Church of Saint Francis Xavier, Liverpool

St Francis Xavier's Church
Church of Saint Francis Xavier, Liverpool
St Francis Xavier's Church Location in Liverpool
Coordinates: 53°24′48″N 2°58′11″W / 53.4132°N 2.9698°W / 53.4132; -2.9698
OS grid reference	SJ356911
Location	Salisbury Street, Everton, Liverpool
Country	England
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Website	http://www.sfxchurchliverpool.com
History
Dedication	St Francis Xavier
Architecture
Status	Parish church
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Designated	28 June 1952
Architect(s)	Joseph John Scoles, Edmund Kirby
Style	Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking	1842
Completed	1887
Administration
Deanery	Liverpool North
Diocese	Liverpool
Province	Liverpool

St Francis Xavier's Church is a Roman Catholic church in Salisbury Street, Everton, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. It is an active parish church in the Archdiocese of Liverpool and the Pastoral Area of Liverpool North. It is staffed by the Society of Jesus.

The Jesuits (members of the Society of Jesus), who staff St Francis Xavier's church have had a presence in Liverpool since the late sixteenth century.

In 1840 the laymen who formed the Society of St Francis Xavier decided at a meeting in the Rose and Crown pub, Cheapside, that, as the numbers of Roman Catholics in Liverpool was growing rapidly, a new church was needed. The foundation stone was laid in 1842 and Joseph John Scoles was appointed as architect. Scoles went on to design the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street in London, St Ignatius Church in Preston and was the father of Ignatius Scoles SJ, who designed St Wilfrid's Church also in Preston. The church opened on 4 December 1848. The spire was added in 1883. The church had been designed to hold 1,000 people but this proved to be insufficient for the congregation and in 1888 an additional chapel, the Sodality Chapel which had been designed by Edmund Kirby, was opened. In 1898 the wall dividing the Sodality Chapel from the main part of the church was demolished.