In 1910 Mr. and Mrs. George Bolus became the first two Catholics to settle in Wake Forest. During those days, Catholics had to travel to Raleigh for Sunday Mass. As the number of Catholics increased, a priest would occasionally come to Wake Forest to say Mass in the living room of the Bolus home. The coat closet there was used as the confessional.
Eventually, the Diocese placed one of its chapel cars on the siding of the Seaboard Railroad in Wake Forest. This car was named St. Peter's Chapel and it served as a church until 1938. Every Sunday, Father Beshel would warm up the chapel with an old wooden stove. Complete with a bedroom and kitchen, priests would live in the mobile chapel as they were pulled to various parts of the country.
One of the visitors to Wake Forest in the late 1930's was the Papal Countess Katherine E. Price of Greenwich, Connecticut. She was surprised that a college town like Wake Forest was without a Cahtolic Church. She donated a large sum of money for the construction of a new church and rectory on Main Street. The church was dedicated in 1940 and bears the name of her patron saint, St. Catherine of Siena.
This timing was very providential because it was in those years that Wake Forest College began to develop a great reputation for its athletics, attracting many students from the north east. Most of them were Catholic and needed a place to attend weekly Mass. One of those college athletes was Tommy Byrne, who would later become a lifetime member of the parish. He went on to play professional baseball for the New York Yankees and appeared in five World Series.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Wake Forest College started a finance school and over 1000 students enrolled in the school. Three hundred of these soldiers were Catholic, necessitating an additional Mass to be celebrated.
The church endured many trials over the years. It was hit by a logging truck at 4:45AM on the morning of Sunday August 14, 1966. The force of the impact was so great that it buckled the floor. In September of 1977, the rectory survived a fire which broke out at about 2:00A.M and in 1979 on August 27th, lightening struck the stone bell tower.
Throughout these hardships the faithful parishioners have shown their love and devotion for their special church.
In 1990, the parish registry had grown to 200 families and it became clear that the parish would not be able to serve the rapidly growing Catholic population. The parish began planning for a new site off of West Holding Avenue. By 1997 when the parish moved into the new church on Holding Avenue, it had grown to 450 families.
The parish started a school in 1997 and continued to add families who saw St. Catherines as a vibrant faithfilled Catholic parish. We quickly outgrew the 450 seats planned for the new church as the Catholic growth exploded to 3000 families by 2008.
In May of 2008, Bishop Burbidge gave permission to begin planning a new church and campus. Through the leadership of many, the parish has completed the requirements of the Diocesan Building and Real Estate Commission and has received approval of the Master Site Plan.
The quiet phase of our new campaign to build this church and campus began on December 8th, 2009 and will continue until August 15, 2010. With prayerful hope and faith in God, we look forward to celebrating the sacraments with all those who call St. Catherine of Siena home.