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About
1905 the Catholics of Oxford were
placed under the jurisdiction of the St. Rose Church in
Newtown. Mass
was at that time celebrated in the Union Church, in the
building now
known as the Chapel of the Good Shepherd in Southbury.
Also during that period, Catholic services
were held
in homes in Oxford by Newtown clergymen.
Thomas Coman, a New York City judge, left
in 1909 a
sum of money to establish a Catholic Church where none was
located, and
in September 1911, a site was purchased for the sum of one
dollar from
August and Virginia Pelletier, with the Rev. George T.
Sinnott, pastor
of St. Rose Church, Newtown, working to establish the mission.
That fall the work began on the original
building
under the direction of Arthur Peck and Fred Hildebrandt. The
dedication
ceremony was held in July 1912, and the chapel was at first
called St.
Mary.
Organization under the name of St. Thomas
the
Apostle took place in October, 1916.
Early in the church history only about nine
families
attended regularly, and Mass was said every other Sunday.
The church passed under the director of St.
Thomas
Church in Beacon Falls, under the pastorship of Rev. Jeremiah
J.
McAuliffe . The congregation was returned to the jurisdiction
of St.
Augustine Church in 1948 as a Mission Church.
During eighteen years as a mission church
of the
Seymour church, the building was renovated. Also during this
time, the
Oxford Board of Education agreed to allow the church to use
its
facilities for religious education after school hours.
In 1966 the St. Thomas the Apostle Church
was
officially designated as a parish, to meet the growing needs
of the
larger flock, and the Rev. Joseph R. Barlowski of Bristol was
appointed
as first resident pastor.
In 1966 land was purchased in Quaker Farms,
with the
intention of building a new church and rectory. However in
February of
1971, parishioners voted to purchase a new parcel of land
adjacent to
the rectory. The property in Quaker Farms was sold, and
construction
began on the new church February 27, 1972.
The last Mass celebrated in the Coman
Memorial was
said on December 24, 1972, and the new church was formally
dedicated on
January 28, 1973.
The Coman Memorial was sold to the Rev.
Ronald
Rockey, who has established a small independent,
non-denominational
parish in the old building, after a renovation of the
building, which
is now known as Wildwood Chapel.
