“From the Archives” — Saint Mary Makes News In 1798

The earliest public reference to the Catholic faith in Alexandria may be this notice posted in 1798 in the Virginia Journal and Alexandria Examiner by Dennis Foley, a Saint Mary parishioner:

I, the subscriber, do hereby caution and forbid any person whatever, not to take away any material appropriated for the building of the Roman Catholic Church in this town, without first obtaining leave of the subscriber generally, or the Committee at last, and all persons who may have taken away any Brick, or any other articles, from ground intended for building said Church, are called upon to render an account of said articles to the Committee or to the subscribers generally. — February 26, 1798 Dennis Foley

The little chapel in the present Saint Mary Cemetery on South Washington Street was under construction at that time, and workers were making bricks on the site. Apparently, they were having a problem with thieves since the location of the church was quite remote and not near the center of town. Foley seems to have been a member of a committee charged by the pastor, Father Francis Neale S.J., with overseeing the construction. They could have been the parish leaders who came to be called “Trustees” a decade later. “Subscriber” refers to church members, i.e. parishioners.

Dennis Foley was a grocer and shopkeeper at the corner of Duke and Saint. Asaph Streets. His wife, Elizabeth, was a seamstress. There is no evidence that he and his wife were buried in the cemetery. Like many early members, they just disappear from the parish records.