First Christmas Mass in Montana Territory

 

Hugh O’Neil was a devote Catholic, as documented in many Montana history accounts. Hugh is credited with finding a place for Christmas Mass to be held in Virginia City in 1865. The story was told many times and finally documented in The Magazine of Montana History. The facts of the story were validated by an unpublished sketch written by Father Francis Xavier Kuppens S.J. and was preserved in the Archives of St. Louis University. The sketch details how Father Giordia arrived in Virginia City a few days before Christmas in 1865 and lodged with a Catholic miner. He and the miner looked in vain for a building to hold Christmas Mass. The plight “reached the ears of many late one evening in a place where the youth and sporting fraternity of the town amused themselves at cards and dice”. Leader of the group was Hugh O’Neil who felt “it would be an everlasting shame if the Catholic religion could obtain no place for worship on Christmas Day”.

Hugh took the issue to the Acting Governor, Thomas Meagher and the two formed a plan. They awakened the proprietor of the theatre (the largest building in town), and presented a business proposition. A large amount of gold would be paid to rent the theatre for two weeks and all the scheduled performances would be cancelled. Hugh convinced the proprietor that the actors all needed a vacation over the holidays. 

Father Giordia was presented first thing in the morning with the news he was to meet the Acting Governor and Hugh O’Neil at the theatre immediately. Hugh took charge of the alterations of the theatre and the Governor took charge of the Priests’ comforts. By the end of the day, news of the upcoming Mass had been sent by riders to all the distant communities and the theatre had been renovated. In fact to such an extent that the proprietor came and declared that he could no longer use the building as a theatre. Not to worry. Funds were raised when the collection plate was passed after Mass, to buy the building and it was established at that moment as the first Catholic Church in Montana Territory. So as history goes, not only did the citizen’s of Virginia City and the surrounding area have a Christmas Mass in 1865, but they also had a “church established and paid for by raw gold mined from this virgin earth.” 

 “The priest tried to express his thanks, but was overcome by tears. Hugh O’Neil, his strong attendant, supported the frail form and guiding his faltering steps, led him away that Christmas Day of 1865 in the rough, uncouth, wicked frontier mining camp of Virginia City, Montana (Territory)--tempered and tamed by the spirit of Christ’s birth.(Magazine of Montana History Autumn, 1953).”