St. Columba ParishEvery parish is a story of people who decided that a church belonged where they lived. At St. Columba the story begins in the years after the Second World War, when East York's market gardens were giving way to streets of new brick houses and the families moving into them, many of them fresh off the boat from Cork, Calabria and Kerry, had a long walk to the nearest Catholic church. What follows is the short version. The long version lives in the memories of our older parishioners, and we are collecting it.
Timeline
A parish is founded
The Archbishop of Toronto established St. Columba Parish on September 12, 1954, carving it out of the territory of two older parishes. The first pastor, Fr. Michael Brennan, celebrated the first Mass on the following Sunday in the rented Orange Hall on Pape Avenue, an irony the Irish founders enjoyed for years. About 180 families registered in the first month.
The parish hall
Land on Columba Avenue was purchased and a plain cinder-block hall went up, built largely by volunteers on Saturdays. It served as church, school gym and social centre for five years, with Mass at the front and bingo at the back on Fridays.
The church is dedicated
The present church, designed in a modern Gothic style with a 32-metre bell tower, was dedicated on May 21, 1961. Parishioners paid for it with a building campaign that took seven years to retire; the Italian community donated the marble altar, and the Catholic Women's League furnished the sacristy.
Portuguese and Italian growth
Immigration from the Azores and southern Italy changed the neighbourhood, and the parish with it. Sunday Mass in Italian began in 1972, and a Portuguese-speaking assistant priest arrived in 1976. The feast of Our Lady of Fátima procession, still held each May, dates from these years.
Thirtieth anniversary
The church was repainted, the pipe organ installed, and the parish choir formally founded under its first director. The St. Vincent de Paul conference opened its food cupboard in the hall basement.
Filipino and Spanish communities
Newcomers from the Philippines, Colombia, El Salvador and Peru made the parish home. Mass in Tagalog began in 1993 and in Spanish in 1997. The Legion of Mary and the Simbang Gabi novena before Christmas both trace their beginnings here to this decade.
Golden jubilee renovation
For the fiftieth anniversary the sanctuary was reordered, the roof replaced and the stained glass restored. The Archbishop celebrated the jubilee Mass on September 12, 2004, exactly fifty years after the founding.
Accessibility project
A $1.4 million campaign funded the east-side accessible entrance, an elevator to the hall, accessible washrooms and a hearing loop, making every part of the parish available to every parishioner. Fr. Daniel Moreau arrived as pastor the same summer.
The pandemic
With the church closed for long stretches, the parish learned to livestream Mass, deliver groceries to seniors and run Confirmation classes online. The livestream continues every Sunday at 11:00 AM.
Seventieth anniversary
Seventy years to the day after the first Mass, the parish gathered for a bilingual anniversary Mass, a photo exhibition in the hall and a dinner that sold out its 220 seats in a week. A Tamil community, the sixth language group, was formally welcomed the same year.
The church building
The church seats 540 and was built in a restrained modern Gothic style typical of Toronto parishes of the early 1960s: a tall brick nave, a narrow bell tower, and clear light from high windows. The three bells were cast in 1961 and are named for the founding pastor's parents and for St. Columba himself.
The stained glass, installed in stages between 1961 and 1974, tells the life of Christ down the north aisle and the lives of saints of the parish's founding nations down the south: Patrick, Brigid, Francis of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, Columba. A window of Our Lady of Fátima was added by the Portuguese community in 1980, and one of San Lorenzo Ruiz by the Filipino community in 2004.
Pastors of St. Columba
| Years | Pastor | Remembered for |
|---|---|---|
| 1954–1968 | Rev. Michael Brennan | Founding the parish and building the church |
| 1968–1981 | Rev. Anthony Di Salvo | Welcoming the Italian and Portuguese communities |
| 1981–1995 | Rev. Gerald Walsh | The organ, the choir and the food cupboard |
| 1995–2008 | Rev. Ramon Santos | Masses in Tagalog and Spanish; the golden jubilee |
| 2008–2019 | Rev. Kevin O'Reilly | Youth ministry and the accessibility campaign |
| 2019–present | Rev. Daniel Moreau | The livestream, the 70th anniversary and the pastoral plan |
Help us keep the story
Parish archive project
We are gathering photographs, bulletins, wedding programs and memories from the parish's first decades. If you have a shoebox of pictures from a First Communion in 1965 or the hall's opening in 1956, we would love to scan them and give them back the same day. Contact the office at 416-555-0142 or office@stcolumbatoronto.ca. Selected images appear in the photo gallery.
The parish's sacramental registers, which go back to the first baptism in October 1954, are kept in the office. If you need a baptism, confirmation or marriage certificate, see Questions & Answers for how to request one.