Our Lady of the Dolores - Birmingham

Origin and history

La parroquia de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores (Our Lady of Sorrows) es la segunda parroquia católica más antigua de Birmingham, Alabama. Fue fundada en 1887 por el padre James A. Meurer, enviado por el obispo Jeremiah O’Sullivan para atender pastoralmente a la comunidad de trabajadores de habla alemana que se asentaba en la ciudad minera e industrial en rápida expansión. El nombre de la parroquia remite a la fiesta de los Siete Dolores de la Virgen María, celebrada por la Iglesia universal el 15 de septiembre.

The first temple, a small wooden church erected in 1889, was destroyed by a fire in March 1949. The community moved to the neighboring municipality of Homewood, where on 25 December 1959 the first mass was held in the current building, designed by the Burmese architect Charles McCauley and solemnly dedicated on 17 January 1960.

The image and the temple

The image of Our Lady of the Dolores presides over the main altar of the present church. In 1991, Bishop Raymond J. Boland consecrated a series of historical windows designed by the Betti Studio in Evanston, Illinois, which narrate the life of Mary and the saints; the dedication ceremony took place precisely on September 15, the feast of Our Lady of the Dolores, in a decision filled with symbolism.

The church organ, manufactured in 1985 by Kenneth Jones in Dublin (Ireland), complements a quality liturgy recognized in the Diocese of Birmingham. The parish also has the Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School, one of the most entrenched parish schools in the region.

Link to the Rosary

The devotion to the Dolores of Mary is intrinsically linked to the meditation of the Rosary, whose painful mysteries go through the same moments of suffering of the Mother of God: the Agony in the Garden, the Flagellation, the Coronation of Spines, the Calvary Road and the Crucifixion. The foundation of this parish in Birmingham in 1887 continued the tradition of the Servants of Mary (Servants), which spread the advocation of the Seven Dolores throughout the world from the 13th century, although Father Meurer did not belong to any religious order.