The First Catholic Church in the Colonies: St. Mary’s Chapel Reconstruction

by Henry M. Miller, appearing in Volume 49

The first permanent Catholic church in English America stood at St. Mary’s City, Maryland’s founding site. Jesuits constructed it in the 1660s and due to political oppression, it was demolished in the early 1700s.

Early Maryland

Maryland was unique as the only colony in America founded by Catholics. Under a grant given in 1632 by King Charles I to Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, Calvert sent two ships, The Ark and The Dove, to America in 1633 with about 150 immigrants aboard. Jesuit Father Andrew White recorded the entire voyage, and he and several assistants founded the Catholic Church in English America at St. Mary’s City in 1634. White would labor among the local Piscataway peoples, translating their language and converting many. He had a wooden chapel built at St. Mary’s in 1636, but it burned down in an attack on the capital city in 1645 by English Protestants. Father White and another Jesuit were taken as prisoners back to England. It was only around 1660 that stability returned.

Maryland was unique in another way. It was the first colony that offered religious freedom and liberty of conscience to its members, beginning in 1634. Under the leadership of the Calvert family, a diversity of faiths could be found in Maryland. These included Anglicans, Anabaptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Labadists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Puritans, and at least one Jew. Following a rebellion in 1689, Lord Baltimore was overthrown, a Royal governor was appointed by the English crown, and religious freedom came to an end. The Anglican faith was made the official religion of Maryland.

The final step was the passage of “An Act to Prevent the Growth of Popery” in 1704 and the forced closure of the main Catholic church at St. Mary’s City. Because it could no longer be used, the building was dismantled by the Jesuits and its materials recycled. By 1750, new owners converted the site and associated cemetery into an agricultural field, obliterating all above-ground traces of this historic structure and the hundreds of people buried there.

The Chapel Site

Locals remembered the location as “the Chapel Field,” and in 1938, architectural historian Henry Chandlee Forman observed brick in the plowed soil. He did limited testing and discovered the foundations of a Latin-cross-shaped brick structure. Forman reburied it, and the precise location was again lost. In the 1980s, archaeologists once again located the foundation and conducted intensive excavations between 1988 and 1992, followed by years of analysis. It was determined to be the first brick structure built in the colony of Maryland, and was constructed between 1665 and 1669.

Excavators also found traces of Father White’s 1636 chapel under the later brick one, showing that the site had been reused. Archaeologists also discovered that St. Mary’s City featured the first Baroque planned city in America, and the chapel was a key element of that plan.

Despite extensive research in archives, including those of the Jesuits and the Vatican, no plans or descriptions of this building have been found.  A single reference by the vehemently anti-Catholic Royal Governor Francis Nicholson in 1697 said that the Jesuits had “a good brick chapel at St. Mary’s City.” A few wills and accounts note some bequests to the church or payment for removing the stone floor in the chapel for burial, but otherwise the documentary record is silent. Hence, evidence from archaeology is essential to decipher the nature of this long-lost example of sacred architecture.

Excavators uncovered a massive brick foundation three feet wide and extending five feet below ground.  Overall, the Latin-cross-shaped structure was 56 feet across and 54 feet long.  The nave section was 28 feet wide and the transepts 14 feet wide. Its bricks were all locally made. Their distinctive marks and often, even the fingerprints of the maker, allowed them to be identified. Among them were rare jamb and mullion bricks used to create multipart windows. Fragile glass specimens show that the windows held clear pale green glass cut into diamond-shaped panes. Excavators found no stained glass. The mortar and plaster were made from burning oystershells for lime. Plaster analysis shows that the walls and perhaps façade of the structure were plastered, but the absence of lathe marks indicate that the ceiling was not. A scatter of wrought nails in the nave area suggests that a wooden barrel vault finished the ceiling. Recovered fragments suggest  that the chapel displayed a reddish-colored roof of locally made flat tile. A few specimens of cut brick were found that came from the water table or façade of the structure. Also retrieved were numerous stone fragments not natural to the area of a hard sandstone called metagraywacke, which geologists believe was imported from Europe. Documents indicate that the chapel had a stone floor, and it is estimated that fourteen tons of stone were imported for it.

While the foundation was intact, the excavators realized that the Jesuits had been very thorough in their recycling efforts, taking away the vast majority of the above-ground building. A legend that they used the chapel materials to build a manor house at their plantation outside St. Mary’s City in the early 1700s was confirmed when archaeologists found reused chapel bricks in a domestic structure there of that era. Because of this discovery, it became essential to recover all remaining fragments over and in the vicinity of the foundation, even though they had been jumbled by farmers’ plows for over two centuries.

More clues to the building came from graves in the area. Excavations and ground penetrating radar suggest that there are over 400 unmarked graves at the chapel site. To avoid damaging them and for foundation access, seventy individuals were excavated during the project. Some graves are at an angle to the brick chapel and workers cut through several of these digging the foundation trench. These are earlier and relate to Father White’s 1636 chapel, being interments from the 1630s and 1640s. Graves of the Brick Chapel period align closely with the building. Numerous burials are inside the chapel, and they all stop in a line in the eastern section of the building.  This is evidence for where the sanctuary or altar area began. No chapel-period graves were found in this sanctuary area, suggesting some construction that discouraged burial activity there, specifically the altar and its platform.  This information results in the conclusion that the interior of the chapel was 22 feet wide and the length was divided into a nave of 36 feet and a sanctuary of 12 feet.

The north transept held the most notable burials found at the site, three very rare lead coffins placed side by side in a large burial pit. A major scientific investigation of them conducted in the 1990s identified the occupants as members of Maryland’s founding family, the Calverts. Lead coffin interment was an elite form of burial in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The south transept, by contrast, had no graves, but a few fragments of plaster with lathe were found in this area.  This transept may have been walled off and served as the sacristy for the chapel. Evidence for this interpretation was gained when excavators clearing the foundation for the reconstruction found evidence of a sacrarium there, a drain used in the cleaning of vessels after Mass.

Surviving Elements

Since the chapel was intentionally demolished, it was possible that some pieces might have survived. One account tells of carved wooden elements from the chapel altar at Georgetown University, but all efforts to find these have failed. On the other hand, there is an iron cross at Georgetown that legend says was brought to Maryland by Father Andrew White. The cross is of the appropriate size, and it is possible that it capped the façade of the chapel at St. Mary’s. Therefore, an exact wrought iron copy was made by a blacksmith for the reconstruction.

But the most significant artifact is a wooden tabernacle. This sacred specimen was in the possession of the Carroll family of Maryland. In the 1720 inventory of Charles Carroll, a settler who worshiped in the chapel, it is described as much broken but still valued at the impressive sum of five pounds sterling. Carroll served as Lord Baltimore’s attorney in the colony and was one of the most prominent Catholics.  The tabernacle was in the private chapel of his grandson Charles Carroll of Carrolton when he became the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence. The family gave it to the Sisters of Charity in Baltimore in 1856, and it is now in possession of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Carroll family legend held that it had been in the chapel at St. Mary’s City. The “much broken” description in 1720 may be due to the Protestants desecrating the chapel in their 1689 rebellion. The top dome section is clearly a later replacement as the artistic style of the carvings differs completely from the lower section.

Analysis by specialists at the Smithsonian found that the intricate lower carvings had been covered with gold leaf. Comparison with surviving seventeeth-century tabernacles shows that the form is appropriate and details of the Jesuit seal on the door suggest that it may have had an origin in Flanders, as proposed by specialists at Stonyhurst College in England. The English Jesuits had their colleges and seminaries in Flanders, and all the Maryland Jesuits were trained there. Its three-and-a-half-foot-tall size and the presence of the Jesuit seal imply that it was intended for a church instead of a small chapel in a home.

Putting the Clues Together

Years of research produced numerous clues about the chapel. Without doubt, its construction was a major undertaking in the young colony. Up to that time, all buildings in Maryland were of wood, a few with stone foundations, but most rested on wooden posts in the soil. No specific individual can be identified who directed the construction and there were few skilled artisans in the colony. Regrettably, there is a gap in the annual reports from the Maryland Jesuits during the period of the chapel’s construction. It is known that the Jesuits sometimes sent skilled artisans for projects, and this may have been the case here. For the time and place, the chapel was an impressive architectural achievement, being the first formal structure in the young colony. Given the exceptionally high labor costs on the Maryland frontier, it was also an expensive project. Unfortunately, no information on the financing has been found, but a wealthy patron in England or Europe is possible.

To better assess the evidence, several architectural specialists were consulted. One controversy involved the design influences. Some argued that since this was an English colony and the vast majority of the people were from England or Ireland, the designers would have followed British practice.  But others believed that the English Jesuits, although natives of Britain, were instilled with a different architectural aesthetic. All had been educated on the continent of Europe, mostly in Flanders but also in France, Spain, and Italy. The Jesuits were also architectural leaders of the Baroque era, building churches and other buildings deeply inspired by classical architecture. This was obvious in the many Jesuit churches studied, beginning with the Society of Jesus’s Mother Church of the Gesù in Rome. The debate ended with the continental influence determined to be the most probable.

There is no specific Jesuit style, but their churches did consistently employ key elements of formal architecture including the use of pilasters, entablatures, pediments, curved gables, and statuary or obelisks on the corners. A cross appears consistently at the peak of the pediment. Jesuit scholar Father Thomas Lucas has written that the Jesuits emphasized verticality, luminosity, and beauty in their church designs.

At St. Mary’s City, the chapel foundation was consistently five feet deep, and classical formulas suggest this indicates high walls, perhaps around 25 feet. Light was important for worshipers to be able to view the Mass, and thus large windows with clear glass, not dark stained-glass, were typical. Finally, the interiors were open and furnished with beautiful fixtures and artwork. For the chapel, the multipart windows signified by the window bricks and white plaster walls emphasized light, and the elegant tabernacle was the most significant piece of surviving evidence about interior furnishings.

It is also the case that the Jesuits followed the liturgical policies established by the Council of Trent and the treatise on church architecture by Saint Charles Borromeo. The altar was at the traditional east end of the building, separated from the public or nave area by an altar rail. The altar would have rested on a three-step platform flanked by columns and capped by a pediment. Six candle sticks stood on the altar. Over the altar between the columns some type of religious art appeared. Other art or statuary was typically mounted on the walls of the churches for veneration. Period paintings indicate that Catholic churches of this period had no pews. Instead, worshipers stood or knelt during the service, although some benches were typically provided along the walls for the infirm or elderly.

With this background, architects John Mesick and Jeffrey Baker of Albany, New York, were hired to help the archaeologists develop credible architectural plans for the structure. Each clue was evaluated and added to the body of evidence.

Interpretive depth regarding the masonry came from consulting British brick expert Gerard Lynch and historic mason Jimmy Price. Lynch informed us that the specially made jamb and mullion bricks were intended to hold rendering or exterior plaster to make the windows of the brick building appear to be set in limestone frames. He provided pictures of numerous examples from the period. Data gathered from examining dozens of Jesuit churches of the seventeenth-century around the world gave valuable insights about the architectural elements used by the Jesuits.

After much debate and evaluating varied options, the architects settled on a design that could match the archaeological and limited historical evidence, the data of precedents from period Jesuit churches, and the liturgical practices of the period.   

Rebuilding

With the design in hand, a major fundraising effort was begun by the museum of St. Mary’s City. Over 1,000 people donated to the project, along with foundations, businesses, and the Federal Save America’s Treasures program. Reconstruction work began on the original foundation in 2002, supervised by mason Jimmy Price. The effort was done as experimental archaeology. Exterior bricks were all hand-molded from St. Mary’s City clay and fired in a traditional wood burning kiln. Interior wall bricks that would never be seen were factory-made to the same dimension to save money.

Tractor trailer loads of oystershells were sent to Jimmy Price’s Virginia Lime Works to be burned and converted into lime for the mortar and plaster. Learning how to turn shells into lime was a skill that had to be relearned by Price and his team. At the site, a traditional timber and rope scaffold was used, based on the evidence about the original scaffolding found by the archaeologists. And to lift the mortar and bricks as the walls rose, winches and a hand-cranked windlass were used to duplicate the labor efforts required in the 1660s. We recorded labor hours by task consistently so that the actual labor required to build the chapel could be estimated. Work continued from 2003 to 2009 when the architecture of the building was finished.

The Interior

Even after the building itself was completed, its interior was not finished due to a lack of funds and the need for further research. Information on period altars, especially in smaller side chapels, was collected and a pattern identified. Work on period wooden tabernacles allowed for a design of how the Carroll tabernacle may have appeared originally. Given the evidence for gilding, it seemed likely that the entire tabernacle was originally covered in gold. The six candlesticks are modeled on a set made for the chapel of the Jesuit College in Liege, Belgium, in 1667.

But the largest unknown was the nature of the altar painting. There is no historical information as to whom the building was dedicated. A few historical references suggested it was to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Confirmation came from archeoastronomy. For many centuries, churches were often laid out oriented to sunrise on the feast day of the dedication. The centerline of the chapel runs east-west but is twenty degrees south of due east. It points to sunrise on the second of February. Liturgically, this is the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, Mary receiving the prophecy from Simeon, and the Purification of Mary. This suggests that the chapel in Maryland’s capital city of St. Mary’s was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Therefore, a painting of Mary is probable. But which one?

In Rome at Saint Mary Major Basilica, there is a famous icon over 1,000 years old known as Salus Populi Romani. The Pope allowed it to be copied for the first time by the Jesuits in 1569 so that the image could be sent to missions around the world. English Catholics had a strong devotion to the Virgin Mary, and Saint Mary Major was the premier church in Rome for English Catholics at the time. It is known, for example, that Maryland’s Surveyor General in the 1660s worshiped there when he lived in Rome. Given this history, and the image’s use in missions, a mid-seventeenth-century copy of the painting from the Society of Jesus Italian Province headquarters in Rome was obtained and reproduced for the chapel.

In April of 2025, the chapel was officially completed and opened to the public. Later, in September, the seventy individuals excavated from around the chapel during the project, including the lead coffin occupants, were reinterred in a special burial vault inside the chapel with a major ceremony.  Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore officiated and blessed the newly reconstructed chapel and burial vault. It is not a consecrated church because there was no bishop in seventeenth-century Maryland to consecrate the original chapel. Rather it exists now as a museum exhibit about the beginning of religious freedom in America. In one transept, the original foundation is visible for viewing while in the other transept the three lead coffins are displayed under a glass floor where they were discovered.

While we do not know the precise appearance of the St. Mary’s Chapel, its reconstruction is as accurate as possible given the available evidence and scholarship.

The significance of the chapel is enormous. Nowhere else in the English-speaking world could a free-standing Catholic chapel have been built in the seventeenth century. St. Mary’s was the centerpiece of the Jesuit mission in Maryland and represents the beginning of the Catholic Church in the original thirteen colonies. The seeds of faith planted there in the 1600s endured and led eventually to the establishment of the first Catholic diocese in the United States in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1790. Now visitors can once again see the chapel where it began.