Both communities that combined to form St. Angela Merici Parish are some of the oldest in the city of Youngstown. The Immaculate Conception community built the third church in the City of Youngstown, serving 200 families on Youngstown’s east side. Parishioners were primarily of Irish descent and worked at Valley Mill and Himrod Furnace Co. The first Mass was celebrated in the building that housed the church and school on December 10, 1882. The school opened in February 1883, growing rapidly along with the parish church. It would go on to be served by the Ursuline Sisters of Youngstown.
New church buildings and schools were constructed and renovated various times over the course of the community’s history, until the 1960s, when the construction of I-680 had many families moving out to the suburbs. Immaculate Conception began collaborating with Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the 1990s, combining youth and adult programs. The demographics of the community shifted at this time, so outreach to the poor became a critical part of its mission, strengthening its St. Vincent de Paul society and other outreach initiatives.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus community was founded in 1888, to serve Catholics of the Haselton suburb of Youngstown, as Wilson Avenue was often impassible, preventing residents from attending Mass at Immaculate Conception. The community immediately built a wood- frame church, in which they celebrated their first Mass on Christmas Day in 1888. They purchased Haselton Public School a year later, with the hopes of opening their own school in it, but it had to be used as a parish hall due to a downturn in the steel industry.
The parish built a new church, which was dedicated in 1911, and a school opened on September 4, 1923, with 300 pupils. It was staffed by Ursuline Sisters and later by lay teachers. Sacred Heart School closed in 1982, and merged with Immaculate Conception School, which later closed in 2006.
The two communities formally merged on January 9, 2011, under the patronage of Saint Angela Merici—the foundress of the Ursuline Sisters— reflecting the importance of living the Gospel to the parish community. Parish initiatives include the St. Angela Merici Food Pantry, as well as the St. Angela Novena and an annual Spaghetti dinner on Palm Sunday. St. Angela Merici Parish is collaborating with St. Patrick Parish in Youngstown and Christ the Good Shepherd Parish in Campbell.
Description from The March of the Eucharist, 2nd edition (2025) published by The Catholic Echo