History:

Sometime between 1922 and 1924, Anglican emigrants from the Bahamas and the West Indies who came to Martin County looking for work as laborers discovered that the closet church where they could worship was St. Patrick's Episcopal Church in West Palm Beach.  It was a 40-mile trip which was often treacherous in those days, so it wasn't long before they grew tired of making the journey.  Then Alice Christie had a brainstorm: to establish a church in Stuart.

Soon the familiar service of Evening Psalms was being held at the home of Alice and Willie Christie on Sewall's Point.  It was led by Alice's nephew, Charles Curry, who became the first lay reader at St. Monica's.

When the house could no longer accommodate their growing numbers, the service moved to the second floor of a pineapple packing house on the Twitchell Estate, and Father Cassler, a priest at St. Patrick's, began coming to Sewall's Point on a monthly basis to conduct a communion service.  The congregation chose the name of St. Monica of North Africa because of her history of overcoming a hard life, her dedication, perseverance and the triumphant conversion of her son, Augustine, to the faith.

Under Alice Christie's leadership, St. Monica's was officially established as a church in the Diocese of South Florida in 1928. The first officers of the church were John P. Mackey, Senior Warden; Augustus McHardy, Junior Warden; Willie A. Christie, Treasurer; and Adophus Knowles, Secretary.  The first deacon was Melvin Finley, a cousin of Alice Christie.

The current church structure was built in 1965.  The present parish house was added in 2003, when an adjacent lot with an existing house was acquired.  It replaced a building destroyed by a hurricane in the 1940s.

St. Monica's Episcopal/Anglican Church still stands as a testimony of faith in the community for those who came to find a new life in this country and continue their way of faith and worship.