St. Clement Church history began in 1912with a Mass celebrated in the home of Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Burch on East Baker Street in Plant City. The celebrant was the Rev. Alfred Latiolais, S.J., Director of Jesuit Missions in central Florida.
Jesuit priests first were assigned to central Florida in 1888, at the request of Bishop John Moore of the Diocese of St. Augustine.
Yellow Fever had taken the lives of three Tampa priests within an eleven month period. Bishop Moore also was recovering from Yellow Fever, at the time, and had no more priests to assign to Tampa. He asked the New Orleans Jesuit Province to send a Spanish speaking priest to Saint Louis Church in Tampa.
The Rev. Philip de Carriere, S.J., (excellent link) a survivor of Yellow Fever, volunteered to respond to the request. The 63 year old priest made a solitary trip from New Orleans through quarantined areas, arriving in October, 1888. His church in Tampa, the small, wooden St. Louis Catholic Church, located on the site of the present Sacred Heart Church, was Tampa's oldest Catholic church.
It was dedicated in 1859 in honor of the Rev. Luis Cancer, a Spanish Dominican priest, who was martyred on the shores of Tampa Bay three hundred years earlier. Father de Carriere and four Sisters of the Holy Names spent the next year ministering to approximately 2,000 Catholics who lived in Tampa and Ybor City. They also ministered to an equal number of suffering people of other faiths. All other clergy had succumbed to Yellow Fever or had fled the city. In recognition of this heroic work, Bishop Moore asked the New Orleans Jesuit Province to assume the spiritual care of all Catholics in south central Florida.
The Rev. John Quinlan, S.J. arrived in 1889 to relieve Father de Carriere and to establish a Mother House in Tampa, for the Jesuit mission area, which now includes all of Hillsborough, Polk, De Soto, Manatee, Osceola, Lee and Dade Counties.
Kith the establishment of the Mother House, Jesuit priests began fifty years of mission service in central Florida and also began a continuous ministry of Jesuit pastors at Sacred Heart Church in Tampa. The Rev. Alfred Latiolais was the most active of the many Jesuit priests who served central Florida between 1889 and 1939. Father Latiolais personally supervised the establishment of eleven mission churches between 1912 and 1923, including the Plant City Holy Name of Jesus mission church.
Before 1912 other Jesuit priests had stopped occasionally in Plant City on their way to missions in Polk County. Rev. William Tyrell S.J. reported to his Superior in 1893 that he had stopped in Plant City but found no Catholics.
Few Catholic families were living in Plant City at the turn of the century. Mrs. Earl Mays, a pioneer Catholic resident, reported that she came to Plant City as a bride in 1908 and found no Catholic church. She attended Sacred Heart Church in Tampa until 1912 when Father Latiolais began monthly Masses in private homes. Upon his arrival in Plant City in 1912, Father Latiolais requested that a census be taken of all Catholic families living in eastern Hillsborough County. Dr. Butler Sanchez and Mr. John Fitzgerald completed the census. The results of that survey indicated the need for a monthly Mass in Plant City. Mrs. Butler H. Sanchez stated in a letter dated June 6, 1955,
"When I came to Plant City as a bride in 1915 there were less than a dozen Catholic families. We met in the home of Mrs. R. W. Burch (deceased now) on Baker Street about six blocks east of where the church now is. We only had Mass once a month. Fr. Latiolais from Tampa was our priest (Jesuit)."
For four years Fr. Latiolais traveled from Tampa to Plant City to celebrate monthly Mass. In 1916 he invited all Catholics in eastern Hillsborough County to meet at the Plant City armory to determine if there would be enough support to establish a mission church. Dr. Butler Sanchez had kept contact with Catholic families through visits and sick calls and had recently met with Catholic members of the large Hungarian community west of town. He invited them to the armory meeting. The Hungarian families greatly enlarged the attendance at the meeting, assuring Father Latiolais of future support of a mission church. He petitioned the New Orleans Province for permission to establish a Plant City mission but four more years passed before the church was dedicated in 1920. The monthly Masses continued in private Plant City homes.
For several years they were held in the home of Mrs. Thomas Surrency on the corner of Baker and Thomas Streets. When she moved away the Jesuit Province granted permission to purchase the small, frame house for a permanent church. St. Clements Catholic Church, originally Holy Name of Jesus Mission, first met in this former residence of Mrs. Thomas Surrency at the site of the brick church.
Several generous donations were received for that purpose. Mr. and Mrs. R. Burch gave $1,000. Mr. John Fitzgerald gave $500. Two anonymous donors gave money and land and the Extension Society of Chicago gave $1,000. On April 30, 1920 the Surrency property was purchased for $2,750. When renovations were completed in November, Father Alfred Latiolais returned to Plant City to bless and dedicate the building as the Holy Name of Jesus mission church. Only a few of the Jesuit priests who served as pastor of the Holy Name mission church have been identified. In addition to Fr. Latiolais, the first assigned pastor was the Rev. William A. Fillinger, S.J. The Rev. Michael McNally, S.J. was pastor when the church property was purchased.
Sometime in the 1920's the Rev. Felix J. Clarkson, S.J. served as pastor. He was also pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Tampa, 1935-1939. The little Holy Name of Jesus Mission church, commonly called the Surrency house church, served Plant City's Catholic families until 1929.
That year the Bishop of St. Augustine formed a new parish for Catholics living in eastern Hillsborough and western Polk County. Boundaries of the new Bartow-Plant City parish extended east from Tampa to the area around Bartow. Father John J. Mullins was appointed founding pastor in October, 1929. Father Mullins elected to reside in Bartow but began his duties in Plant City almost immediately. An item in the Plant City Courier in October, 1929 stated that, beginning in November, 1929 Father John J. Mullins would be in Plant City every Saturday afternoon from 4 to 5 o'clock to conduct Catechism classes and would be present each Sunday morning to celebrate Mass at 10 o'clock.The change from mission church to parish church was appreciated by the Catholic families of Plant City. The mission church had been a blessing to the small, isolated Catholic community in 1912, but by 1929 Plant City was a progressive town with a growing Catholic population. The limited religious and spiritual offerings of the mission church no longer met the needs of the Catholic families in the area. Read the rest (here).
Photo is of Fr. Alfred Latiolais
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