A Brief History of Saint Eleanor Parish
With more than 13,000 parishioners today, Saint Eleanor Catholic Church traces its roots to the early 1880s, when priests from Bally, Pottstown, or Phoenixville would visit the tiny hamlet of Collegeville on the banks of the Perkiomen Creek.
By 1911, Father Thomas Sullivan arrived to establish Saint Clare Parish and celebrate Mass at what was the Commercial Hotel and Shepherds Hall. Initially, the parish had only 20 families (swelled by summer vacationers escaping the heat of Philadelphia). So, in addition to his tiny flock in Collegeville, Father Sullivan traveled by horse and buggy to outlying chapels in East Greenville and Green Lane.
A century later, Saint Clare Parish became Saint Eleanor in 1921 to indirectly honor the memory of Catholic poet Eleanor Donnelly (1838-1917) who left $5,000 in her will for a needy parish. The bequest enabled the construction of the parish's first church under then-pastor Father William A. Buesser.
In 1943, Father John O’Neill opened a parish school with 77 students. Building was impossible because of war restrictions, so the school was in a converted dwelling. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur led by Sister Helena Julie lived on the top floor while the lower floor and basement had classrooms, a chapel, and lunch room. Students were taught two grades to a room. A school built after war restrictions were removed served until the present school building opened in 1992. The Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary succeeded the Notre Dame Sisters in 1970. In 2012, the school became Holy Cross Regional Catholic School — with Sacred Heart Church in Royersford joining Saint Eleanor as a sponsoring parish — and today it has entirely lay faculty.
As the Collegeville area grew, so did Saint Eleanor parish. In 1971, when Father Francis Lennon was pastor, the present larger church on Locust Street was erected. A dramatic event in parish history occurred in the early morning hours of July 18, 1978, when an electrical fire in the rectory gutted the building but thankfully caused no injuries.
Recent decades saw phenomenal growth, from 1,686 families in 1990 to 3,051 families in 2000, and the church was expanded around the turn of the century. The congregation continued to flourish, reaching 4,090 families in 2010. In 2011, the Parish Office was completed and the residence for the priests was moved to the Parish House on Sixth Avenue.
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The Origins of Saint Eleanor
Saint Eleanor is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, famed for her piety.
She is the patron saint of archaeologists. The names "Saint Eleanor" and "Saint Eleanora" are synonymous for Saint Helen. Saint Helena (Latin: Flavia Iulia Helena Augusta), also known as Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople (c. 250 – c. 330 C.E.), was the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, with whom she had a close relationship. Helena played a significant role in re-establishing Christianity in the Holy Land after a period of decline.
She rediscovered several Christian sites in the Holy Land, which had been converted to pagan temples, and she had these sites rededicated to Christianity. In particular, she is renowned for discovering the site of Calvary. Tradition tells us that Helena, in the company of Saint Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, found three crosses buried beneath a pagan temple. After unearthing the crosses, she held each one up to a sick woman. Upon being touched by the third cross, the woman was miraculously cured, and it was determined that this was the one on which Jesus had died.
We celebrate the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helena on September 14.
For more information regarding our patron saint, you can visit these informative links.
