Truckin' on the Western Branch

St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Sunray Until 1795 Catholics in the greater Churchland area, as elsewhere in Hampton Roads, worshipped privately, mindful of persecution, even though the Virginia Bill of Rights of 1776 included freedom of religion. In 1804 the parish of St. Paul’s was established in Portsmouth as a daughter church of St. Mary’s in Norfolk, and then became the mother church for St. Mary’s in Bowers Hill, Holy Angels in Cradock, and the Church of the Resurrection in Churchland. Before the Church of the Resurrection was built in the 1970s, the mission congregation met in Green Acres Presbyterian Church. St. Therese of the Little Flower in Western Branch has been an independent Catholic congregation since the mid-1950s. First located near Alexanders Corner in Portsmouth, the church moved to Portsmouth Boulevard when the Chesapeake Square area developed. St. Mary’s in Bowers Hill was built in 1916 in the heart of the Polish farm community of about thirty-three families. Franklin Land and Lumber Company donated 6½ acres on Homestead Road for the church. St. Mary’s Gothic Revival–style arched windows flood the open plan church with light. Church members still ring the church bell by hand, tugging on a long rope in the square entrance tower.

The church sponsors a Polish Fest each spring on its grounds after a morning mass led at least partially in Polish. The aroma of kielbasa and sauerkraut, the bounce of Polish music, and vivid traditional Polish clothing reinforce the community’s appreciation of their unique heritage as the first long-term Polish settlement in Virginia.

St. Mary’s Catholic Church celebrates Polish Fest, 2014. Image by Sheally

St. Mary’s bellringer Rick Podruchny. Image by Sheally

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