Blessed Sacrament Church (New Rochelle, New York)

Church of the Blessed Sacrament
June 2016 view of the church
40°54′21.8″N 73°47′0.2″W / 40.906056°N 73.783389°W / 40.906056; -73.783389Coordinates: 40°54′21.8″N 73°47′0.2″W / 40.906056°N 73.783389°W / 40.906056; -73.783389
Location	15 Shea Place, New Rochelle, New York
Country	United States
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Website	Blessed Sacrament Church
History
Founded	1874
Dedication	Blessed Sacrament
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Style	Gothic Revival
Completed	1897
Administration
Archdiocese	Archdiocese of New York

The Church of the Blessed Sacrament is a Roman Catholic parish located in New Rochelle, New York. Blessed Sacrament was founded in 1874 and its present-day church building was constructed in 1897. Its predecessor, St. Matthew's Church, was founded in 1848. Blessed Sacrament Church is listed as a New Rochelle Historic Site.

As of 1998^[update], the church served 2,000 families. It educated students in the Blessed Sacrament School until a 1985 merger with St. Gabriel's High School to form Blessed Sacrament-St. Gabriel High School, which closed in 2013. Blessed Sacrament Church also serves four local nursing homes and maintains Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.

The first Catholic to settle in the hamlet of New Rochelle was Bernard Rooney in 1826. The first Catholic mass in the New Rochelle-area was celebrated in 1836 by Rev. Eugene Cummiskey at the house of George Govers on Huguenot Street near Memorial Highway. With greater numbers of Catholics settling, Irish priest Fr. Matthew Higgins from St. Raymond's Church in the Bronx petitioned Archbishop Hughes to establish a church in New Rochelle in 1845. Archbishop Hughes agreed and purchased land on Drake Avenue, in the middle of the largest settlement of Irish immigrants in New Rochelle. In 1848, the church was constructed and named St. Matthew's Church in honor of Fr. Higgins. Fr. Edward O'Reilly was assigned in 1849 as the parish's first pastor. Four years later, Fr. Thomas McLoughlin succeeded Fr. O'Reilly as pastor and opened St. Matthew's Academy, the first Catholic school in New Rochelle, which was staffed by the Sisters of Charity, though it remained open for only one year. To accommodate more parishioners, the church was expanded in 1851. Blessed Sacrament began in 1853 a mission to Tuckahoe, which eventually became the Immaculate Conception Church.