Our Parish History

First dedicated in June of 1904, the Church of the Nativity of Our Lord at 240 Fell Street in downtown San Francisco has been the gathering place for Croatian and Slovenian immigrants, their children, and other Slavic Catholics for more than a hundred years.

During the 1850s, many Croatian (primarily from Dalmatia) and Slovenian men from lands in the Austro-Hungarian empire followed thousands from around the world to California's goldfields seeking their fortunes. The first Poles came to the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1840s. By 1860, 730 Poles resided in California.

Once all these immigrants began to marry and have families, their desire for a church where they could hear God's Word in their own languages, and praise Him in songs from their own traditions became even more powerful. By the turn of the century, Slovenians and Croatians were regularly petitioning San Francisco's Archbishop Riordan to find a piece of land where they could build their church.

Eventually their petitions were answered. The Archbishop established the parish of Church of the Nativity of Our Lord, purchasing the lot on January 6, 1903. The Slavonic Mutual & Benevolent Society was an active supporter of the building effort. Father Bontempo, S.J., a Jesuit priest fluent in Croatian, served as shepherd to Slavic Catholics in the Bay Area during this time.

The first Nativity church was dedicated on June 5, 1904 — and burned to the ground in San Francisco's great earthquake and fire of 1906. Father Turk immediately began the task of rebuilding on the very same spot. The congregation worshiped in a basement church until the grand celebration of the newly rebuilt Nativity, dedicated once more on January 21st, 1912.

Through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the Cold War, Nativity continued to be a haven and home for Croatian and Slovenian immigrants and refugees, as well as Polish, Czech, Slovak, and other Slavic Catholics.

In 1994, Archbishop John J. Quinn closed nine churches in San Francisco — Nativity among them. Nativity's Slovenian and Croatian parishioners held prayer vigils in front of the closed church each Sunday morning for two and a half years. Under the newly appointed Archbishop William Levada, their prayers were answered. In September 1996, Archbishop Levada assigned Fr. Czeslaw Rybacki, S.Ch., as the new pastor to serve all three communities. Nativity was reopened in December 1996, just in time for Christmas services.

In September 2003, Fr. Jerzy Frydrych, S.Ch., was welcomed as Nativity's pastor. He arrived in the midst of preparations for the parish's 100th Anniversary and continued the planning with the parish Centennial Committee. Today, Nativity looks forward to a bright future as one of the San Francisco Archdiocese's active ethnic parishes.