From 1909 to his death in 1916, St. Patrick's was ministered by the renowned
Father Albert Lacombe, pioneer missionary who built churches, schools and care homes in Alberta, ministering to natives and settlers alike. In fact, part of the
Lacombe Home, built by the Father, still stands to the east of St. Patrick's. The first service in St. Patrick's Church took place on August 14, 1904, with
Father Joseph Jean-Marie Lestanc at the pulpit. The church was officially blessed one month later, on September 11, 1904, with 60 parishioners in attendance.
In 1903, [Father Joseph] proposed the construction of a church at Fish Creek, which was now named Midnapore. Land for a church was offered by one of the local homesteaders named Patrick Glenn, son of John Glenn who, despite being Catholic, had donated the land for St. Paul's Anglican Church 18 years earlier. Patrick had become one of the staunch supporters of the Oblate cause and frequently accommodated Father Lestanc at his home.
Fundraising for the new church soon began, and, with volunteer labour, construction soon followed. A local stonemason named Jim Stevens built the foundation, while a local carpenter named Thomas Patton directed work on the wood frame church building. On 14 August 1904, Father Lestanc conducted the first service in St. Patrick's Church. On 11 September, with 60 parishioners in attendance, the Church was officially blessed. Details such as interior panelling and painting soon followed.
From the Alberta Heritage Register
Given that it was well out in the country when built, St. Patrick's has a cemetery, the neighbouring St. Paul's being somewhat larger than that of St. Patrick's, which is partially surrounded by hedges behind the church.
Find A Grave lists 105 headstones or interments in the cemetery to date. With a relatively new and sizeable columbarium and recent burials, we believe the cemetery to still be in use. Its first known interment took place well after the construction of the church, in 1922, that of Emma A. Evans, born 1868, died 1922. The cemetery is now owned by, and managed by, Mountain View Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home.
The Catholics vacated the church in 1983, as well as the cemetery. What is known about the church and cemetery at present follows. An Alberta Historic Resource, it is now the oldest surviving Catholic church in Calgary.
The 75-seat church building continued to serve the parish until 1983 when the congregation moved into a new and larger church building. In the early 1990s the land on which the church sits and the cemetery around it were sold to Mountain View Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home with the agreement was that the Catholic diocese would move or demolish the church. The diocese applied for a demolition permit in 2000, but that process was stopped when the province declared the church a Provincial Historic Resource in 2001. Beginning in the late 1990s, a group trying to protect and preserve St. Patrick’s repeatedly tried to gain the support of the Catholic Diocese for their aims. The Old St. Patrick’s Preservation Society, a registered non-profit group, was formed in 2006 with the purpose of restoring and preserving the church. Their efforts have been made more difficult by the slow movement of the Catholic Diocese and the undisclosed intentions of Mountain View Memorial Gardens. As yet no structural assessment study has been done on the building, but vandalism is evident and the possibility of fire threatens the building’s survival.
Where things stand
Since 2012, the church has been occupied by an Orthodox community and it is being restored and renovated. The original old bell has even been reinstalled and fire-damaged woodwork replaced. There is a new roof, and efforts are underway to repair and replace siding. It has been described as a successful "revival of the building."
From the National Trust For Canada
Continuing on the above, the building appears presently to be the home of
Saint John Chrysostom Russian Orthodox Church, which was founded in 2005.