Founded: 1910
Location: 4230 South Normandie Avenue, Los Angeles
Our Lady of the Angels Region: Deanery 15

In the year 1910 the growing city of Los Angeles boasted a population of more than 300,000 persons (an estimated 60,000 of them Catholic). At the time, orchards and farms still covered much of the area.

It was just over midway through the 12-year episcopate of Bishop Thomas Conaty, former rector of the Catholic University of America. The growing Catholic population resulted in the establishment of six new parishes, including one south of downtown Los Angeles named for the virgin martyr St. Cecilia, the patroness of church music.

Records and legends vary regarding her birth and martyrdom (either second or third century in Sicily), but numerous poets, musicians and painters have kept her memory alive (her feast day is Nov. 22). St. Cecilia Church in Rome was built over her home; the grave was discovered in 817 and the tomb was opened in 1599 when her body was found incorrupt. The sculptor, Stefano Maderno, created a marble statue representing the saint and left this epitaph in her honor:

Behold the body of the most holy virgin Cecilia,
Whom I myself saw lying incorrupt in the tomb.
I have in this marble expressed for you the same saint in the very same posture.

Father Paul Dillon, the founding pastor for the new L.A. parish, initially celebrated Sunday Mass in a vacant store on Vermont Avenue, and weekday Mass at Buck's Hall at 4705 South Vermont. Finally, Father Dillon built a small frame structure at 42nd and Normandie where the first solemn Mass was celebrated August 7, 1910.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet staffed the parish school, erected in 1916 with eight grades and an enrollment of 200. Father Dillon served nine years at St. Cecilia, though no records remain about his further ministry or death.

St. Cecilia's longest serving pastor was Father Edward Brady, born in New York and ordained by Cardinal James Gibbons, who headed the parish for 34 of his 45 years of priesthood. During the 1920s he built the impressive Lombard Romanesque church, a style developed in the early middle ages in Italy. Despite the Depression, he effectively paid off the debt of a quarter of a million dollars in 15 years.

Through his efforts the church was consecrated in 1943, by which time the parish ethnicity was changing. At the time of his death in 1953, Father Brady was the oldest active priest in the archdiocese (age 81).

For seven years Msgr. Patrick Dignan of Ballaghadereen, Ireland, served St. Cecilia. During his pastorate he contracted liturgical artist Isabel Piczek to design and install two rose windows and 20 (including images of the rosary) in the dome. The Byzantine style of stained glass was one of Piczek's first assignments of her long career in the archdiocese. Msgr. Dignan, who also was superintendent of archdiocesan schools for 21 years, died in 1976 at age 71.

Father John McNulty, from County Mayo, opened a new school for the parish during his two-year term (he died in 1979 at age 68). His successor was another Irishman, Father Felix Doherty from County Leitrim, who had been a St. Cecilia's associate for 10 years when named pastor in 1962. In 1973 he was assigned to St. Anne in Seal Beach and died in 1980 at age 64.

A Navy veteran of World War II, who trained as a fighter pilot, became the administrator in 1973. Msgr. Laurence Clark from Rhode Island also served as chaplain at county hospital and juvenile hall. At St. Cecilia's he was instrumental in forming team ministry and developed the concept of "parish clusters." He served 16 years at the parish, six as pastor. He died in 2001 at age 76.

By 1989 when Father Thomas Peacha, a native Angeleno, was named administrator, the parish was again witnessing ethnic changes, as Hispanic, Black and Central Americans had moved to the area. As pastor for seven years Father Peacha headed what he called "a truly beautiful church." In 1997 he was named pastor at Holy Trinity, Los Angeles; he retired in 2005 and lives in Seal Beach.

For the past 12 years several priests from the community of Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus have served St. Cecilia. Fathers Sergio Contran and Xavier Colleoni, from Italy, served as team ministers for seven years. Another Italian, Father Joseph Forlani, has been administrator since 2004. The music embodied by the Black community in their care further embraces the honor accorded to the parish's patroness --- St. Cecilia.