Conneaut’s Corpus Christi Parish can trace its history back to the middle of the 19th Century and the formation of the St. Mary community. In 1850, there were only two Catholic families in the small town of Conneaut, and Masses were offered in private homes until a building was purchased and converted to a chapel in 1864. The site was dedicated two years later and served as the main worship site for the mission, which was officially designated as a parish in 1884. Construction on a new church began in 1887 and was completed and dedicated in 1888.
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini is the second community to become part of Corpus Christi Parish. It began as a mission of St. Mary in 1952 and was dedicated to the first canonized American saint on December 22, 1954. The mission built a church on land donated by the James Armeni family and the parishioners soon came to refer to the church with the same title given to her namesake: Mother Cabrini. In 1959, the parish opened a school, staffed by the Dominican Sisters from Adrian, Michigan.
The two communities began to cooperate in 1972 when St. Mary’s School—opened in 1901—was consolidated with St. Frances Cabrini School due to declining enrollment at both locations. The merged school was ultimately closed in 2001.
The communities began to share a pastor in September 1998 as well as ministries and programs over the next decade. Eventually, the parishes unified their pastoral and financial councils before becoming one parish with two worship sites in 2008. At the same time as the merger, the parish bolstered its religious education program to make up for the loss of the shared school.
In August of 2011, the community voted to rename the parish to Corpus Christi, in reference to the solemnity celebrating the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, reflecting the joy that the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ is among us forever.
Description from The March of the Eucharist, 2nd edition (2025) published by The Catholic Echo
