Monsignor Don Luigi Sartori

The Reverend Monsignor Don Luigi Sartori was born in 1843 in the Tyrol region of Italy. His was possibly the shortest pastorate at St. Peter’s in Libertytown, but that is not to say that there was not something dramatic about his overall priestly career. To begin with, he was a cousin of Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarro, more commonly known today as Saint Pope Pius X (1903-1914).


He emigrated to the U. S. and entered the seminary. He was ordained a priest in 1875 in Wheeling, West Virginia.

He was attached to the Archdiocese of Baltimore and was assigned to a two-parish circuit in western Maryland, St. Patrick’s in Cumberland and St. Patrick’s at Fifteen Mile Creek in Allegany County, in 1879.

After this short assignment, he was assigned to another two-parish circuit which he led for many years, St. Francis de Sales in Abingdon and St. Stephen’s in Kingsville/Upper Falls/Bradshaw (1880-97). This was the longest pastorate in the first 100 years of St. Stephens. The 1880 US Census shows him living in Upper Falls. On May 19, 1889, the cornerstone of the present St. Stephen’s Church was laid and on June 15, 1890, a solemn dedication for the completed Church was held. He also built a rectory.

St. Francis de Sales originally opened its doors in 1866 as St. Joseph’s Mission. On March 27, 1887 (Passion Sunday), Fr. Sartori performed the dedication of St. Francis de Sales, 20 years later.

In 1886 at a construction encampment in Baltimore, several Italians were arguing. Two of the Italians began fighting. Carmi Salman was stabbed by Donati Sorocca, suffering fatal wounds to the lung and heart. Sorocca changed his clothes, said goodbye to his compatriots, and fled the scene. A grand jury was empaneled to review the case and returned an indictment against Sorocca. Fr. Sartori was requested to serve as the interpreter for the Italian witnesses who testified about the events of the night. A review of the Baltimore Sun from that day to the present yields no further reference to these individuals with respect to arrest or trial, leading to the assumption that Sorocca made good his getaway.

According to the Baltimore Sun, once Cardinal Gibbons concluded that the parishes of St. Francis de Sales and St. Stephen’s should no longer share a pastor; Fr. Sartori concluded that “he would be more useful elsewhere, where he had more work to perform.” In the fall of 1897, Fr. Sartori was assigned to yet another two parish circuit - St. Peter’s in Liberty and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Mechanicstown (now Thurmont). (Those two parishes were still being served by a single pastor ever since 1882, when diocesan priests replaced the Jesuits.) He was pastor for perhaps the shortest time of any priest in our history – 9 months, but he made a significant difference to the parishioners during his tenure. During that 9 month period, he suggested to Cardinal Gibbons that Thurmont was closer to Mount St. Mary’s and it would therefore be closer for Our Lady of Mount Carmel to be a mission church of St. Anthony’s Parish (now Mount St. Mary’s), rather than St. Peter’s. The Cardinal agreed – which was wonderful news for the parishioners of St. Peter’s, who would no longer share a pastor for the first time in their 75 year history.

Fr. Sartori left St. Peter’s in August 1898 for St. Joseph’s in Midlands MD where he remained until 1904, and the US Census for 1900 shows him to be living there. St. Joseph’s was founded in June 1891 and the cornerstone for the original church was laid on June 28. The first Mass celebrated in the church was Midnight Mass, Christmas 1891. Fr. Sartori became the first pastor of the church when he arrived in 1898. The current church was built in 1965-67.

In January 1904 he resigned and requested to return to Italy, though remaining a priest under the authority of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. On March 19, 1907 he was elevated to monsignor and appointed a member of the Papal household of his cousin, however, he continued corresponding with Cardinal Gibbons as late as 1921, when he wrote to express happiness over hearing that the Cardinal had recovered from a recent illness[i].

He was living in Grigno, Austria, on the border with northern Italy, where he started an orphanage for boys and built a villa for himself (aptly named the Villa Sartori). At the beginning of the First World War in 1914, the Italian Army occupied Grigno and took over the Villa Sartori for its own purposes. He was removed to Solero, Alessandria, in Italy. As a naturalized US citizen, he wrote to friends in the States to try to find a copy of his naturalization papers so that he could be placed under the auspices of the US Government and the embassy in Rome. It is not known how this effort fared. When he was finally allowed to return to his home in Grigno, he remained there the rest of his life, and died there on July 13, 1933, at the age of 89, still a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

[i] 140b2, Msgr. Don Luigi Sartori to Cardinal Gibbons, 28 February 1921, Card. Gibbons Papers, Archives of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Associated Archives at St. Mary’s Seminary & University, Baltimore, MD.





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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