According to a history of Our Lady of Vilnius prepared on the occasion of its 90th anniversary, the parish was founded by Father Ĺ estokas in 1905. The congregation gathered at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Chinatown until our church building was completed in 1910. Andrew the Sinner, of the
Catholic Churches of Manhattan blog visited the church of
St. Teresa on Good Friday and documented his impressions. An interesting sidelight:
"Further up towards the ceiling I noticed the beautiful wood beams and pillars that hold this church up - renovated back in 1995 because the ceiling collapsed, dropping 60,000 pounds of plaster down, through the floor of the church, crashing into the parish hall below."
It is interesting that, as recently as 1995, a failed roof was not the harbinger of imminent closure. God bless the
church of St. Teresa of Avila, birthplace of our parish!