ABOUT
Parish History
Saint Benedict ‘s parish, stems from a mission from St. Mary’s in 1854. During those years, having only one parish in the Newark area, German settlers in East Newark found it difficult to attend church. The decision to build a new church in the Neck area of Newark was widely supported.
Under the title of “Saint Joseph’s Church,” the people erected a two-story structure, consisting of brick for the first floor, and frame for the second story. The lower part was to serve as a school and the upper as a church.
In the following years, mass was held only occasionally and eventually this parish was lost in midst of newly erected parishes, one of which was also named St. Joseph’s Church.
Prominent members of the congregation were convinced that the original members of the parish would surely return and remain faithful to their religious duties.
Father Oswald reported the matter to the Bishop of Newark, the Most Reverend James Roosevelt Bayley, who was very much pleased to hear that the congregation was being revived.
Partly because there was now another Saint Joseph’s Church in Newark, and partly because of the warm interest of the spiritual sons of Saint Benedict in the congregation, Bishop Bayley chose Saint Benedict as the Patron Saint of the downtown church.
Patron Saint
Saint Benedict was born at Norcia, Italy around 480 AD, four years before the Western Roman Empire formally fell.
Benedict was widely regarded as having deep and wide human feeling and his moderation. After attending primary schools in Norcia, Benedict went to Rome to study literature and law. In his later years and after being disenchanted by the nature of man, he retired with a group of priests and later went into seclusion for three years in a cave.
A group of shepherds and common men, began to follow his teachings and the pastoral and thus the apostolic principles of the Benedictine Order took root.
After founding twelve communities of monks at Subiaco, Italy, Benedict traveled to Montecassino where he established a monastery and wrote “The Rule.” This simple set of guidelines for how the life of a monk should be lived has become one of the most influential works in all of Western Christendom.
During his life, Saint Benedict performed many miracles. He found water on a desolate mountaintop to quench the thirst of his monks. He retrieved a bill hook’s iron from the bottom of a lake and rejoined its handle. He prevented a monk from leading a dissolute life through intervention. In addition, he made Maurus walk on water to save the young Placidus from drowning.
Saint Benedict devoted himself to evangelizing the local population who practiced pagan worship. Shortly before he died, Saint Benedict saw the soul of his sister Saint Scholastica rising to heaven in the form of a dove.
In the end, a life so noble was justifiably followed by a much-glorified death. According to tradition, Saint Benedict died on March 21, 547 AD. He foresaw his coming death, informing his close and faraway disciples that the end was near. Six days before dying, he had the grave which he was to share with his deceased sister Saint Scholastica, opened. Then, completely exhausted, he asked to be taken into his oratory where, after taking his last Holy Communion, he died supported by his monks.