Detroit — Besides historic Ste. Anne de Detroit Parish, three other parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit are named for the Blessed Virgin’s mother – in Warren, Monroe and Ortonville.
When St. Anne, Warren, was founded in 1945, its boundaries extended from 12 Mile Road to 16 Mile Road (now Metropolitan Parkway) and from Dequindre to Schoenherr.
Its first Mass was said in a converted barn, but the current church was built in 1964-65.
“The name was chosen by Fr. Frank Walsh, the founding pastor. I remember that he had a great devotion to St. Anne,” says Fr. Alberto Bondy, who grew up in the Warren parish and is now its pastor.
The parish’s grade school started in 1949, and it is among the most thriving schools in the archdiocese today. A high school operated from 1965-88.
The next parish to be formed under the patronage of our Lord’s grandmother was St. Anne Parish, Monroe. It dates from 1946, just one year later than the one in Warren, although it grew out of the community of summer cottagers who had been attending Masses in the ballroom of the Detroit Beach clubhouse since June 1944.
The church was built in 1947, with the first Mass in the new church celebrated on Aug. 10 by Fr. William Shaw, pastor of St. John Parish, Monroe. St. Anne Parish got its first permanent pastor the following year when Fr. Clarence Dorsey was appointed.
The parish’s St. Anne shrine was constructed in 1958, as parishioners contributed more than 500 hours of labor to move the rocks into position and mortar them into place.
A parish grade school operated from 1962-84.
But as to why the Monroe parish was dedicated to St. Anne, the official history of the parish fails to say and no long-time parishioner questioned could recall.
Just a couple of years after the Monroe parish was established – on May 15, 1949 – St. Joseph Parish in Lake Orion launched a mission in Ortonville, with Masses first celebrated in the local Grange hall.
When the first Mass was celebrated in the mission’s new church, on May 14, 1952, the church was dedicatee to St. Anne in memory of Anne Ging, mother of Fr. George Ging, the pastor of the Lake Orion parish.
Five years later, , the mission was raised to parish status, with Fr. John Hardy as its first pastor. Fr. Hardy, whose father had been a Union Army officer in the Civil War, was to serve the parish until 1981.
In 1990 a new church addition was dedicated, with the old church converted into a social hall and the old social hall becoming religious education offices.
St. Anne Parish, Warren, is at 32000 Mound Road, telephone (586) 264-0713; St. Anne Parish, Monroe, is at 2420 N. Dixie Hwy., telephone (734) 289-2910; St. Anne Parish, Ortonville, is at 925 S. Ortonville Road, telephone (248) 627-3965.
