The Roman Catholic Church in Vienna

During the coal boom at the end of the Civil War (1861-1865) and subsequent mining in Vienna Township throughout the rest of the nineteenth century, a small Roman Catholic Church was erected and sat on two acres of land on the Job J. Holliday farm east of Vienna Center. Holliday sold the land to the diocese of the Catholic Church in Cleveland, Ohio. Other Catholic churches were built in other nearby townships where coal had been discovered, answering the need for churches and schools to serve the miners and their families.

Vienna’s Roman Catholic Church was organized under the direction of Reverend J.T. Schaffeld and dedicated by Bishop Richard Gilmore of the Cleveland Diocese on June 24, 1878. As the coal mines closed, however, the miners left. The mission was officially closed in 1902, and the property was sold to the Grange of Vienna. The Warren Tribune Chronicle reminisced on April 28, 1967, that people left Vienna like animals fleeing a forest fire. Indeed, over one hundred miners’ cabins were moved to Girard. Not until thirty years later would a sufficient number of Catholics settle in Vienna to warrant a church.

For the reestablishment of the Catholic congregation in Vienna, visit St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church.