St. Peter’s second church was dedicated on June 25,1871, according to an article in the Catholic Mirror which reported on the event 7 days later. Consequently, the centennial of that dedication should have occurred in 1971. However, when the date of the dedication was memorialized on the foundation of the Statue of the Sacred Heart (which become the Statute of St. Peter in the 1950’s), it was the year 1870 – not 1871, which was displayed. Maybe that is why the centennial was celebrated in 1970, rather than in 1971. Or perhaps the Parish needed a reason to celebrate something in 1970. Earlier that year it was announced that St. Peter’s school – the former Notre Dame Academy, would permanently close its doors at the end of the 1969-1970 school year, after nearly 80 years. But regardless of the reason that 1970 was chosen, that was the year St. Peter’s celebrated the centennial of the dedication of its then existing (second) church - on Sunday, June 21, 1970 with a Mass at 4PM and a

Fathers Thomas Monteverde, Martin McNulty and Phillip Farrell each served but a short time at St. Peter’s. Combined, their pastorates at St. Peter’s totaled only 15 years which may explain why there is a relative lack of information about their time at St. Peter’s. Father Monteverde was only 45 when he died and Fr. Farrell, who succeeded Fr. McNulty, was not ordained until nearly 45 years of age. Fr. Thomas J. Monteverde was born in Baltimore in January 1860. His parents had emigrated from Genoa, Italy. He attended St. Leo’s parochial school and St. Charles College. He then entered St. Mary’s Seminary and was ordained by Cardinal Gibbons. He first served at St. Peters, Libertytown, and like his predecessors, he also served the faithful at Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Mechanicstown (Thurmont). The Frederick News specially noted that he said his first sermon at Libertytown on November 13, 1892, and his first at Mechanicstown would be November 20. During his short stay at St. Peter’s,

A rocking chair, a VCR and a TV. Those were gifts that friends of Fr. Eugene Nickol gave him upon his assignment as pastor of St. Peter’s in 1985, along with good-natured ribbing that his move to Libertytown was akin to semi-retirement in the countryside. After all, what could there be for this city boy to do, way out there? In reality, Fr. Gene doesn’t think he ever had time to use that rocker or the video cassette recorder. Born in Baltimore April 25, 1947, he was the middle of the three children of Andrew and Marian Nickol. He attended the city’s Shrine of the Little Flower School, the elementary school affiliated with his home parish of the same name. Father Gene says his priestly discernment began in the eighth grade. He was one of 108 ninth graders enrolled in St. Charles College High School and its six-year seminarian studies program….108 young men thinking about the priesthood. To this day, Fr. Gene stays in touch with dozens of those classmates. Besides holding a virtua