The origins of Our Lady of Hope Parish can be traced to the 1890s, when the pastor serving Jefferson and Conneaut Catholics began traveling intermittently to Kinsman to serve the community.

In 1943, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate Fathers from St. Joseph Parish in Jefferson began serving the mission church until Youngstown’s first Bishop, James McFadden, designated the Kinsman community as a mission of St. Mary Parish in Warren the following year. The mission became a parish in 1957, and the community began building a new church to accommodate their growth. The parish took the patronage of St. Patrick, and the community celebrated their first Mass in their church building on Palm Sunday of 1958.

The second community included in Our Lady of Hope Parish is Our Lady of Victory. The community’s first official Mass was celebrated in 1944 at the home of the Ejbl family for the ten Catholic families living in Andover. Just like St. Patrick, Our Lady of Victory began as a mission of St. Joseph Parish in Jefferson. The mission achieved parish status in 1948 and purchased property for the construction of a church.The new church building was completed in 1949 and blessed by Bishop McFadden on November 6, with 20 families in the community.

Even before they officially merged on March 17, 2022, the two parishes have long enjoyed a relationship of cooperation, sharing a pastor since the creation of St. Patrick’s in 1957—the first pastors being Fathers of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, until Youngstown diocesan priests took over when the Oblates departed in 1984 due to a shortage of priests.

The parishioners requested the parishes be merged under the patronage of Our Lady of Hope, in reference to the title given to the Virgin Mary after her apparition in Pontmain, France in 1871. Our Lady of Hope reflects the community’s devotion to her Son and the renewed hope in the Resurrection.

Description from The March of the Eucharist, 2nd edition (2025) published by The Catholic Echo