History of SFX

Jesuits had been working in the Liverpool area since the 17th Century and, in 1712, they built the city's first Catholic Chapel since the Reformation. A second, larger, chapel was built in 1736 only to be demolished by a mob in 1738. it was rebuilt the following year disguised as a warehouse. In 1783, some years after the suppression of the Society of Jesus, it was handed over to the Benedictines who continued to serve St Mary's until the late 1960's. St Mary's was closed in 1999.
 
It was after this change in the Law that, in 1840, the idea was proposed for building a new Roman Catholic Church in the Town and, typically of Scousers, this happened in a pub! In that year, eight prominent Roman Catholic Liverpool businessmen met in the Rose & Crown pub, in Cheapside off Dale Street, to draft the following proposal:

"We the undersigned, form ourselves into a provisional committee for the formation of a society with a view to erecting a Catholic Church in Liverpool to be presented to the President of Stonyhurst College".

The President of Stonyhurst College was the Jesuit Provincial, and a number of these men had been educated at this prestigious establishment, which lies between Preston and Clitheroe in Lancashire. Two weeks later, they had‘secured a plot of land in Salisbury Street, in a respectable part of the Town and where a church would be desirable’.

And so, a small Jesuit College was opened in Everton, in 1843, followed later by the Church, which was dedicated to Saint Francis Xavier (SFX). The church was designed by John Joseph Scholes and opened in 1848; its tall, elegant spire, which was added in 1883, remains a prominent local landmark.

The establishment of this major Catholic church - run by Jesuits - was a major social advance in the conservative, Protestant, Victorian Liverpool of that time; and its significance should not be underestimated. Nevertheless, between the planning of the new church and its opening, the Great Irish Potato Famine had taken place, killing 25% of the Irish population - almost 1 million Irish men, women, and children; whilst 2 million more emigrated to America - most of these coming through Liverpool. Consequently, the Town became swamped with tens of thousands of Catholic refugees. As a result, SFX church, which had been designed to hold 1,000 people, was now too small. Consequently, to provide extra space for services, in 1888 the beautiful Sodality Chapel - designed by Edmund Kirkby - was opened. This chapel is now used for most of the weekday services, because the population of the local parish has fallen dramatically in recent decades.
 
However, during the latter half of the 19th, and early half of the 20th centuries, the parish flourished and, by the outbreak of the Second World War, SFX was the largest Catholic Parish in England, with over 13,000 Catholics living within its boundaries. It soon built a variety of schools, including SFX College, which was opened in 1843 as the first Catholic Secondary Grammar Day School in the country. Schools for the Catholic poor of the parish were also established, in 1853. SFX Everton remained a large parish until the 1960s, at which time the Grammar School moved to Woolton, in the southern suburbs of the City. At the same time, the City Council began to clear away the slums and re-house parishioners in other parts of the City, and beyond. Everton went into a sharp decline and, by the early 1980s, there were plans to demolish the nave of SFX church. However, a massive, nationwide campaign was successfully fought to save the building; and it was certainly worth the battle. Inside, the church is a magnificent, mid-19th century, Roman, neo-gothic confection of iconography, sculpture, colour, and atmosphere. The predominant colour is in fact white, but this is brightly broken by the wonderful stained-glass windows and by the rich ornamentation of the interior. The church of Saint Francis Xavier is well worth visiting, and an even better place to sit, think, and perhaps pray, whatever your faith or philosophy.

Slowly, new houses have been built and the community has now begun to regain some of its former self-confidence. Over the past few years, Hope College, which became Liverpool Hope University and is the only ecumenical university in the country, moved part of its campus into the then disused SFX School buildings. Their subsequent redevelopment and regeneration of these included, as we shall see, accommodation for 200 students, and homes for their music, fine arts, community education, and drama departments. Hope College had also acquired the church when they bought the site from the Jesuits, but they have since returned it to the parish. Indeed, in 2001, two local parishes, St Joseph's and St Mary of the Angels, joined with SFX to form one new parish and, on December the 8th of that year, the Archbishop of Liverpool, Patrick Kelly, renamed the Sodality Chapel 'The Chapel of St Mary of the Angels and St Joseph’. This amalgamation has given a new vitality to the church, to the parish, and to its people, and a new phase has begun in the story of Saint Francis Xavier’s at Everton.
 
© Ken Pye August 2007 www.discover-liverpool.com