SHREWSBURY 鈥 The Catholic parish formed by the merger of four parishes in north St. Louis will be named for St. Peter Claver.
The combined parish of Our Lady of the Holy Cross, St. Augustine, St. Elizabeth Mother of John the Baptist and St. Matthew the Apostle will be renamed on Monday, St. Claver鈥檚 feast day, according to the Archdiocese of St. Louis.
Claver was a Jesuit priest who baptized and ministered to more than 300,000 enslaved Africans upon their arrival in South America in the 1600s. The namesake was chosen by parishioners out of dozens of candidates.
The next step for St. Claver parish is to determine a primary worship site. Each of the four churches will host site visits in the next few weeks for parishioners and leaders to determine the advantages of each campus, according to the parish鈥檚 . The weekly Masses have rotated among the churches since the merger was announced in May 2023 as part of the 鈥淎ll Things New鈥 downsizing plan. The reorganization amid declining numbers of Catholics and priests resulted in the closures or mergers of 50 of 178 parishes across the archdiocese.
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Parishioners of St. Matthew the Apostle learned in July that their appeal of the closure was denied by a Vatican court, a decision that prompted the naming process for the merger.
Three other merged Catholic parishes in north St. Louis received a new name nearly a year ago. Most Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas and Sts. Teresa and Bridget are now known as St. Josephine Bakhita parish.
A new name is also in the works for a south St. Louis parish formed by the merger of Our Lady of Sorrows, St. Mary Magdalen and St. Joan of Arc. Parishioners will vote on a new name in the next month to send to Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski for approval.
An appeal to save Our Lady of Sorrows was also rejected by the Vatican court. The court has not released decisions on the appeals for the parish closures of St. Bernadette in south St. Louis County and St. Agnes and St. Lawrence in Ste. Genevieve County.
The court previously upheld Rozanski鈥檚 decrees to close the six parishes Blessed Teresa of Calcutta in Ferguson; St. Barnabas in O鈥橣allon, Missouri; St. Catherine of Alexandria in Ste. Genevieve County; St. Francis of Assisi and St. Paul in Franklin County and St. Roch in St. Louis.
The court overturned the closures of parishes St. Angela Merici near Florissant, St. Martin of Tours in Lemay and St. Richard in Creve Coeur, allowing them to remain open. St. Angela Merici had been slated to merge with St. Norbert and Holy Name of Jesus in north St. Louis County but the three now remain separate and are served by the same pastor.
Three closed parishes 鈥 St. Barnabas, St. Paul and St. Roch 鈥 have appealed the lower court鈥檚 decision to the Vatican supreme court in a final attempt to keep the parishes open.