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St. Ann to celebrate 140th
A Baltimore church famous for its establishment after a sailor’s near-tragedy at sea will celebrate its 140th anniversary on Sunday.
The St. Ann Roman Catholic Church, located at Greenmount Avenue and 22nd Street, will commemorate its founding at the 10 a.m. mass Sunday followed by a reception in the parish hall.
The stately church marked by a large steeple visible through much of northeast Baltimore was built by Captain William Kennedy. He had vowed while during a brutal storm in 1833 off the coast of Vera Cruz to build a church in gratitude to God if he and his crew survived.
Upon his safe return to Baltimore, Captain Kennedy and his wife, Mary Ann Jenkins, bought property in the city for the future church, and named it after Saint Ann, a patron saint of sailors.
He placed the large steel anchor of his vessel, The Wanderer, in front of the church as a beacon to his faith, where it stands today.
The church’s website says the “cornerstone was laid in 1873, the same year Captain Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy died. Although neither of them lived to see the church completed, they are both buried under the main aisle of Saint Ann Church.”
