History of St. Margaret Mary Mission Church

The Saint Margaret Mary Mission Church grew out of a community of Catholic Irish immigrants that came to the area to build the railroad in the late 1840’s. The descendants of these Irish immigrants were the only cradle Catholics when the church was built. The other members of the original community were those brought into the Church through the efforts of the Paulist Fathers, who came to evangelize this part of Tennessee.

The Paulists were the first Catholic religious society of consecrated life to be founded in the United States. Isaac Thomas Hecker, Transcendentalist associate of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and the Alcotts, became a Catholic in 1844 and a priest in 1849. He founded the Paulists to be a community of evangelists whose mission would be to proclaim Jesus Christ in the Catholic way of life. Paulist Society started doing mission work in Tennessee in 1900. Based in Winchester, missionaries would travel throughout the state, first on horseback and later in their famous “trailer mission” revivals. They would preach the love of Christ from the pulpit while inviting people to conversion to holiness and greater participation in the Church. In Alto, Father James F. Cunningham and Father Thomas Holloran held their first trailer mission on the school grounds in October 1937. There was a large attendance. This trailer mission and subsequent evangelization efforts were fruitful in spreading the Catholic faith in our area.

Mass was soon being said every Sunday in a parishioner’s home and Father Cunningham began making plans to build a church. Construction was started in July 1938 on land donated by Alf Garner. The church was named Saint Margaret Mary after the patron saint of the chief benefactor of the church. The Paulist priests served the Good Shepherd and St. Margaret Mary community until they moved away in 1958.

St. Margaret Mary Mission Church is an integral part of Good Shepherd Parish.

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