Our (Episcopal) diocese went through an expansion lately and planted, I think, six new congregations in a period of about 10 years. We also had several groups split from the diocese and form non-Episcopal Anglican-aligned churches.
As others have said, the first step for the bishop (with his advisors) is to figure out where the new church will be planted. Then, typically, the bishop will call a priest from within or from outside the diocese to plant it as vicar. The priest in charge (and anyone helping him) will select a patron saint, often with the Bishop’s advice and always with his (or her) approval.
My parish just a couple of years ago bought a church building from the Lutherans (who were moving to a new building they were building on the outskirts of town). Although we’re primarily using it as a community center, not as a church itself, so the naming issues aren’t the same (it went from being Hope Lutheran to the Bozeman Catholic Community Center).
Oh, it should also be mentioned that not all Catholic churches are named after saints. My own parish is Holy Rosary (though that’s indirectly a reference to Mary), and the other Catholic church in town is called Resurrection. I’ve also seen Blessed Sacrament, Holy Family, and Christ the King (though Jesus is technically a saint, he’s never referred to as such), among others.
It says that the Irish population of the Bronx later increased due to more immigrants arriving; it doesn’t say that the area wasn’t already mainly Irish at the time. I think even in the early 1840s the predominant Catholic group in the Bronx would have been Irish. The next most sizable Catholic group at the time would probably have been southern Germans; the Italians and Polish had not arrived in large numbers as yet. (When I was growing up, the parish was mainly Italian and Irish; now the majority of the congregation might be Hispanic.)
I agree. I always wondered how we got stuck with such an obscure saint for our namesake.
I know at my home parish, nobody knew why it was called St. Colman’s, until my mom went to Ireland and noticed that the cathedral in Cobh was also named that. Most Irish immigrants came through Cobh, and the cathedral is very distinctive, so the immigrants probably named their new church after the cathedral that impressed so many of them.
In what way? I understood him to be (in Christian belief) one of the Three Persons of the triune Godhead, not a saint (a mortal human being who died and is now in Paradise and able to intercede with God, without being a divinity).
Frequently, churches were named in honour of one or another local dignitary. The Montreal parish of Saint-Henri, and naturally its church (which no longer exists), was named for Father Henri-Auguste Rioux, superior of Saint-Sulpice Seminary.
Amusingly, the adjacent parish of Sainte-Cunégonde was subsequently named for the empress St. Cunegund, wife of Holy Roman Emperor St. Henry II.
On another note, in the 1950s, Saint-Jacques Cathedral was renamed Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral (Marie-Reine-du-Monde) after the Pope proclaimed that title for the Virgin.
This is a distinction to keep in mind. All of the righteous dead are saints. The ones that the Church names as such are just the ones whom the Church believes can serve as especially good examples and patrons.
It’s kind of like a Catholic Ninth Amendment: “The enumeration by the Church, of certain saints, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others of lesser renown.”
It’s important to note that the distinction drawn in English (and French) beteen “saint” and “holy” is not present in other languages. Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and San Diego were named after Sts. Barbara, Francis, and James, but Santa Fe and Santa Cruz were, the ifrst 'Holy Faith" and the second “Holy Cross”. The great basilica in Istanbul, Hagia Sophia, is not named for some St. Sophia, but for “Holy Wisdom.”
Yeah, but we still know that there is a conceptual difference between El Santo Cristo de la Vega and San Francisco de Asís. In the first one, the saint/holy doesn’t even refer to JC, but to the church and its principal image. Un Santo Cristo is an image of many, Cristo is only One.
Oh yeah, sacré does exist. As in Sacré-Cœur, Sacred Heart, which I see relatively often. I’m not quite sure what the difference between “holy” and “sacred” is, if there is one. And how do you say “sacred” in other languages?