Brooklyn’s First Mass

There’s a long debate over when the first Mass was celebrated in Brooklyn. There is an incomplete record that points to a Mass celebrated sometime in 1821 by Father Philip Lariscy, an Irish-born Augustinian. The Mass occurred at the home of William Purcell on the corner of York and Gold Streets, in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene section (seen here in the 1940’s). Today in 1822, however, marks the celebration of the first Mass in Brooklyn of which we have a definite record. It took place on St. Patrick’s Day, in the long room of Daniel Dempsey’s Blooming Grove Garden at 216 Fulton Street, and the celebrant was Father John Power, longtime Vicar General of the Diocese of New York. Whatever the first date, one historian writes, “No longer would the Brooklyn Catholics need to cross the East River… for Sunday Mass.”