Most Blessed Sacrament Church

From WakWiki

Most Blessed Sacrament Church

The small Greenwood congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church worked tirelessly at their beginning in 1909 to raise enough money to build a chapel of their own. Their first meetings and services where held on the top floor of the local fire station and the first mass was said by Father John Colbert, Pastor of St. Joseph’s church at the time.

It was not until seventeen years later that the Chapel was finished on Main Street, but shortly after Father Florence Halloran consecrated the chapel and celebrated its first Mass on January 1, 1927. Until 1931, the Chapel was a “mission” church of St. Joseph’s once a new parish was declared which included parts of Melrose and Saugus, they were declared independent. In 1938 the Parish was expanded to include 284 houses, and it reached its present size in 1958.

A number of changes both in structure and services came about during their years of transformation. In the early 1940’s the small Chapel began to look more like a Church when a rectory and “wings” were added to the exterior. In 1945 the Most Blessed Sacrament’s Women’s Guild came about, a current charitable group, a “Family Liturgy” group began, the Youth program was re-established, and in 1983 a Parish Planning Committee began by Associate Pastor Father Joseph A. Ruggeri, took on responsibilities of various important events within the Parish. The 1980’s also brought about other charitable services such as the “Giving Tree” during the Lenten season and trips to “My Brother’s Table” in Lynn.

Today the Parish expands to over 2000 households and since 1931 has been under the direction of six pastors, including Father William D. Coughlin, well-known for his service to Wakefield.