Saint George Roman Catholic Lithuanian Church was incorporated in Rochester, New York on January 23, 1908 and was the main gathering place for the Lithuanian community of all of western New York state, including of Buffalo, New York, which did not have a Lithuanian church. The centennial celebrations took place on October 10–12, 2008.
Founding
Lithuanians began to emigrate to the United States at the end of the 19th century. There is no precise data about the first Lithuanians in Rochester. Antanas Sabalis in his 1983 book about St. George's Roman Catholic Lithuanian Parish and the Rochester Lithuanians quotes Mykolas Ventis remembering that the first Lithuanians came to Rochester about 1890. By the end of 1905, there were some 400 Lithuanians in Rochester, many of them young men having escaped the hardships of the coal mines of Pennsylvania. Visiting Lithuanian priests from other cities held Mass in Lithuanian in the Holy Redeemer Church or the parish's Concordia Hall. German Pastor Jacob Staub encouraged local Lithuanian men to seek a permanent Lithuanian priest. Before the Easter in 1905, they invited Father Kazimieras Urbonavičius to come. To appear more favorably, they also organized the Saints Peter and Paul Society with 28 initial members.
It was at the September 9, 1906, meeting of the Saints Peter and Paul Society that Adomas Butrimas proposed the idea of establishing a Lithuanian Roman Catholic Parish. All 200 members in attendance agreed. At the October 14 meeting of the Saints Peter and Paul Society, 134 members pledged their support and decided that members would go house-to-house collecting funds for the new parish. At the next meeting on November 13, the members settled on the name of Saint George, the Martyr, for their new parish. At the October 14 meeting 461 potential parishioners were enrolled; by April 1909 there were 690.
On January 23, 1908, St. George's Roman Catholic Church (Lithuanians) was incorporated.
Building construction
At the April 14, 1907, parish meeting the committee to oversee the construction of the church and parish hall was named. Their proposal to buy the vacant land between Hudson, Weeger, and Dudley Streets was readily accepted. Each person at the meeting pledged an initial 25 dollar donation. At the March 8, 1908, parish meeting $25,000 dollars were allocated to build a stone church. Although at first there were many stumbling blocks because of the hard financial situation of the time, Bishop Thomas Hickey dedicated the new church-hall-school building, costing about $18,000, on December 11, 1910.
The success of the building project was in most part due to the energy of Father Juozas Kasakaitis, who became the first pastor of St. George Church after finishing his studies at Saint Bernard's Seminary in spring 1910. In 1925 a two-story rectory was finished. By January 1927, it became clear to all members that the parish was ready to build a church which would be separate from the hall and school. When Pastor Kasakaitis died in 1930, the new Pastor, Jonas Bakšys, took on the building project of the new church. Finally, on August 11, 1935, the new church, built to seat 400 members, was dedicated with great celebrations by Archbishop Edward Mooney and Bishop Teofilius Matulionis. The old church was converted to a parish hall and opened with a concert and play on November 17, 1935.
Parish school
In 1929 a primary school was opened to house four grades. Father Jonas Baksys later expanded it to eight grades and invited Lithuanian Franciscan Sisters from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to staff it. The parish built them a convent on the church grounds. By 1930 the school had grown to 164 students, and the first graduating class included the present Pastor of Saint George, Father Dominic Mockevičius. The school closed in 1965.