St. Patrick’s Friary, near Seymour and Emslie streets, is all that remains of Buffalo’s first Irish Catholic church complex. Here, in 1853, Bishop John Timon directed the construction of the Church of St. Vincent de Paul, then a modest frame building, as the “mother church” of Irish Buffalo. Timon “accepted with joy,” he said, his effort to plant “the flag of the faith” in the Hydraulics, “the very center of infidelity and Protestantism, and in spite of the opposition of the anti-Catholic bigots.” When the Franciscans took charge of the parish in 1858, new brick church buildings were erected and the campus renamed to St. Patrick’s in honor of Ireland’s patron saint. In 1891, construction began on a more substantial Medina sandstone complex designed by architects C.K. Porter & Sons. In this undated photograph by Hauser Bob, the church—demolished in 1982—still stands on the left. Still present is the friary, where the Franciscans have ministered to the neighborhood for 158 years, and today operate a food pantry, thrift shop, prison ministry, and summer day camp for neighborhood children. This ministry will come to a close in 2017, when the Franciscan Friars Holy Name Province intends to sell the building. Fr. Jud Weiksnar, a guardian of St. Patrick’s Friary, shared the news on social media recently, quoting St. Francis as saying, “Let us begin again, for until now we have done nothing.

Image courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum. Used by permission.