History of Our Parish

In the early 1900s, there were few Catholics in Williamsburg, however; the few Catholic families, most notably the Hanrahan, the Wright, and the Gilliams were keenly interested in creating a permanent Catholic presence. On May 30, 1905, Father L.F. Kelly, a priest from Saint Vincent de Paul Church in Newport News, traveled to Williamsburg by horse and buggy to baptize children, perform marriages, and celebrate Mass in an outdoor area at Eastern State Hospital Grounds where the DeWitt Wallace Museum stands today. By 1908, Father Joseph Fioli said Mass monthly at Cameron Hall on the grounds of Eastern State Hospital. After Mass, the women of the community sold baked goods and handmade items to raise money to build a Catholic Church. The small amount of money that was raised, was held by Richard Gilliam, who was a Justice of the Peace.

By October 1928, Reverend Gregory Eichenlaub, O.S.B., of the Monastery of Saint Benedict in Richmond, celebrated weekly Sunday Masses in Rogers 101, a room in the Chemistry lab that the College made available. Catholics in Williamsburg attended Mass and formed part of this new congregation. In the same year, John D. Rockefeller established the Williamsburg Restoration Foundation. The builders and craftsmen who the Foundation brought to Williamsburg swelled the ranks of Catholics in the area and provided the men and women who would ultimately build Saint Bede Catholic Church.
 
A bequest to the Diocese by Miss Margaret Burns provided Bishop Andrew Brennan of Richmond with funds to build a Catholic Chapel at the College which he consecrated in October 1932. The Burns bequest of $25,000 was augmented by the monies raised by the community and conserved by Justice of the Peace. Gilliam. for nearly thirty years. The Chapel was dedicated as a memorial chapel to the Venerable Saint Bede (673-735 AD), an English Benedictine monk, scholar, and doctor of the Church.  Built on the supposed spot of the Spanish Chapel of Saint Michael, it was consecrated as holy ground eighty-one years before the English settled at Jamestown.
The Bishop officially formed Saint Bede Catholic Church as a parish of the Diocese of Richmond with Father Thomas J. Walsh as its first resident pastor in 1939. On Father Walsh’s inspiration, the College Chapel was dedicated as a National American Shrine to Our Lady of Walsingham on February 1, 1942; this designation was confirmed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in a letter to Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo dated March 30, 2016.

The parish of Saint Bede grew rapidly, and the College Chapel which was built in 1923 was thrice enlarged. From its root grew the parish churches of Saint Joan of Arc in Yorktown and Saint Olaf in Norge and, in 1947, the Walsingham Academy which is operated by the Sisters of Mercy. By the mid-1990s, the College Chapel had become too small for the growing Catholic population in Williamsburg.

In 2000, construction began on a new church built on 43 acres of land donated by Mary Dick and John Digges on Ironbound Road in Williamsburg. The “New” Saint Bede was dedicated on May 31, 2003, by Bishop Walter Sullivan and Monsignor William Carr.

The two campuses generated numerous outreach ministries, including to the Hispanic and Filipino communities, to the homebound, to those in prison, to the poor in need of food and lodging through the Williamsburg House of Mercy, to pregnant mothers through the Hope Pregnancy Care Center, and for faith formation programs for adults, youth and students at the College.  The parish offices, and faith formation programs for children, adults, and youth were consolidated in the DiLoreto Administrative Wing and Kaplan Parish Hall provides a home for parishioners to build community on the Ironbound campus. The annex was dedicated on March 26, 2017, by Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo and Monsignor Timothy E. Keeney.