THE STORY OF ST. ANASTASIA CHURCH

The story of St. Anastasia Church begins with the first Catholic residents. Thomas O'Brien, an Irish immigrant, came to Ft. Pierce in 1879 and worked as a clerk in Capt. Benjamin Hogg's newly opened general store.  The store was later purchased by Peter Cobb, at which time O'Brien entered the fishing business with another local gentleman named Ransom R. Ricou.  O'Brien later married Courtney Raulerson, the daughter of a successful cattleman, and he became a leader in the local Catholic community.  On February 2, 1901, T.J. O'Brien's signature was among fifty-three people who acted to incorporate the city of Ft. Pierce.  He was also a member of the first grand jury and a stockholder of the local ice factory.

The first Catholic Mass in Ft. Pierce was celebrated at the O'Brien home (west of 10 Street and South of Orange Avenue) in 1903.  By that time the Catholic community had grown beyond the O'Brien and Ricou families.  In 1906, the Reverend Michael J. Curley, pastor of St. Peters in Deland, began to make bi-monthly visits to Ft. Pierce.  His work here included saying Mass, instructing the children, and preaching in the City Hall.  Fr. Patrick J. Bresnahan was another priest who served the people of the area by conducting two missions in Ft. Pierce in 1906. Fr. Bresnahan also officiated at the first Catholic baptism, that of Sam Wilbur Head, on January 7, 1906.

Senator James P. McNichol, a Catholic statesman from Philadelphia and a winter visitor, was the first benefactor of the Catholic community of Ft. Pierce.  McNichol purchased a block of land on the western edge of the city and donated it for the construction of a church, rectory and school.  The wood frame church was begun in 1908 and seated 125.  The parish was named St. Anastasia, in honor of the patron saint of McNichols's deceased first wife, Anastasia.

On December 4, 1910, almost two years after the construction of St. Anastasia's Church, Fr. Rupert Gabriel arrived to become the parish's first pastor.  He was well liked by Catholics and Protestants alike.

St. Anastasia's two story school was built next to the church in 1914 and a convent was built to house Dominican sisters who would come in 1926 to teach.  When the first chuch became infested with termites it had to be torn down,  A larger church was built on the site of the original St. Anastasia. On Christmas in 1924, the first Mass was said in the new church building.