The Church of the Most Precious Blood is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

located in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The parish is under the authority of the

Archdiocese of New York The Archdiocese of New York () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the New York (state), State of New York. It encompasses the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York ...

, and is the National Shrine Church of

San Gennaro Januarius ( ; ; Neapolitan and ), also known as , was Bishop of Benevento and is a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Armenian Apostolic Church. While no contemporary sources on his life are preserved, later ...

. Located at 113 Baxter Street with an additional entrance on Mulberry Street, the Church of the Most Precious Blood is part of

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

Little Italy Little Italy is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...

neighborhood. The Most Precious Blood parished merged with Old St. Patrick's Cathedral parish, and the two churches share priests and administrative staff.

History

The parish of the Most Precious Blood was established in 1888 as a National Parish to serve the rapidly growing number of Italian immigrants in Lower Manhattan. Building of the church was begun by the

Scalabrini Fathers The Congregation of the Missionaries of Saint Charles Borromeo (), commonly called the Scalabrinian Missionaries, is a Catholic religious institute of brothers and priests founded by Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza in Italy, ...

around 1891. The Scalabrini Order built the foundation but ran out of funding. The

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

then took over the parish and completed the church building in 1904. Located just north of Five Points, it was in a rough neighborhood. In July 1898 Father Buonaventura Piscopo's efforts to combat immoral behavior in the area prompted death threats.

San Gennaro Festival

During the

Feast of San Gennaro The Feast of San Gennaro (in Italian language, Italian: ''Festa di San Gennaro''), also known as San Gennaro Festival, is a Naples, Neapolitan and Italian-American patronal festival dedicated to Saint Januarius, patron saint of Naples and Little ...

, which is held yearly in September, a celebratory

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

is held at the church on the September 19th the feast day of San Gennaro. After the Mass, a statue of

is taken from its home within the church on a procession through the streets of Little Italy. Most Precious Blood is home to several vibrant religious societies in addition to the Figli di San Gennaro, including: the Community of Sant Egidio, and the San Angelo Society. Besides the strong Italian tradition, the Vietnamese congregation has also grown in recent years. The Church is home to the Vietnamese Arts and Learning Cultural Center. The Saint Rocco of Potenza Society was originally founded in 1889 at the now demolished St. Joachim's Church on Roosevelt Street. It then moved to St. Joseph Church on Monroe Street, but with the merger in 2015 of St. Joseph's with the

Church of the Transfiguration The Church of the Transfiguration (, ) is a Franciscan church located on Mount Tabor in Israel. It is traditionally believed to be the site where the Transfiguration of Jesus took place, an event in the Gospels in which Jesus is transfigured upo ...

on Mott Street, the Society is now based at the Shrine Church of the Most Precious Blood. Due to manpower shortages, in March 2014, the Franciscans withdrew from Most Precious Blood and it came under diocesan administration. In 2015, the church became part of the parish of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral. Mass is celebrated at Most Precious Blood on Wednesdays and Sundays. In 2018, the parish rectory on Mulberry Street was listed for sale. During the

Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy () was a Catholic period of prayer held from 8 December 2015, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, to 20 November 2016, the Feast of Christ the King. Like previous jubilees, it was seen by the Church a ...

, from December 8, 2015, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, to November 20, 2016, the Feast of Christ the King, was one of the sites of the

Holy doors The royal doors, holy doors, or beautiful gates are the central doors of the iconostasis in an Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic church. The sanctuary (sometimes called the ''Altar'', which contains the Holy Table) is separated from the nav ...

Architecture

The church was designed by William Schickel & Company, who provided an Italian Franciscan style structure. The marble main and side altars are by Borgia Marble Works of New York. The interior is decorated in Neapolitan Baroque style.

Donatus Buongiorno Donatus Buongiorno (born Donato Buongiorno; November 11, 1865 – October 25, 1935) was an Italian-born American painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who worked in Naples and New York. Early life and training Donatus Buongiorno was ...

created thirty oil painting murals for the walls and ceiling. The building was renovated in 1995 by the Gargiulo Brothers Construction Company of Mount Vernon, to repair damage suffered from water leakage and general disrepair. The Church was re-consecrated by Archbishop John Cardinal O'Connor on February 7, 1997.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Church of the Most Precious Blood Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York Roman Catholic churches in Manhattan Italian-American culture in New York City Lower Manhattan Scalabrinians Italian-American Roman Catholic national parishes in the United States Roman Catholic churches completed in 1904 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Holy Blood churches