On March 25, 1634, over 140 European settlers arrived at St. Clements Island, within the jurisdiction of our parish, and Father Andrew White, S.J., celebrated the first recorded Catholic Mass in the original 13 English-speaking colonies for the Solemnity of the Annunciation.
Father Andrew White established a mission at White’s Neck within a few miles of Holy Angels Church. Edwin W. Beitzell, one of our late parishioners and a renowned local historian, found in the archives of Woodstock College of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, a very old record book that contains a list of early Jesuit Missionaries in Maryland. On this list the following cryptic notation faded by time and barely decipherable is found: “Father White can in twice. Had a chappel at White’s Neck without a house.”
In 1770, we became a mission parish of the Sacred Heart Church with Mass celebrated in private homes. On October 2, 1904, the first Mass was held in the new Holy Angels chapel. Two years later, it was canonically established as a parish in the Archdiocese of Baltimore on October 2, 1906 – the Feast of the Guardian Angels. In 1962, the present Holy Angels Church was built on the east side of Route 242, across the road from the first chapel and school. By this time, the parish now belonged to the Archdiocese of Washington, and Patrick Cardinal O'Boyle, the Archbishop, dedicated the new church on September 9, 1962.
Rev. Francis Lenahan, S.J., 1904
Rev. Lawrence J. Kelly, S.J., 1908
Rev. Michael Hogan, S.J., 1912
Rev. William F. Cunningham, S.J., 1913
Rev. John D. Butler, S.J., 1917
Rev. John J. Bolster, S.J., 1922
Rev. Thomas I. Cryan, S.J., 1923
Rev. Bernard H. Pohlman, S.J., 1925
Rev. John H. McClosky, S.J., 1932
Rev. Samuel J. Robb, S.J., 1933
Rev. Joseph F. McAree, S.J., 1934
Rev. Edward N. Herbert, S.J., 1939
Rev. Charles J. McBride, S.J., 1943
Rev. Joseph N. Behr, S.J., 1949
Rev. Francis R. Scherer, S.J., 1955
Rev. Charles W. Davis, 1965
Rev. Msgr. Richard A. Hughes, 1966
Rev. Msgr. John J. Madigan, 1968
Rev. Peter R. Alliata, 1974
Rev. Msgr. Francis J. Veith, 1977
Rev. Msgr. Aloysius E. O'Connor, 1980
Rev. Saverio T. Vitturino, 1988
Rev. Msgr. John B. Brady, 1994
Rev. John M. Barry, 2005
Rev. William H. Gurnee, III, 2007
Rev. Michael E. Tietjen, 2011
Rev. Charles A. Cortinovis, 2013
Very Rev. Anthony E. Lickteig, 2015
Rev. Samuel I. Plummer, 2018
Rev. Stephen P. Wyble, 2020
Rev. Kevin A. Fields, 2023
Deacon William L. Kemp, 2000-2005
Deacon Joseph W. Lloyd, Jr., 2008-Present