When Bishop Pierre DuMaine appointed Sister Mary Claude Power, PBVM, to the position of superintendent of Catholic Schools in the new Diocese of San José, he, of course, knew what he was doing.
When the Archdiocese of San Francisco established 25 parishes from 1951-1981 to meet the needs of faith-filled people in the rapidly growing Santa Clara County, it gave each pastor 20 acres of land, a loan, and a charge to form communities with newly-draw
Jan. 12: Mission Santa Clara de Asís is founded by Spanish Franciscan Missionaries on the banks of the Guadalupe River (just north of Highway 101 near the Mineta International Airport runway).
With the Gold Rush in 1849, the population of Santa Clara County grew rapidly, resulting in the need for both religious and educational institutions in the Santa Clara Valley.
“Today, all churches were closed because of the influenza that continues to spread,” wrote Monsignor Henrique Augusto Ribeiro, pastor at Five Wounds Portuguese National Parish, in his diary on December 18, 1918.
When Helen Hansen, a Chicago social worker, journeyed to the Santa Clara Valley in 1955, she would have seen orchards but also a booming suburban community on the southern edge of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.