Our Lady of Lourdes Church 

A History of Our Parish

The sky was vivid, sun-splashed blue that afternoon. From their position on the bluff, the group was able to look out over much of what was to become Alameda County, all the way down to the bay. Padre Juan Crespi, a Franciscan priest accompanying the Spanish expeditionary party which had been dispatched from Monterey to explore the San Francisco area, held the host aloft and uttered the blessing. It was the first Roman Catholic Mass held in the area. The date was March 27, 1772.

The sky was vivid, sun-splashed blue that afternoon. From their position on the bluff, the group was able to look out over much of what was to become Alameda County, all the way down to the bay. Padre Juan Crespi, a Franciscan priest accompanying the Spanish expeditionary party which had been dispatched from Monterey to explore the San Francisco area, held the host aloft and uttered the blessing. It was the first Roman Catholic Mass held in the area. The date was March 27, 1772.

The church was named to commemorate the events that happened in the Grotto of Massabie, near Lourdes, in France in 1858. There, a vision of the Virgin Mary came to a teenage girl named Bernadette to reveal the healing waters of the Spring of Lourdes. Since then, visitors from all over the world have traveled to Lourdes to bathe in and touch the water. "Any parish is formed to meet the needs of the community, in particular the Catholic community," current pastor, Father Seamus D. Genovese, explained. "The school was probably the driving force, though."

The church grounds, a sloping lot along the eastern shore of Lake Merritt, had formerly been part of the old Rancho San Antonio de las Peraltas and were purchased for $35,000. Father Bartholomew J. Kevany from County Roscommon, Ireland, was named the first pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes after serving his initial pastorate in Half Moon Bay. Father Kevany guided the parish for 37 years until his retirement on November 1, 1958.