Origins The
Catholic Church in France had been devastated by the social upheavals of the
French Revolution. Much of the population was in deep economic misery, and the level of religious knowledge, after the destruction of church institutions which had been built up over centuries, was dismal. A strong need was felt for a re-
evangelization of the nation. In 1808 the Society of the
Fathers of Mercy were founded by the Abbé
Jean-Baptiste Rauzan in
Lyon in response to this need. They formed bands of
Catholic priests who would go from door to door, if needed, to invite people to the
parish missions which they would preach. Through these, they worked to give the French people knowledge and help them commit to their traditional Catholic faith. Given their experience in working with populations who had lost touch with the institutions of the Catholic faith, several
Catholic bishops in the United States invited the members of the society to come as missionaries to the nation, then a vast mission territory. In October 1839, one of the founders of the Society,
Charles Auguste Marie Joseph, Count of Forbin-Janson, the exiled
Bishop of Nancy in France, arrived in New York City to start a nationwide preaching tour for which he had been authorized by
Pope Gregory XVI. Finding no place of worship for the French-speaking people of the city, he learned that the French-speaking population was starting to attend services in the Protestant
Huguenot churches, as they were conducted in French. In his sermon in French in a
Mass he celebrated at
St. Peter's Church, he challenged the French Catholic community of the city to establish a French-speaking church. (Prior to 1964 only the sermon and announcements were in the vernacular language.) To help in the endeavor, he contributed $6,500 from his own vast wealth to start the construction of the church. Property was acquired on the northwest corner of
Canal Street and
Broadway. Forbin-Janson returned to the city on various occasions during his mission to check on the progress of the building. Meanwhile, with the help of another significant donation from his personal funds, the Fathers of Mercy acquired the newly founded
Spring Hill College from the
Diocese of Mobile in
Alabama. With this, the Society established itself in the United States.
The parish Two years later,
John Hughes, the
Archbishop of New York, invited the Fathers of Mercy to come from Alabama to his
diocese to serve the French-speaking immigrants who were flocking to the city, in the church built by the French bishop. The parish was opened in 1841, with the church being dedicated by Forbin-Janson before he sailed back to France on December 8 of that year. The group organized as a nonprofit group, Save St. Vincent de Paul. However, by 2012 the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission determined that the application did not merit a formal public hearing, with a spokeswoman saying: "Our decision not to recommend its designation to the full commission was based on a careful review of the building's architectural and historical qualities. We found that the existing facade, a neo-Classical facade that replaced the original Romanesque Revival facade in 1939, was designed by a little-known architect and lacked architectural distinction." Parishioners unsuccessfully challenged the Archdiocese of New York's decision to close the church through the Catholic Church's
canon law system. In January 2016, the
Apostolic Signatura in Rome, the highest
Vatican court, issued its final decision declining to consider the parishioners' appeal. The church sustained damage in a
bombing on 23rd Street in September 2016; "its center rose-shaped, stained-glass window was blown out and two other stained-glass panels were damaged" in the explosion. The property was subsequently sold. ==Notable events==