updated December 18, 2025
St Peter’s Church Our Lady of the Rosary
I took this photo in August 2013, the only time I have ever visited New York City. I didn’t know anything about the church, but it caught my attention, despite the two tall skyscrapers towering over it.
Above the entrance, looking out over New York Harbor is a white marble statue of Mother Elizabeth Seton sculpted by Robert E. Gaspari.
Francis Cardinal Spellman dedicated the shrine on September 8, 1965.
Elizabeth Ann Seton occupies a unique place in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. She established the first free Catholic school for girls in the United States and founded the first American congregation of religious sisters, the Sisters of Charity.
Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
In 1975 she became the first American-born saint to be canonized by the Vatican.
New York City-September 11, 2001
For many years, St Peter’s had become primarily a service church, a kind of parish-away-from-home for thousands who filled the area each workday.
Then, after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, both St Peter’s and her chapel, St Joseph’s in Battery Park City, were used as staging grounds for rescue and recovery operations.
“We were the first place they were bringing all the emergency equipment. Everything was in disarray.
Supplies were piled six feet high all over the pews, bandages, gas masks, boots, hoses and cans of food for the workers and the volunteers, many of whom were sleeping in the pews on bedrolls.”
then-pastor Fr. Kevin Madigan
The Church celebrated Masses occasionally, but only for the rescue workers and those few others with credentials to enter the area.
In 2015, the Parish of Our Lady of the Rosary was merged back into St. Peter’s Parish to form St. Peter-Our Lady of the Rosary Parish.
During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, both churches suspended in-person services to protect their parishioners and the community.
Another post set in New York City
New York City: music, museums, monuments, and medicine
“For generations, we cooperated to live in this small space. Now cooperation has helped us keep living.”
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My ancestors came over from Ireland through Ellis Island. I’ll have to mention this church to my mom. I’d be curious whether she knows about this church’s history as a mission to female Irish immigrants in the late 19th Century.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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You’re welcome. It was a unique site, this quaint church flanked by skyscrapers. I wished I had time to visit it. The history I read online was interesting, and it would be fascinating to hear from someone who had a personal connection. Let me know what you learn from your mother.
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Hi! I mentioned the church to my mom, but she doesn’t recall it being mentioned in her research of our own ancestors. She did find it fascinating though! 🙂
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