Holy Name began as a faith community of twenty Catholic families,
most of whom gained their livelihood as Louisville and Nashville
Railroad workers. The first Mass was celebrated in the rectory on March
1, 1891. By May, a beautiful, frame Gothic church was completed. The
parish grew so rapidly that within two years Father John T. O’Connor,
the first pastor, had to build an addition, doubling the seating from
160 to 320. With the transfer of the freight terminal of the Louisville
and Nashville Railroad to South Louisville, the parish surged in
membership.
By 1902, a combination church-school building was constructed. As the
school grew, plans developed to build a permanent church structure;
completed in 1912, it remains today.
From then on, the parish developed, among other things, a parochial
mega-school, a musical establishment consisting of the Holy Name Band
and choral clubs, the city-wide Corpus Christi observance, an
influential Holy Name Society, a powerful St. Vincent de Paul ministry
and the “backside,” or barn-area ministry at Churchill Downs. The parish
gave birth to Most Blessed Sacrament (1937), Our Mother of Sorrows
(1937), St. Thomas More (1944), SS. Simon and Jude (1950), St. John
Vianney (1951) and St. Jerome (1953).
The school was staffed by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth until it
closed in 1992 because of a declining Catholic population. The Sisters
of Charity remain involved in the outreach efforts of the parish.
Parish
outreach efforts include ministry to the growing Hispanic population
around Churchill Downs and a parish visitor program. Holy Name is the
parish church for the University of Louisville. Its large plant houses
the offices of Catholic Charities. Today, with about 550 parishioners,
the intense efforts of earlier parishioners to build a parish are still
bearing fruit.