The Ladies Club

In 1937, a group of Catholic women formed the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary at St. Peter’s.  Every Tuesday, the Sodality met in the Church for Mass and afterwards, would pray the Miraculous Medal Novena.  The Sodality was divided into small groups called bands, each having approximately thirteen ladies – and there were enough bands to fill the entire Church!  Each lady wore a large Miraculous Medal on a long blue-ribbon necklace during the Mass and Novena.  The ladies were active in other ways too; assisting the Sisters of Notre Dame with dinners and the annual two-day fall bazaar (the pre-curser to our Christmas in the Country annual fundraiser).  The Sodality lapsed for a time, but in 1952 was revived by the then “new” pastor, Father John Mountain.  The late Anne Morrissey, a long time Sodality member, recalled starting a gift shop of religious articles and crafts and making so many quilts, dish towels and similar items that she wore out 3 sewing machines!  Anne was also “in”famous for her tremendous success in selling raffle tickets for the hand sewn quilt at the Fall bazaar (now Christmas in the Country).  Very few parishioners were able to ignore her admonition to “Buy a ticket!”

In the late 1970’s, the Sodality became known as St. Peter’s Ladies Club. About that same time, Gloria Bezold, the first President of the Ladies Club, and her husband Harry, attended a funeral for Gloria’s cousin at a church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A funeral lunch was provided by the members of that church and Gloria and Harry realized the marvelous benefits of this service for family and friends of the deceased. They were inspired to promote such a service at St. Peter’s and in October 1981, the Ladies Club formally voted make this service available to parishioners. Then pastor Fr. Paul Iaia agreed and supported them, later hailing their success. It’s no exaggeration that the praises for this service have come far and wide. The late Pearl Gallagher, a long time Ladies Club member, spent the winters in Florida. One day while staying in in Florida, she stopped to talk with a gentleman who had Maryland car tags. Their discussion led to history of attending a funeral and luncheon in Libertytown, during which he praised the hospitality and lunch provided by the ladies of that parish. Imagine her surprise when she discovered that the parish he was referring to was her own beloved St. Peter’s! While Gloria and Harry have passed away, the idea they brought to St. Peter’s remains alive 42 years later, with funeral luncheons prepared upon request and at no cost to the family; although families frequently will send a donation to the Ladies Club in appreciation.

Although funeral luncheons remain the primary work of the Ladies Club, over the years fundraising activities have included the annual quilt raffle and bake sale at Christmas in the Country, yard sales, auctions, catered lunches, and dinners for various groups, including school groups with an occasional concession stand of sandwiches, hot dogs, and drinks for private events like estate auctions and once, for a horse show. The Ladies Club has been highly successful at raising money for St. Peter’s. They have donated considerable funds to the Parish for the building fund, repairs and renovations, kitchen equipment, altar server robes, re-construction of the Memorial to the Unborn, furniture for Sappington Hall and the church mortgage. Much fruit has been born of their steadfast work and dedication.

Not all of the Ladies Club work is for fundraising, however. The Ladies Club supports many Parish events including Friday Lenten dinners, the Food Bank, receptions for our deacon ordinations, seminarians, and religious order parish members. The Ladies Club has also provided support to confirmation and holy communion classes, the blood mobile workers, Face the Truth Tour, the Annual Children’s Coat drive in Frederick County, Frederick Rescue Mission, and they have prepared dinners for area senior citizen groups, complete with door prizes. The Ladies Club also chooses a charity to support every year; in 2021 the Ladies Club supported Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which provides twin beds to needy families at no charge. Until the Flower ministry was established in 2008, the Ladies Club also took responsibility for the majority of the decorating and weekly flowers which adorned the Church.

Monthly meetings are held after Mass on the First Friday of each month. Following those monthly meetings, they frequently have lunch together by providing the meal themselves or visiting favorite area restaurants. Quarterly events like faith building retreats and ice cream socials are held to deepen their faith and enhance the close friendships within the group.

St. Peter Ladies Club members quietly provide invaluable services to the parish and the broader community through their tireless devotion to their mission. There are currently over 35 members, and you will recognize the ladies by their green aprons with “St. Peter’s Ladies Club” and their name in gold lettering. Over the years, some husbands of the members have been such a tremendous help that they have been named honorary Ladies Club members! New members (including non-Catholic wives of parishioners) are warmly welcomed into the group. To join, or to obtain more information about the Ladies Club, contact Robyn Jacobs, the current Ladies Club president.



Other Key Moments in St Peter's History

Monsignor John A. Dietzenbach

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John Augustine Dietzenbach was born on December 9, 1951 at West Union, Iowa, the second of six children. He grew up on a family farm near Fort Atkinson, Iowa and attended St. Luke Church and school in St. Lucas, Iowa. After graduating from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa in 1974 with a BA double major in Business Administration and Philosophy, he attended St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Roland Park, Baltimore, MD. He graduated with a Masters of Divinity in Theology from there in December of 1978 and during his last year in the seminary, he sought incardination (the official acceptance by one diocese of a clergyman from another diocese) with the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Fr. John was assigned to All Saints Parish on Liberty Road in January 1979, where he remained through his deaconate ordination on May 24, 1980 and his ordination to the priesthood on November 29, 1980. In the summer of 1981 he was assigned to St. Elizabeth Parish on Baltimore Street where he remained for 5 ye
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St. Peter’s Bicentennial

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The most recent key moment in St. Peter’s history is the commemoration of the parish’s bicentennial. 2021 marked 200 years since the establishment of the parish and the beginning of construction of our first church building, a stone chapel, on land donated by the Coale family. In September 1823, the newly completed first church was consecrated by Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal of Baltimore. To commemorate this milestone, a Bicentennial Committee consisting of 20 parishioners planned a number of activities beginning in September 2022 and culminating in Fall 2023. In order to carry out these plans without impacting the parish’s normal operating budget, Bicentennial fundraising efforts were undertaken. Early on, a logo was developed showcasing the current church with the extant portion of the second church prominently featured. This logo was used in the development of a Bicentennial ornament, which has been sold over the past year. A ticketed Bicentennial Ball dinner dance is planned f
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Deacons John Martin, Jerry Jennings and Michael Dvorak

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“I’ve come to serve.” That was the response called out by John Martin in May 2009 and by Jerry Jennings and Michael Dvorak in May 2011 as each was called forward from the pews of Baltimore’s Cathedral of Mary Our Queen to be ordained as deacons by then-Archbishop (now Cardinal) O’Brien. When asked today to talk about their roles as deacons assigned to St. Peter’s, they each summarize by saying “I’m here to serve.” Both Deacon John and Deacon Jerry have served in our military, and Deacon Mike works for the Employee Assistance Program for the Department of Defense.  Deacon John was in the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves, while Deacon Jerry is a retired U.S. Army Colonel.  All are husbands and fathers, and Deacons John and Jerry are grandfathers. They each talk about how blessed they are to serve in our parish which values its deacons and allows them to exercise their full diaconal ministry through the liturgy, sacraments, preaching and outreach ministries.  Over the years, our d
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Fr. Martin W. Flahavan

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 Fr. Flahavan was a man of varied talents.  One example was a Marian Children’s Missal with Martin Flahavan featured in photos celebrating Mass.  This Missal, published by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, was designed to help children prepare for their First Communion, and was widely purchased throughout the country by parents for their children in the 1950’s and 60’s. In all the parishes he was assigned to, he was perpetually active doing something to advance the mission of the Catholic Church.   At St. Peter’s, where he was assigned from 1961 to 1965, he constructed a basketball court, developed the largest Altar Boy Society in the history of St. Peter’s, revived the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary, organized an Usher Society, began high  school and adult discussion groups in cooperation with the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (known to many of us as CCD), made major maintenance improvements to the church and (old) rectory, renovated the parish hall, and developed a new
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Religious Educators of our Children Over the Years

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While the religious education of our children has always been the responsibility of their parents (and extended family), there is documented evidence that the Jesuits who visited Libertytown in early years of the Parish, and later the diocesan pastors, provided specific instruction to our young, prior to their receiving their First Holy Communion and Confirmation. Archive materials from the School Sisters of Notre Dame, however; provide us with our earliest window into the beginnings of formal religious education at St. Peter’s. From these records we learn that the religious women from that Order, beginning with Sr. Theophora Foley and Sr. Fidelis de Katow, moved into their new convent on October 25, 1892. This convent was adjacent to the school where they would be teaching – Notre Dame Academy (now occupied by the Parish office staff). Records don’t indicate how many sisters were teaching at the school at one time, but in 1935, the number of religious in the community were reduced t
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Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

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Catholics in Libertytown were blessed to interact with some of the major pillars of early Catholicism in the United States. For example, the first US bishop, John Carroll, was involved in the initial discussions about the possibility of a church in Liberty. Fr. John Dubois, who would go on to become Bishop of New York had ministered to Catholics here, as did Fr. John McElroy who completed our first church and later founded Boston College. Very notably, they also interacted with the first American born saint! Some eight decades before St. Peter’s would open the Notre Dame Academy, and a decade before our first church building even got underway, a young lady from Libertytown would benefit from the fact that the first free Catholic school for female education staffed by religious women in the U.S. opened here in her county. “Received the sum of twenty five dollars for three months advance payment for the board + tuition of Miss Sarah Coale,” reads a September 1811 receipt signed by Mo
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Father John McElroy, S. J.

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The priest who saw to the completion of the first St. Peter’s church was one very busy Jesuit. He was also responsible for building other local Catholic churches and schools before moving onto important roles from Mexico to Massachusetts. John McElroy came to the US from his native Ireland as a young man in 1803. He was ordained a priest in 1817 at the age of thirty-five. He was sent to Frederick in 1822 to aid the ailing pastor of St John the Evangelist Church, Fr. Francis Maleve, S.J. the successor to Fr. John Dubois, S.S. After arriving, Fr. McElroy, S.J. stayed with Fr. Maleve until he passed away a few days later, on Oct 3, 1822. Fr. McElroy was subsequently named pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church. St. Peter’s was a mission of St. John’s, as was St. Joseph’s on Carrollton Manor. While here, Fr. McElroy continued to build the church in our community…both figuratively & literally. Fr. McElroy’s journal notes that he made his first visit to Liberty on Nov. 12, 1822, and
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James McSherry Coale

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The building of the second St. Peter’s Church (dedicated in 1871, accidentally burned in 2004) was made possible by the generosity of the son of Richard and Catharine McSherry Coale who had donated the land and funding for our first church, dedicated in September 1823.   As our parish outgrew the original stone chapel, James McSherry Coale, son of Richard and Catharine, helped see to construction of a new brick church next to it. James was born in Libertytown on January 19, 1805, educated at Mount Saint Mary’s in Emmitsburg, and later studied law under Richard Potts of Frederick.   He was an Elector in the Electoral College for the 1836 and 1840 Presidential elections.   As noted in another Key Moment it was James, who had inherited the land where our church sits, who followed through in November 1867 on his late father’s intention that the 2 acres be transferred to the Catholic Church.   The “better late than never” transfer facilitated efforts to construct the larger church that the
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Consecration of St. Peter’s First Church

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Jesuit records reflect that the building of St. Peter’s first church was initially overseen by the Jesuit pastor of Frederick, Fr. Maleve. When Fr. Maleve died in October 1822, his successor, Fr. John McElroy, S.J. stepped in to see the completion of Liberty’s Catholic church. St. Peter’s was consecrated on September 28, 1823, as recorded in the diaries of both Archbishop Maréchal and Fr. McElroy: “I set out for Liberty town and got out at Mr. Coales’s, an earnest and zealous man, and owner of all the land about the town. He built a fine stone chapel and intends to give land for a graveyard, and very likely, a presbytery, garden and pasture: great prospect for an ecclesiastical establishment." - Arch Bishop Maréchal diary entry September 26, 1823 [i] “On the 28th I blessed the church. A great crowd from the neighborhood, and singers from Frederick and a fortepiano. Mass with the deacon and sub-deacon. I spoke twice, first on dedication of the church and secondly on confirmat
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Dedication of the Third Church

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“Woo-hoo!” shouted an excited parishioner, breaking the hush a few seconds after Msgr. Dietzenbach opened the doors. Perhaps a bit more vocal than the consecration 200 years ago of our first church, but no doubt very similar in sentiment to the consecration of our first church. Countless hours, lots of energy and significant effort went into making sure this most recent dedication was as flawless as possible. It was no small undertaking to arrange for a dedication liturgy involving a Cardinal, an Archbishop, 2 Bishops, more than 40 priests and deacons and a congregation numbering 800. Of interest, the youngest parishioner in attendance was Ava Folger, who was only 13 days old on the 7th of September and our most senior parishioner to witness the Dedication was Anne Morrissey, 104 years of age at the time. Two hundred years ago, in 1823, Fr. McElroy’s diary contained the following specifics concerning the procession preceding the liturgy of the consecration of the first church: “… s
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