Maryland was named in honor of the Catholic Queen, Henrietta Maria, wife of England’s King Charles I. It was King Charles who, in 1632, granted to George Calvert both the title of Lord Baltimore and a charter for the establishment of Maryland as a safe haven for Catholics in the New World.

But, after two years of tedious planning and costly preparations, it was Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, who undertook the task of expedition and landing. He would became the first Proprietary Governor of Maryland and bring the beleaguered Catholics in England and Europe new hope in the long-cherished scheme of a Catholic homeland in the colonies.

Detail of The Ark and the Dove off the Scillies with Lord Baltimore aboard, Montague Dawson, c. 1960

March 25th that year also marked the first day of Spring and the start of the Julian calendar. For the small, haggard company of Catholic pilgrims arriving in Maryland after a grueling and perilous Atlantic voyage aboard The Ark and the Dove, the occasion was both a joyous celebration and solemn memorial.

Led by Father Andrew White, S.J., the group erected a massive cross using a native tree. There they gathered, grateful if weary, for the very first sacrifice of the Holy Mass ever to be offered in the original Thirteen Colonies.

Detail of Founding of the Colony of Maryland, Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 1860

Over the next century and a half, Maryland and the other colonies grew rapidly. In 1789, Pope Pius VI established the Diocese of Baltimore as the very first Catholic diocese in the new nation. Maryland native John Carroll was appointed its first bishop. He was later elevated to Archbishop and became the founder of American Catholic heirarchy.

Bishop Carroll chose St. Peter’s Church, which stood on the corner of N. Charles and Saratoga Streets, one block from our Shrine, as his pro-cathedral. Well over half of the nation’s Catholics at the time called Maryland home.

Detail of Baltimore in 1752, reconstruction by Edward Johnson Coale in 1817 of the etching by John Moale of Baltimore

The German parish of Saint John the Evangelist quickly grew within their modest brick church on the corner of Saratoga Street and Park Avenue in Baltimore. When Archbishop Eccleston confided the church to the Redemptorist order of priests in 1840, the parish totaled 4,000 souls and included a small cemetery as well as a rectory, school, and convent.

Under the tireless care of the Redemptorist priests, the little, burgeoning parish soon found itself in need of a new and larger building.

It would take three years to complete the Bavarian-style, neo-gothic church that stands on the same site today. On March 14, 1845, our Shrine was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and to Saint Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorist order.

Paid for by mission societies in Bavaria, Lyons, and Vienna, the new church and attached buildings would serve, for a time, as the provincial headquarters of the Redemptorists. It became a busy hub of Catholic community and prayer.

An immigrant priest from Bohemia, Saint John Neumann came to America and joined the Redemptorist order as a lay brother. His hard work and merits went far to assuage the overwhelming needs of the nation’s underserved parishes. He eventually left his position as vice-provincial superior of the American Redemptorists to serve as pastor at our Shrine in 1848. He remained at Saint Alphonsus until 1852, when he was ordained Bishop of Philadelphia.

In 1977, Saint John Neumann became the first male American citizen to be named a saint. And we still marvel that his signature graces some of oldest pages of our sacramental registry books.

Also an immigrant, Francis Xavier Seelos answered the call for priests in America who could minister to the German-speaking Catholics still pouring into the new nation. To that end, he joined the Redemptorists and found himself at their First Novitiate in Baltimore. He served as pastor of the Shrine from 1854-57.

Father Seelos was declared Blessed in 2000. If God grants that he be recognized as a saint, then the Shrine will have the distinction of being the only church in this hemisphere with two canonized pastors.

The disasterous fire that incinerated 140 acres and 1,500 buildings in downtown Baltimore stopped within mere blocks of the Shrine. But changes to the neighborhood, as charred residential buildings were replaced with new, commercial ones, could not be undone. The tide was turning.

In 1917, the Redemptorists made the decision to sell the church and all its property to the Archdiocse of Baltimore.

Historical photograph of North Charles Street after the Great Fire of 1904

With the departure of the Redemptorists, the Shrine was next designated a Lithuanion National Parish – to serve the flourishing Lithuanian community that had been gradually spreading into areas nearby. Very quickly, the school was reopened, with the rectory annex serving as a convent.

Venerable Mother Kaupas, of the Sisters of Saint Casimir, walked the halls of Saint Alphonsus’s school during the 1920s and 1930s while her order staffed it. There are parishioners at the Shrine who still remember her. She was named venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

Even as the city surrounding the Shrine continued to change, and the Lithuanian community downtown began to wane, the Latin Mass quietly found a home at the Shrine. In response to the needs and prayers of his flock, Archbishop Lori entrusted the Shrine to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter in 2017. This part of our history is still being written, with all its challenges and victories.

We invite you to be a part of it. Come experience the Traditional Latin Mass in this historical church in America’s first diocese.