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Masses 1st and 3rd Sundays: 2pm.
Rosary for Vocations Fridays: 6pm.
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Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church is a traditional Catholic parish located in Goldsboro, North Carolina, served by priests of the Society of St. Pius X. The priests travel to North Carolina to provide the traditional mass and sacraments to the faithful.
Built in 1889 by a missionary priest
Father Thomas Price led efforts to raise funds for the church in 1888 and the church was built in 1889.
Old St. Mary’s was the first church Father Price built in North Carolina. As one of the oldest Catholic Churches in the state, Old St. Mary’s still offers the beauty and majesty of the traditional Latin mass.
Growth and expansion
Throughout the early to mid twentieth century the parish grew to include a rectory and school.
The school opened with 45 students on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary September 8, 1927.
In 1978 The Diocese of Raleigh sold the church of St. Mary’s in order to build a larger, modern church to merge with Sacred Heart parish, which served the black community of Wayne County. St. Mary’s became the property of a neighboring bank, with rumors that it might get torn down in order to enlarge
the bank parking lot. To counter this, citizens convinced the Goldsboro Historical Society to declare the church a historical monument, which meant it couldn’t be destroyed.
SSPX purchases the original church
1982: On April 16 th , 1982, the Historic Preservation Fund of North Carolina sold St. Mary’s to the Society of Saint Pius X of Goldsboro for $40,000—about $138,000 it today’s prices.
1983: In April of 1983, Archbishop Lefebvre visited Goldsboro to consecrate Old St. Mary’s under the name of Our Lady of Fatima and Mt. Carmel Church. However, the faithful still refer to the church as Old St. Mary’s. During a ceremony after Mass, the mayor of Goldsboro gave Archbishop Lefebvre an honorary citizenship to the city of Goldsboro.
As the article in the July, 1983 Angelus states: “The mayor cited the important role played by this church in the community over the years and commended the Society for re-opening it, with the hope that it would never close again—a remark that was warmly applauded.”