The Buffalo Mass Mob will gather on Sunday, December 15th at Saint Benedict R.C. Church in Amherst for 10:00am Mass. This marks the first time that the Mass Mob comes to Amherst.
Some history of Saint Benedict Church from their school’s website:
“New Catholic Parish Here – To Be Created in Eggertsville-Snyder. Father Tobin Rector.”
These were the words that headlined an article in the November 25, 1920 edition of the Amherst Bee and which were later recalled in that same paper in November 11, 1970, by a writer covering the 50th anniversary of St. Benedict’s and its consecration.
Upon publication of that original article in 1920, there was a church to be built but one with no name. The article written and published in the Amherst Bee in 1970 noted that while Catholic churches were named arbitrarily at the discretion of the Bishop, no set rules were yet in place that specifically pertained to giving a new parish its name. Enter Benedict XV, Pope in 1920, whose obvious guiding spiritual figure and founder of the Benedictine order was St. Benedict (later named Patron of Europe) – and you have the history of how St. Benedict’s got its name.
Monsignor William F. Tobin, a native of County Waterford, Ireland, served as the first pastor of the parish, having been appointed to his position in October 1920 by Bishop Turner. From the moment when he celebrated the first Mass in the Eggertsville Fire Hall on November 21, 1920, along with the 18 parish families who made up the parish congregation, he would pave the way for the Church of St. Benedict as we know it today.
With fondness can the parishioners of St. Benedict’s look back upon the history of those men and women who built the church with a spirit of commitment and service. Names such as Wesley Crittenden; Mrs. Charles Magrum; George, Frank, Joseph, Gerald, Eugene, Peter and Paul Bruan; Charles Krantz; Perter Lauchran; J.P. McCarthy; Joseph Meyer; Philip Ronecker; Mrs. Peter Lauchran; Oscar Sauter and Michael Sauter Jr.; Jerry Sullivan; Jacob Schwam; William Schultz; Howard Wix and of course, Msgr. Tobin; are only a few of the many, many people who are responsible for the growth of the parish throughout the years. These are the individuals who donated countless hours of service to working on construction of the church after a demanding work day. As the story goes, Msgr. Tobin kept a prized photograph of those who helped build the church, which was known as the “Twilight League.” The name was intended to be reflective of the transition these workers performed from their day jobs to their night jobs. That work involved construction of the original wooden structure of the church, completed in 1921 at a cost of about $5,472.55, and which in its original form, provided a seating capacity of 300. That Structure would serve the parish for the next ten years until 1930 when a new combination church and school were built, complementing the first rectory that was built in 1928 for the three parish priests who would reside there.
Please invite your family and friends as we head to Amherst for out next Mass Mob. We will be posting additional details as we get closer to Mass Mob XXXVI.
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/2454203564794808/
Saint Benedict Church’s website: https://www.saintbenedicts.com/
Buffalo Mass Mob 