Richard Neville looks around St. Gabriel Church in Winterport, remembering the days 75 years ago when he was an altar server there.

“There used to be a chandelier hanging from up there. That’s where they used to bring down the lighted candles,” he recalls.

Although he now lives and attends Mass in Bangor, Neville was among the many who gathered at St. Gabriel Church on September 29, the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, to celebrate the church community’s 175th anniversary.

“I wanted to see somebody I went to school with or somebody I went to church with,” he says.

St. Gabriel is a small community church beloved by those who gather there for Mass.

“It’s small, and everybody enjoys everybody. We get along great,” says Richard Gordon, who serves as a reader and an extraordinary minister of holy Communion. “This is a nice little church.”

“We call ourselves the little church with the big heart,” says Ellen Van Vranken, the choir director, who has attended St. Gabriel for nearly a half century. “We all know everybody, and you’ll never go to a church that sings more than St. Gabriel’s. They sing right out, and it shows their heart and soul and their love for their faith and their love for this parish community.”

“It’s beautiful that everybody knows each other. There have been beautiful blessings, but then there has also been tragedy, but people have always come together. It’s got a long history of people leaning on each other and being there for each other,” says Mary O’Roak, who assists the sacristan.

The St. Gabriel Catholic community owes its start to a surge in Irish immigrants in the late 1840s and early 1850s due to the Great Famine in their homeland. The immigrants took jobs in granite quarries and sought to practice the Catholic faith that they brought with them. At first, Masses were celebrated in area homes, including the residence of James and Mary Reilly, married in 1850, whose home served as a church and rectory for Jesuit priests, who traveled from Bangor to serve the community. Those priests included Father John Bapst, SJ, who found refuge with the Reillys after being attacked by an anti-Catholic mob in Ellsworth.

Father Bapst, along with Father Anthony Chiampi, SJ, played crucial roles in the building up of the St. Gabriel’s Catholic community. This included securing land in the lower village for a new church. Construction began in 1853, the same year that the Diocese of Portland was established, and was completed the following year. Although services were held there beginning in 1854, it would be another 22 years before Bishop James Healy, the second bishop of Portland, traveled there to bless it.

 St. Gabriel was first a mission of a parish in Bangor, and later Ellsworth, but in 1877, it became a parish of its own with missions in Belfast, Bucksport, Frankfort, and Searsport.

“From its earliest years, this Catholic community wasn’t just concerned with itself but was already stretching outward, helping to bring Christ to neighboring towns. That’s what it means to be a ladder, to be a connector to Christ for others,” said Bishop James Ruggieri during the anniversary Mass. “Over these 175 years, how many children have been baptized at this font, marked forever with the sign of Christ? How many young people have been confirmed here, strengthened by the Holy Spirit? How many couples stood right here, hand in hand, promising to live marriage as a sacrament of Christ’s love? How many of the sick were anointed, comforted by the prayers of this parish? And above all, how many Masses have been celebrated here? How many times has the Eucharist, the sacrifice of Christ, been made present again and again? Each one of those moments is a step on the ladder. Each one is a reminder that heaven touches earth, here in this church, through Christ.”

“We have a great church community. It’s our church family,” says Annette Gordon, the longtime sacristan. “It’s a family.” 
 

The bishop said that although St. Gabriel has never been a large community nor Winterport a large town, size has never determined importance in God’s eyes.

“What matters is fidelity. Jesus said: ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them’ (Mt 18:20). This community has been a faithful presence,” the bishop said. “Every parish, no matter its size, no matter its history, exists for this one reason: to connect people to Christ and, through Christ, to heaven. That’s why today’s anniversary is not just about remembering the past; instead, it’s also about rejoicing in what God has been doing here for 175 years and recommitting ourselves to that same mission.”

The bishop said while an anniversary is a time to look back with gratitude, it is also an opportunity to look forward with hope.

“The mission is not finished. Our world today is hungry for God, even when it does not know it. So many people feel disconnected, isolated, confused. They search for meaning in a thousand different ways. The Church is called to be, more than ever, that ladder. The Church is called to be that bridge that helps people find Christ, the only one who can truly satisfy the human heart.”

St. Gabriel’s path forward now is as part of the larger St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Bangor, which was established in 2009. Still, the community remains tight-knit and welcoming, just ask Judy Faust, who is a Methodist but who has been singing with the choir for 25 years.

“It’s very, very friendly. We’re like a family. We get together, and we just help one another, and we enjoy the music,” she says.