont, first offered Mass in this church. In 1837 the Reverend John B. Daley O.F.M. came to assist Father O’Callaghan, taking charge of the southern portion of Vermont, with his headquarters in Middlebury. He visited the Catholic settlements four or five times a year, in this vast territory. The Catholic settlers of West Rutland went to Castleton to assist at Mass in these early years.Read the full history here.
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Saint Bridget (451-525)
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According to tradition, Saint Bridget (or Brigid) was born at Faughart near Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. She was given the same name as one of the most powerful goddesses of the pagan religion which her father Dubhthach practiced. In that religion, Brigid was the goddess of healing, inspiration, craftsmanship, corn, beef, flowers, and poetry, which the Irish considered the flame of knowledge.
Whether Saint Bridget was raised a Christian or converted (as some accounts claim) is unknown, but she was inspired by the preaching of Saint Patrick from an early age. Despite her father's opposition she was determined to enter monastic life. Numerous stories testify to her piety. She had a generous heart and could never refuse the poor who came to her father's door. Her charity angered her father: he thought she was being overly generous to the poor and needy when she dispensed his milk and flour to all and sundry. When she finally gave away his jewel-encrusted sword to a leper, Dubhthach realized that perhaps her disposition was best suited to the life of a nun.
Saint Bridget received the veil from Saint Mel and professed religious vows, dedicating her life to Christ. Around the year 470, she founded Kildare Abbey, a double monastery for nuns and monks, on the plains of Cill-Dara, "the church of the oak", her cell standing under a large oak tree. As Abbess of this foundation she had considerable responsibilities. Brigid was famous for her common-sense and most of all for her holiness: in her lifetime she was regarded as a saint. Kildare Abbey became one of the most prestigious monasteries in Ireland, famed throughout Christian Europe. She died in Kildare around 525 and was buried in a tomb before the high altar of her abbey church. After some time her remains were exhumed and transported to Downpatrick to rest with the two other patron saints of Ireland, Patrick and Columba (Colmcille). Her skull was extracted and taken by three Irish noblemen to the Church of St. John the Baptist (Lumiar) in Lisbon, Portugal, where it remains to this day.
After her death, her sisters kept a fire burning in an enclosure at her Kildare convent. This fire burned for centuries, tended by the Sisters and not burning out until A.D. 1220. It was re-lit and burned for another 400 years, until persecution of Catholicism in Ireland extinguished it once again. We entreat Saint Bridget at this time of thanksgiving and rejoicing in our parish to pray God's protection and blessing upon us:
May the blessing of Light be on you
Light without and light within,
May the blessed sunlight shine on you
And warm your heart till it glows like
A great peat fire, so that the stranger
May come and warm herself at it,
And also a friend.
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History of St. Stanislaus Kostka
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The first record of Polish settlement in West Rutland was in the year 1890. Work in the marble quarries attracted fellow countrymen. By 1893 there were fifteen married couples and fifty-eight single men. In the following years, a Polish priest would periodically hear their confessions, offer Mass and preach sermons. Records indicate that a Father Chalupka of Chicopee, Mass. and a Father Molekaitis from Albany, N.Y. made visits.
In his 1902 parish report to Bishop Michaud, Father Carty, then pastor of St. Bridget's church, mentioned that there were approximately four hundred Polish people living here. He recommended that they have their own pastor.
In the spring of 1903, Bishop Michaud asked a priest of the Springfield, Mass. Diocese, a Msgr. Smith, who was scheduled to go to Rome, to find some Polish priests that would agree to come to Vermont.
The priest made inquiries in Rome and was put in touch with Valentine Michulka and Francis Kolodziej. It happened that the three of them met in St. Peter's square while awaiting for the announcement of the new Pope who was Pius X, Later canonized a saint.
Read the full history here.
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St. Stanislaus Kostka, S.J.(1550-1568)
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Stanislaus Kostka was only 18 years old when he died, and had been a Jesuit novice for less than a year. He is one of the popular saints of Poland and many religious institutions have chosen him as the protector of their novitiates.
He was born in 1550 at the family estate in east-central Poland. His father was a local governor and military administrator, and a senator of the Kingdom of Poland. His mother was the sister and niece of Polish dukes. According to the standards of those times, all this meant Stanislaus was a Polish noble destined for public life.
When he was 14, his father enrolled him and his older brother Paul in a new Jesuit college in Vienna that was especially favored by the nobility. Paul, who always had an eye for comfort, found them rooms in the house of an Austrian senator.
Stanislaus was a serious and quiet person. He avoided all unnecessary contact with visitors, applied himself to his studies, dressed plainly for a noble, and spent so much time in prayer that Paul derisively nicknamed him “the Jesuit.” Paul interpreted Stanislaus’ natural meekness and humility as a reproach to his own worldly and carefree way of life. Whatever Stanislaus did either offended or irritated him. So, he harassed his younger brother, abusing him physically and verbally. Stanislaus didn’t crack under pressure. He just became more virtuous and determined to become a Jesuit.
In December 1565, Stanislaus received some heavenly help. Feeling ill and close to death, he asked to receive Holy Communion. Paul kept putting him off, saying the illness wasn’t life-threatening. (Their landlord was a staunch Lutheran and wouldn’t allow a priest into the house). Stanislaus prayed to St. Barbara to somehow receive Communion, and soon Barbara and two angels appeared to him in his room, bringing him Communion. They left, and then Our Lady carrying the baby Jesus appeared, and told him he was to enter the Society of Jesus. Stanislaus regained his health and returned to college.
Now really resolved to be a Jesuit, Stanislaus asked the Jesuit provincial of Vienna for admittance, only to be told he needed his parents’ consent. Stanislaus knew they wouldn’t give it, and decided to ask further away from home. In August 1567, he walked the 450 miles to Augsburg, Germany. Paul heard of it and started after him. Stanislaus was dressed as a simple pilgrim, and the angry Paul went right past him on the road without recognizing him and gave up the chase.
Stanislaus reached the Augsburg provincial, Fr. Peter Canasis, S.J., and together they agreed that Stanislaus ought to get even further away from his father’s political influence. They decided on Rome. In September 1567, he and two Jesuits went on foot, south through Germany and over the Alps to Italy. It took a month to reach Rome.
There Stanislaus presented himself to the head of the Society of Jesus, Father General Francis Borgia, S.J., and entered the Jesuit novititate. For the next ten months, his prayer was purified and his union with God grew more intense.
In early August 1568, Stanislaus had a premonition that he would die on August 15. He took sick on the 10th, and on the 14th he told the infirmarian that he would die the next day, but this Jesuit shrugged it off; the patient didn’t seem critically ill. Then suddenly he worsened. After receiving Holy Communion and the Last Rites, he chatted cheerfully with his fellow novices until nightfall. After they left, he prayed often, “My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready!” About 3:00 a.m. his face lit up joyfully. He said Our Lady was approaching with her court of angels and saints to take him to heaven. Then he died — on August 15, the feast of Our Lady’s own assumption into heaven.
Only 36 years after his death, he was beatified. He was canonized on December 31, 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII. His feast day is November 13. – Excerpted and edited from Jesuit Saints & Martyrs: Short Biographies of the Saints, Blessed, Venerables, and Servants of God of the Society of Jesus by Joseph N. Tylenda, S.J., Second edition, © 1998 Ignatius Press, Chicago.
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