St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church

27/08/2023

UPCOMING EVENTS

September 8, 2023

'Show Thyself a Mother': St Mary's and the Mission of a Catholic University
Anthony McClaran, Vice-Chancellor at St Mary's University & has held governance roles at all levels of education.

21/08/2023

I hope you have enjoyed this wonderful booklet which has come
as a result of much hard work, generosity and prayer. The story of
St Patrick’s and Soho will be enriched by the reading and sharing
of this story.
It gives wonderful witness to many years of the presence of the
Church in this part of London by way of ministering to the poor and
the outcast, celebrating the Holy Mass and inviting people into a
house of prayer.
Our long history is witness to the generosity of many and the pennies
of the poor. It is a story that continues beyond today and one hopes
that those who have contributed in the past will recognise a similar
response to the challenges of our time.
This booklet gives witness to the physical beauty of the Church but
also paints a picture of the sacrifices and prayer of those who have
gone before us. I hope you will keep the Parish and its parishioners
in your heart as we continue to reach out into the streets around us.
Soho has changed so much and will continue to do so in the years to
come but the promises of the Lord will always persevere that he has
said that he will be with us until the end of time. Please continue to
keep us in your prayer as we pray on a regular basis for our friends,
our benefactors and those who have gone to God.

21/08/2023

21/08/2023

A new millennium greeted by
restoration and renewal.
St Patrick’s has always provided for those su� ering
material or spiritual impoverishment, or both. For all the
glamour of the West End and despite London being one of
the richest cities in the world, Soho remains home to some
of the most marginalised in society. So St Patrick’s service
to the poor and vulnerable continues.
With the arrival of Fr Alexander Sherbrooke as parish priest in
2001, the good works of the parish on behalf of the homeless and
those suffering from addiction were formalised and extended.
But for practical reasons there was only so much that could be
achieved in the church as it stood.
By the new millennium, the building was in need of repair and
refurbishment. The interior surfaces were damaged and soiled
from a century of regular use and pollution. The paintwork and
plaster had deteriorated. The building’s fabric had also been
extensively damaged by damp and dry rot, while the post-war
reconstruction of the roof, following the unscheduled arrival of
the bomb in 1940, had proved inadequate.
Fr Sherbrooke was committed to realising a restoration and
building scheme for St Patrick’s that would both restore the
splendour of this Grade II* listed building, and even more
importantly, enable the parish to better fulfi l its pastoral and
social mission.

21/08/2023

In its very first year, the church was the scene of an extraordinary
sight - the arrival of hundreds of French clergy. Having fled
persecution following the Revolution, they would assemble at St
Patrick’s for retreats given by the esteemed preacher, Père
Beauregard. Several years later, on November 16th 1799, the
church attracted a similarly impressive continental audience. Pope
Pius VI had died a prisoner in Republican France and the papal
envoy to Great Britain, Monseigneur (later to be Cardinal) Erskine
chose St Patrick’s for the pontiff’s official requiem.
It was celebrated by Bishop Douglass who later described it as
being “... a solemn dirge, mass and the five Absolutions held in St.
Patrick’s Chapel for the repose of His Holiness’s soul. The whole
chapel was draped in black except the columns of the altar (the
capitals of which were covered) and the organ. The highest
windows were left uncovered. Over these, as also along the rails of
the galleries, under the lights, hung various mottoes.”
The mass itself was performed “in a manner most solemn, awful,
and impressive. The Bishops of Montpellier, Rodez, Lombez and
Waterford assisted in mitres and black copes at the five
Absolutions. The foreign ministers with their families were present,
the Duchess of Devonshire, the French Bishops and a very crowded
assembly.” The service began at ten in the morning and finished at
the half past three in the afternoon, with Father O’Leary delivering
a stirring funeral oration from the pulpit wearing only “a black
cassock, with no surplice and no stole”.
O’Leary himself was to die just a few years later in January 1802,
aged seventy-two. His was to be another remarkable requiem with
two thousand mourners attending the mass at St Patrick’s. A mural
monument celebrating his ‘useful labours in the vineyard of the
Lord’ was erected when he was initially buried in the churchyard at
St Pancras. His remains were later moved to St Mary’s Cemetery in
Kensal Green, where his friend the Earl of Moira had arranged for a
memorial in his honour.

21/08/2023

St Patrick’s, Soho Square, is one of the oldest postReformation Roman Catholic parishes in London, and its
chapel the first Catholic place of worship to have opened there
after the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1791.
In fact, with the exception of Warwick Street’s Church of Our Lady
of the Assumption and St Gregory, which was originally the Bavarian
Embassy chapel, St Patrick’s has been one of the longest places
of continuing public Catholic worship in London and the Diocese
of Westminster.
Roman Catholic associations with the area go even further back,
to penal times. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Catholic
martyrs on their way to ex*****on at Tyburn received their last drink
in St Giles’s, and it was St Giles-in-the-Fields’ churchyard that
received their bodies.
The last person to have suffered martyrdom in England for the old
faith was St Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh. He was executed
at Tyburn in1681 and originally buried at St Giles’s.

20/08/2023

Powered by partners
Our Summits were made possible by partners who are invested in evangelisation and mission in the UK.

We are thankful to the Peter’s House team for their work and to the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom for their sponsorship of these events.

We were also joined by many great ministries, including The Catholic Truth Society, First Saturday, Catholic Student Network, Catholic Mothers UK, Pray As You Go and Clarity Life Consulting.

20/08/2023

Nightfever
Nightfever is a night of invitation for those passing by the church to come inside, light a candle and encounter the beauty of Jesus Christ in His Church.

20/08/2023

It starts with Jesus
Nightfever always begins with the celebration of Mass at 18:00.

This is because Jesus in the Eucharist is at the centre of Nightfever and, after Mass, He is placed on the altar for adoration.

To create an atmosphere of prayer, musicians begin to play and priests arrive to offer the Sacrament of Confession.

This space of prayer and beauty is what we invite our visitors into, so that they can encounter Jesus for themselves.

20/08/2023

Nightfever
Nightfever is a night of invitation for those passing by to come inside, light a candle and encounter the beauty of Jesus Christ in His Church.

20/08/2023

Cenacolo
Mondays 19:00 - 20:00

Cenacolo is a Catholic community that offers free, residential rehabilitation for people suffering from addiction, depression or simply looking for an experience of faith, prayer and friendship.

20/08/2023

SOS Prayerline
Every evening, 19:00 - 23:00 | 020 7434 9211

The SOS Prayerline provides the support of prayer to those who are experiencing difficulties. This prayerline is staffed by volunteers who pray before Jesus in the Eucharist and answer telephone requests for prayer and petitions from those in need.