Our Name
The full name of the Church is: THE HOLY NAME OF JESUS CATHOLIC CHURCH. This has been shortened to "Jesus" and was translated to Italian. (GESÙ is the name "Jesus" in Italian.)
Our History
Gesù Catholic Church was founded as a Church in 1896. The first Catholic presence in Miami was in 1567 when Jesuit missionaries arrived with the Spanish settlement founded by Don Pedro Menendez de Avila at the mouth of the Miami River.
The first Catholic family settled at the mouth of the Miami River in 1850. The family of William and Evelyn Wagner purchased several acres of land where the Jackson Memorial Hospital is located today. There, a small Catholic chapel was built and services were conducted until 1889. It was destroyed by fire that year. Another Catholic family, that of Joseph and Catherine MacDonald, asked Henry Flagler in 1891 for land on which to build a new Catholic Church. Henry Flagler, though a Presbyterian, donated the land in central Miami where the first Catholic Church was built. Gesu Church today occupies this original site.
The New Orleans Mission of the Society of Jesus staffed the new Parish in 1896 with Jesuits sent from Sacred Heart Church in Tampa. The first pastor was the French born Jesuit, Fr.Ambrose Fontan S.J. The Parish was established several months before Miami was incorporated as a city in 1896. Gesù is the first Catholic parish in all of south-Florida (below Tampa).
The first church was built of wood at a total cost of around $ 3,600. By 1922, the wooden church proved too small, and the larger one we see today was built on the corner of North East 1st Avenue and 2nd Street. It seats 800 parishioners. It is a beautiful building with polychromed crystal leaded windows made in Germany, relating events in the life of Jesus and Mary. All altars are made of Italian Marble.
The history of the parish is related to the City of Miami. Since its beginnings, the work of the Jesuits has been much more than just Sacramental in the middle of a busy downtown Miami.
Gesù and the Armed Forces
Gesù Church welcomed the country’s soldiers as they returned from foreign wars. These soldiers came to worship at Gesù.
It hosted American soldiers that returned to the United States at the end of the Spanish-American War. Many of these Soldiers came from battlegrounds in Cuba and in Puerto Rico.
It also welcomed soldiers and sailors as they returned to thank the Lord for having come home after the First and Second World Wars.
Gesù and the Exiles
Gesù Church received with open arms the Cuban exiles. The Church was a center of peace for those Cubans that had lost everything. Gesù Elementary School educated hundreds of Cuban children that later went on to college. The Church also received the exiles from Nicaragua and the Haitian community. Many of the current Gesù Church faithful are Haitians. They attend frequently to the many activities of the church. The Haitian community, as other Latin American groups, worships at Gesù with delight and devotion to God.
Gesù and Senior Citizens
For 42 years the Gesù Senior Citizens Center has offered breakfast and lunch to the many seniors who come. A full-course lunch at 12:30 pm from Monday through Friday is provided for 55-60 senior citizens who come from all over the Miami-Dade County area. Many of them are alone in this city, and others do not have the legal papers to be here. A Dominican Sister runs the Center.
Gesù Senior Citizens Center has a Computer classroom with 26 computer-places. Weekly classes are given, and seniors can use the computers for many activities. The Center also has a Flea Market where donated clothing is sold at very low prices.
Gesù and the Sick
Since the start of the work of the Jesuits in Miami they have worked with the sick. Until 2002, Jesuit priests served as chaplains at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Veterans’ Hospital and Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. Due to lack of vocations, Gesù has discontinued this service. Diocesan priests are doing it now. But through the Dominican Sisters of Gesù, we continue to visit the Convalescent Homes within the parish limits.
Spiritual Ministry
As a downtown business-district church Gesù serves a large number of visitors to Miami and many who do not live within the parish territory. Ministry is offered in English and in Spanish. Masses are celebrated Monday through Saturday at times convenient for those who work in the downtown area. Five Sunday Liturgies are offered (Saturday at 4:00 PM, and four on Sunday). Gesù is the only parish in the Archdiocese that offers Confessions every day in four periods of reconciliation with God. Everyone in the Archdiocese knows that we offer this Sacrament daily; so we serve priests, religious and lay people from the 108 parish that make up the Archdiocese.
Gesù offers Religious Education to prepare young people for First Holy Communion and Confirmation. These Religion Education classes meet on Saturday morning in the basement of the church.
Adult Faith Formation is offered through weekly Bible Study, and through an RCIA program to prepare adults for Christian Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Communion). A support group for married couples meets biweekly.
A Charismatic Prayer Group meets in the church basement on Saturday afternoons.