Holy Trinity is unique among the Roman Catholic parishes of the nation’s capital.  A church that has numbered slaves and presidents alike as parishioners over its history, it has been an integral part of the story of Washington, DC.

The first church (the building just renovated as the Chapel of Saint Ignatius Loyola) was completed in 1794, with Father Francis Neale, S.J., one of four brothers of an old Maryland family, its first pastor.  Father Neale’s parish covered what is now Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland as well as the present District of Columbia, extending south to Alexandria, Virginia.  From its inception Holy Trinity had a close association with Georgetown College, with Sunday Mass at Trinity obligatory for all of the College’s boarding students who regularly marched from campus to the church.   That close association continues to this day.

Holy Trinity has played an important role in the development of Catholicism in America.  When the parish was founded, eighty percent of the Catholics in English-speaking America lived in Maryland.  Over the decades after its founding, the parish's influence was felt far and wide.  The second pastor of Holy Trinity, Benedict J. Fenwick, S.J., became the second Bishop of Boston and founded Holy Cross College.   A later pastor, John McElroy, S.J., founded Boston College.  The first bishop of Cincinnati was a parishioner of Holy Trinity.  In the immediate area, Jesuits from Holy Trinity founded Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC and Old Saint Mary's Church in Alexandria, Virginia.  The first mayor of Washington was a parishioner, and President John F. Kennedy and his family frequently worshiped at Holy Trinity.

The first contribution for a second and larger church came only 35 years after the construction of the first.  The cornerstone of the new church was laid in 1849.  In 1851 the Greco-Roman adaptation that is today’s Holy Trinity main Church was dedicated by Bishop Armand Charbonnel of Toronto, followed 18 years later by the construction of the rectory building next to the church on 36^th Street.  It continues as today’s rectory, having survived a move around the “O” Street corner to its present location.

In 1862, following the Second Bull Run battle, government forces requisitioned the Church for hospital use, with temporary flooring laid on top of the pews and the Sanctuary used for surgical procedures.  In the course of 3 months, some 220 sick and wounded Union soldiers were treated at the church-hospital.  The District Military Headquarters returned the church to its owners in 1863; eleven years later the federal government reimbursed Holy Trinity $350 for the use of its church.

Towards the close of the 19^th century, Holy Trinity’s first census revealed a congregation of approximately 2,000 parishioners.  Today, over 3,500 households are registered in the parish representing, as in earlier times, the District of Columbia, Northern Virginia, and suburban Maryland.

From its inception, the Jesuits have been associated with Holy Trinity Parish.  It has profited greatly from their tradition of intellectual excellence in its schools and spiritual life.  That tradition continues today with the rich variety of liturgies, inspiring preaching, stimulating educational programs, and outstanding community action/social justice programs.

Adapted from material in William Warner’s At Peace With All Their Neighbors: Catholics and Catholicism in the Nation's Capital, 1787-1860 (Georgetown University Press, 1994).