St. Philip Neri's Church (Bronx, New York)

The Church of Philip Neri
Photographed in 2005
General information
Architectural style	Gothic Revival
Town or city	Bedford Park, Bronx, New York City, New York
Country	United States
Construction started	1899 (for church)
Completed	1900 (for church) 1907 (church enlarged)
Client	Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York
Technical details
Structural system	Masonry stone

The Church of St. Philip Neri is a Roman Catholic parish church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located on the west side of the Grand Concourse at East 202nd Street, Bedford Park, Bronx, New York City.

The parish was established for around 1,200 Italian laborers in April 1898 by the Rev. Daniel Burke, D.D., who were constructing the nearby Jerome Park Reservoir. The parish was established

The Church of St. Philip Neri was founded in 1898 in the Bedford Park area of the Bronx. In the same year the cornerstone was laid for the present church; the neo-Gothic building of stone was completed in 1899 and dedicated in May 1900. Its first parishioners were Italian immigrants; the men worked on the Jerome Park Reservoir project and built the church with stone they quarried at the reservoir and hauled to the church site after work. Later the congregation was largely Irish. Both groups still are represented, along with large numbers of Hispanic and Asian members as well as African-Americans.

In the early morning of December 4, 1912, a fire broke out in the library and meeting room located in the basement. After a passer-by rang the bell of the adjoining rectory, two priests hurriedly dressed and rushed into the church, saving the Host and Chalice at the altar, and vestments from the vestry. Firemen succeeded in saving a costly stained glass window in the rear of the church, and also managed to remove several pieces of statuary, but the altar was entirely destroyed.

On the evening of June 15, 1997, another major fire, believed to have started in the sacristy, devastated the century-old church. Although the fire was later determined to be unsuspicious, it nonetheless burned the slate roof and gutted the sanctuary. The organ and its pipes were ruined, and the painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, donated to the Hispanic parishioners who succeeded the parish's Italian and Irish immigrants, was lost. Not destroyed were the 14 paintings of the Stations of the Cross that were out for restoration.

The congregation was determined to rebuild their church exactly as before, but with a few improvements: the original high ceiling, covered in a previous renovation, was opened, and new stained-glass dormer windows were installed in the roof, depicting the Holy Family, SS. Peter and Paul and the life of St. Philip Neri. The baptistry on the right side of the sanctuary has a font and an immersion pool. Along with the outer church walls, the original stained-glass windows were saved, and the marble reredos, the pulpit, and statues were restored. After several years of reconstruction, the rebuilt 650-seat church was dedicated on January 6, 2002 by Edward Cardinal Egan.