In this continuing series on the origins of Catholicism in the 50 states, the story of New England begins in a region that was, from the start, among the least welcoming places in early America for Catholics.
The English settlements of Plymouth (1620) and Massachusetts Bay (1630) were founded by deeply committed Protestants, shaped by a Calvinist worldview that defined itself in sharp opposition to Catholicism. Their religious imagination was nourished not only by the Bible but also by John Foxe’s “Book of Martyrs,” a widely read and fiercely anti-Catholic account of Protestant suffering under Queen Mary I.
That memory of persecution was reinforced by the dramatic tale of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, in which a small group of Catholics attempted to blow up Parliament and assassinate the Protestant king, James I. With such stories shaping the culture, it is no surprise that New England became the most inhospitable region of the 13 colonies for Catholics.
In such an atmosphere, Catholics in colonial New England kept a low profile, and for long stretches there was effectively no public Catholic life at all. Laws passed in 1647 and again in 1700 barred Catholics from settling in Massachusetts, and any priest who entered the colony could, in theory, face death as “an enemy of the true Christian religion.”
The Revolutionary era brought some measure of relief, and small numbers of Catholics began settling more openly in the New England colonies, which had by then become states. Legal barriers gradually softened, and public worship, once unthinkable, slowly emerged. In Boston, the first public Mass was celebrated in 1788 (nearly a century after the first Mass had been offered in New York City) marking a tentative but historic step toward an established Catholic presence in the region.
Progress, however, remained limited. The Massachusetts state constitution of 1780 imposed a religious test that effectively barred Catholics from holding public office and required citizens to pay taxes supporting Protestant ministers, though both provisions were eventually repealed.
Even as legal conditions slowly improved, Catholics remained a tiny minority. When the Diocese of Boston was created in 1808 (encompassing all of New England), the Catholic population of the state was still small; by 1820 still fewer than 4,000 Catholics lived among a general population of more than half a million.
This began to change dramatically with the arrival of large numbers of Irish immigrants in the decades before the Civil War, followed later by French Canadians and then by Catholics from Southern and Eastern Europe. Today, roughly one-third (about 2.5 million) of the state’s population is Catholic, served by four dioceses, a remarkable transformation from the tiny, legally restricted community of the early republic.
Maine
Before English control took hold in northern New England, Catholic missionary life had already emerged in what is now Maine through French Jesuits working among the Abenaki. François de Laval (who was eventually named the first bishop of Quebec in 1674 and later beatified in 1980) reported some 200 baptisms near present-day Augusta between 1660 and 1663. This mission endured amid growing conflict between France and England until 1724, when English forces destroyed the village of Norridgewock, killing many residents along with their longtime missionary, Jesuit Father Sebastian Rale.
Catholic life reemerged after the Revolution when Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore, whose diocese then encompassed all of the fledgling republic, sent the French émigré priest Jean Lefebvre de Cheverus to minister at Indian Island and establish what would become St. Patrick Parish in Newcastle.
When Maine entered the Union in 1820, Catholicism remained sparse and missionary. Hostility flared again in the mid-19th century, most notably in 1854 with the tarring and feathering of the Swiss Jesuit John Bapst. Resistance ran so deep that the priest appointed as Portland’s first bishop in 1853 declined the position.
When Father David Bacon from Brooklyn arrived two years later (quietly and without clerical dress) to take up this role, the diocese (which then included both Maine and New Hampshire) counted only six priests and eight churches. Today the Diocese of Portland serves just the state of Maine, ministering to roughly 275,000 Catholics in 48 parishes.
New Hampshire
Since the Diocese of Portland initially encompassed both Maine and New Hampshire, the Catholic story of the Granite State began in close connection with Maine’s. Its roots, however, stretch back to the mid-1600s, when small numbers of Sokwaki and Pennacook converts instructed by French missionaries became the first Catholics in what is now New Hampshire. Their presence remained minimal if not miniscule for decades.
By 1741, the Anglican rector of Queen’s Chapel in Portsmouth could claim that no “papist” was known among the population. After the Revolutionary War, Catholics were still exceedingly rare. Of the roughly 25,000 Catholics in the United States at the time (about 1% of the population), New Hampshire — then home to some 100,000 people — officially counted none, though a few likely lived quietly among French traders or Irish immigrants.
A more visible Catholic presence began to emerge only in the early 19th century. The first Catholic church in the state, St. Mary’s in Claremont, was built in 1823 by a father and son (both Episcopal priests) who converted to Catholicism. The first parish followed in 1830 with the establishment of St. Aloysius in Dover. Even then the numbers remained modest. In 1835, New Hampshire counted just under 400 Catholics, served by two churches and two priests.
Catholic growth in New Hampshire accelerated dramatically in the second half of the 19th century. The first of several French-Canadian parishes was founded in 1873 to serve the rapidly expanding population of immigrants from Quebec.
When Pope Leo XIII erected the Diocese of Manchester in 1884, separating New Hampshire from the Diocese of Portland and appointing Father Denis Bradley as its first bishop, the Church had already assumed a substantial presence. The new diocese counted 31 parishes, six parish schools, 10 chapels, one orphanage, 37 priests required to minister in both French and English, and five convents with 89 religious sisters from three congregations.
Among Bishop Bradley’s most important early decisions was inviting Benedictine monks from Newark to establish a college and preparatory school. The monks who came to Manchester and founded St. Anselm Abbey were largely of German descent, a deliberate choice in a city where tensions between Irish and French Canadians could easily flare.
By the turn of the 20th century, Manchester’s Catholic population was roughly 40% French Canadian and 60% Irish, reflecting the immigrant streams that had reshaped the Granite State’s religious life.
Today, nearly 190,000 Catholics worship in 88 parishes across New Hampshire, served by about 175 priests — a striking growth from the handful of believers who once struggled to establish even a single church in the Granite State.
Vermont
Turning westward, the Catholic story in Vermont unfolded along a different frontier. The Diocese of Burlington today encompasses the entire state, but its Catholic roots reach back to July 1609, when the Catholic explorer Samuel de Champlain first entered the region and gave it the name that would become Vermont, drawn from its green mountains. Champlain was not merely an explorer but a man of evident religious conviction, often remarking that the salvation of one soul was worth more than the conquest of an empire.
Jesuit missionaries were active throughout much of the 17th century. The first Catholic structure within the present boundaries of Vermont was built at Fort St. Anne in 1666, where Mass was celebrated for the first time in the region. Two years later, in 1668, Bishop Laval of Quebec administered confirmation there, likely the first celebration of that sacrament in New England.
When the Swedish naturalist Peter Kalm traveled along Lake Champlain in 1749, he noted Jesuit missionaries present in nearly every Indian village, serving both converted and unconverted communities. Although the territory later came under English control and, after independence, formally fell within the Diocese of Baltimore, the Bishop of Quebec continued to oversee the spiritual care of early Catholic settlers and Native Americans until Vermont was incorporated into the newly erected Diocese of Boston in 1808.
A permanent Catholic presence took firmer shape in 1830, when Bishop Benedict Fenwick of Boston sent the energetic Jeremiah O’Callaghan as Vermont’s first resident priest. Under his leadership, the Church grew steadily, so that by 1853, when the Holy See established the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont counted five priests, 10 churches, and approximately 20,000 Catholics. Today, though Vermont remains the second smallest state by population, the Diocese of Burlington serves about 110,000 Catholics through 36 active priests, 44 permanent deacons, and 15 religious ministering in 68 parishes.
Rhode Island
Turning now to southern New England, the Catholic story in Rhode Island unfolded within a colony known for its commitment to liberty of conscience. In Rhode Island, anti-Catholic sentiment tended to express itself more in politics and legislation than in the mob violence seen elsewhere in New England.
Founded in 1643 by the Baptist minister Roger Williams, the colony was built on a broad principle of religious toleration (even allowing Jews to establish their own congregation in 1658), a sharp contrast to the more restrictive policies of neighboring colonies. Yet this toleration had limits. By 1719, the Rhode Island General Assembly had enacted a law disenfranchising Catholics in an effort to discourage their settlement.
The first Catholic Mass in Rhode Island is generally believed to have been celebrated in July 1780, when the French forces arrived in Newport during the Revolutionary War. A more permanent Catholic presence emerged only in the 19th century.
As Irish immigrants began arriving in Newport in significant numbers, tensions deepened. Many came to work on the construction of Fort Adams, to labor in the growing number of grand mansions, or to escape the devastation of the Irish potato famine. Anti-immigrant sentiment was often rooted in anti-Catholic prejudice. St. Mary’s Parish, the first Catholic parish in Newport, was founded in 1828.
In 1843, Pope Gregory XVI established the Diocese of Hartford, encompassing both Connecticut and Rhode Island, and appointed Msgr. William Tyler of Boston as its first bishop.
At the time, Providence counted about 2,000 Catholics, compared to only 600 in Hartford, prompting Tyler to petition Rome to relocate the diocesan see. A generation later, on February 16, 1872, Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Providence, separating Rhode Island from Hartford and adding nearby territories from Massachusetts, including Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Cape Cod and the Fall River area. Thomas Hendricken was named the first bishop of Providence.
The new diocese began with 125,000 Catholics, 43 churches, nine parish schools and one orphanage. Today the diocese serves almost 600,000 Catholics across 119 parishes.
Connecticut
In contrast to repressive laws and outright violence found at times elsewhere in much of New England, Catholic life in Connecticut unfolded within a stable but firmly Protestant culture that proved cautious rather than openly hostile.
Although the Dutch erected a fort in 1633 near what is now Hartford, Connecticut developed primarily from two independent English settlements founded by Puritans with Congregationalism (which was the way the descendants of the Puritans began to refer to their church) remaining as the established church until 1818.
The earliest Catholics were likely Irish immigrants and French-speaking Acadians who were driven from Nova Scotia and settled in small numbers in the region during the mid-18th century.
By the 1820s, the Catholic population in Connecticut had grown large enough to warrant a resident priest. In 1829, Benedict Joseph Fenwick, the second bishop of Boston, sent Father Bernard O’Cavanagh as the state’s first resident priest. The following year, Bishop Fenwick returned to dedicate Connecticut’s first Catholic church, a converted Episcopal frame building.
Connecticut’s Catholic population expanded rapidly in the decades after the Civil War, driven by immigration and industrial growth in cities such as Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury. That expansion found strong leadership under Lawrence McMahon, a distinguished Civil War chaplain, who was appointed Hartford’s fifth bishop in 1879.
During his 14-year episcopate, the diocese experienced remarkable growth, with 48 new parishes and 16 parish schools established. It was also during this period, in 1882, that a young diocesan priest from Waterbury, Michael J. McGivney, organized a small group of Catholic men in the basement of St. Mary’s Church in New Haven.
What began as a small gathering soon grew into the Knights of Columbus, a lasting expression of Catholic charity, fraternity and faith, one of the most influential Catholic organizations in American history. McGivney was beatified at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Hartford in 2020.
Catholic life in Connecticut continued to expand through the 20th century, especially during the prosperity of the postwar era. As population shifted outward from the cities, new parishes were established across the growing suburbs, reflecting both demographic growth and rising Catholic confidence in public life.
That expansion was formally recognized in 1953, when Pope Pius XII created the dioceses of Bridgeport and Norwich and elevated Hartford to the rank of an archdiocese, marking Connecticut’s full maturation into a major center of Catholic life in New England.
Taken together, the Catholic story of New England is one of endurance and gradual transformation. From the early missionary encounters with Native peoples along rivers and lakes, through centuries of exclusion, suspicion and legal restriction, Catholic life survived largely at the margins. What began as a scattered and often hidden faith was reshaped in the 19th and early 20th centuries by immigration and industrialization as parishes, schools and charitable works took root across the region.
Today, Catholicism is woven deeply into New England’s religious and cultural fabric — a long way from the days when Mass was forbidden, bishops arrived in their new diocese in disguise and Catholics struggled simply to be counted.
Father Anthony D. Andreassi, a priest of the Brooklyn Oratory of St. Philip Neri, holds a doctorate in history from Georgetown University. His research and writing have focused on the American Catholic community. After spending many years in Catholic secondary education, he is on the staff of the Oratory parishes of Assumption and St. Boniface in Brooklyn, New York.
The post Catholic growth in anti-Catholic colonies: The fledgling Church in New England first appeared on OSV News.
