Our Lady of Peace Parish consists of three historical communities—St. Joseph, Mother of Sorrows and Our Lady of Mount Carmel—each with histories dating back to the 19th century.
St. Joseph can trace its history to 1856. The Catholic families in Ashtabula were tended by a visiting priest from Painesville who grew the congregation to a mission. In 1860, the mission purchased a two-acre tract of land for its church building, rectory and parish school. The congregation was officially established as a parish in 1890, and on November 11, 1906, the new St. Joseph Church was dedicated by Bishop Ignatius Horstmann of the Diocese of Cleveland.Mother of Sorrows, located near Ashtabula Harbor, is intrinsically linked with the port and town. It became a parish in 1890 but grew so quickly that, by 1900, the community needed to build a church, dedicated on September 16 of that year. One of the community’s unique celebrations—which continues to this day—began in 1949, when the pastor of the parish goes down to the harbor and blesses the ships as part of the parish’s festival. While the boats are mostly recreational today, the blessing serves as an important reminder of the community’s history as a beacon for immigrants who came to Lake Erie looking for work.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the youngest of the three communities, formed to serve the Italian immigrants to the area who were worshipping at Mother of Sorrows. They purchased land at the request of Bishop Horstmann on December 16, 1897, but Mass was held at the Slovenian Hall until the community celebrated its first Mass on Pentecost Sunday in 1903. The existing structure was built many years later and opened on July 14, 1974.
The three parishes first began collaborating in 1989 by merging their schools to create the Ashtabula Catholic Elementary School. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel’s school building housed grades K-3, while Mother of Sorrows’ took grades 4-6. Throughout the ’90s, the relationship between the churches deepened as the pastors of each worked together to share ministries and bolster the Catholic community of Ashtabula together.
The three parishes formally merged in 2011 under the new name, Our Lady of Peace Parish, which was chosen to honor the Blessed Mother and her role as an intercessor for the cause of bringing peace to the world.
Description from The March of the Eucharist, 2nd edition (2025) published by The Catholic Echo
