MASSES

Weekend Masses are Saturday Vigil at 4:00 pm, Sunday morning at 9:00 & 11:00 a.m, & 6:00 pm.  

Weekday Masses are Monday through Friday at 7:00 AM, in the All Saints’ Chapel located in the Rectory.  Adoration is in the Chapel after mass every Friday until 4:00 PM, and Thursday evenings from 6:00 - 7:00 PM.

Confessions begin at 3:00 pm -3:40 pm before the Saturday Vigil Mass, and 5:00 - 5:45 preceding the Sunday 6:00 PM Mass during Lent.

Holy Day Masses are at 7:00 AM, 12:05 PM and 7:00 p.m.  There is no Holy Day Vigil Mass.

Our church is handicapped accessible.  There is handicapped parking in front of the church and the setback in front of the lower school building next to the church.  On-street parking is also available, and a parking lot is located directly behind the Rectory.

All are encouraged to participate fully in both the spiritual and social life of St. John’s, and join us in our parish  Ministries & Organizations.  If you would like to share your talents, organize or chair a Parish Organization, or just want to become more involved and informed, please contact the rectory and we will get you in touch with a parish volunteer.
 

Please notify the rectory if you are moving, or if you change your address or telephone number.  

A Brief History of St. John the Baptist Parish and Church

The tenth oldest parish in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, St. John the Baptist Parish’s humble beginnings started in the home of Jerome and Eulalia Keating in the small milltown of Manayunk.  In the winter of 1829-30 it is believed that the first Catholic Mass in our area was celebrated in the Keatings’ home.  Mrs. Eulalia Keating was said to have held a weekly Sunday school for a dozen or so neighboring children.  The Keatings’ residence became the convent housing Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that served the parish until the closing of the school in 2006.  It was located on Cresson Street behind the rear of the church, until 2018.

Eventually when about 20 families (about 100 people) were attending masses at their home, Jerome Keating, a cotton mill owner, proposed the start of a parish, and made a gift of the ground for a church and cemetery.  The original church opened on April 4, 1831, and stood adjacent to the current cemetery, the cornerstone laid where the Upper School building stands (former St. John's Girls'High School).  It was the first Catholic Parish established outside of Center City.   In 1833, Jerome Keating passed away.  Afterward, Eulalia Keating, mother of three,  became Sister Mary Joseph in the Order of the Vistation in Georgetown.    Their daugther Amelia received her First Holy Communion on Christmas Eve midnight Mass in the church in 1832 with 11 other children.  She eventually entered the Carmelite order in Baltimore, MD.  Jerome and Eulalia Keating are buried together in St. John's Cemetery.

The Growth of the Catholic Community continued in the area.  St. John’s became the “mother church” to the area churches, beginning with St. Patrick in Norristown (1835), St. Mary of the Assumption (1848), Holy Family, (1885), St. Josaphat (1898), and St. Lucy (1907).  Eventually the rapid growth of the church and beginnings of a school at St. John the Baptist became too small for the manufacturing town, calling for the building of a new cathedral-like church.

The current church was designed by architect Patrick Charles Keely of New York, and dedicated on April 1, 1894.   It is one a fIt was built with a legacy gift of $100,000 in 1881 from Bernard McCane and his wife.  Combined with the help of the local community, the Church was built at a total cost of $250,000.  Over the following decades, it was outfitted with interiors, the stations, and many of the sculptures the work of eminent sculptor Joseph Sibbel of New York.  The church organ is the original from 1906, also when bell tower was completed.  The main altar is adorned with statues of St. Bernard and St. Cecelia, in honor of the Church Benefactors.

It is believed our cemetery has buried more Civil War Veterans than any other small cemetery in America.  Our first founders, the Keatings, are also buried there, near the Rector street entrance.  Our school buildings served as a Parish Hall, Boys and Girls’ High Schools, and elementary school.  When visiting our Social Hall, please note our Honor Roll on either side of the hall, listing parish veterans who served our country during World War II.  Before the Social Hall was turned into a gathering place for events, it served as a chapel, and lower church.  It was for a time used for Mass during neighboring parishes’ Church remodeling, and new construction. 

The first organist of the parish was the father of Saint Katharine Drexel, Francis M. Drexel.  This devoted Catholic and esteemed banker would travel seven miles on foot, along what is now Kelly Drive, from his Center City home to our church in Manayunk, to play the organ for an annual salary of $150.  St. Katharine Drexel was canonized a Saint in 2000.  

Recent years have been pivotal in the Manayunk Catholic community.  In 2005, neighboring parish elementary schools St. Mary of the Assumption, St. Lucy, and Holy Family closed.  Then in 2006, St. Josaphat, and St. John the Baptist Schools followed.  Holy Child school emerged the following school year, as a combined elementary for the Catholic Parishes.  The closing of five parish schools within two years, along with demographic changes in the neighborhood, was a precursor of things to come.

Sadly in 2012, neighboring parishes, St. Jospahat’s (Polish), and St. Mary of the Assumption (German) closed, along with St. Lucy Parish (Italian), after over 100 years of  tradition in the Manayunk Catholic community.  Then in 2013, Holy Child, the only Catholic School in Manayunk, closed.  The two parishes now for Catholics in Manayunk are Holy Family, and St. John the Baptist.