New London’s first Catholics came in the
1840s. Primarily Irish, they rebuilt Fort Trumbull. Their first place of
worship was a rented room where a missionary priest celebrated mass once
a month. By 1850 there was a Catholic church on Jay Street, which was
then followed by a larger one on Truman Street. In 1867 groundbreaking
began for the congregation’s third church building, the present Saint
Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church on Huntington Street. The
cornerstone was laid in August 1870. The north wall collapsed during
construction, delaying completion of the church until 1876. The tower
was added many years later. St. Mary’s served the people of New
London, Waterford, Montville, and Groton until the towns were divided
into separate parishes during the first decade of the twentieth century.
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| Saint Mary Star of the Sea
Catholic Church, c. 1920 |
Father Thomas Joynt became pastor of St.
Mary’s in 1883. A good administrator, he organized a temperance
society and started a parish school (at first only for girls). By 1893
he was serving a congregation of approximately 3000. The O’Neill
family attended mass at St. Mary’s. James O’Neill was a close friend
of Father Joynt’s. When Eugene O’Neill was in his early teens he
discovered that his mother was a morphine addict and he refused to
attend St. Mary’s. In the play Days Without End (1933), O’Neill
expressed his spiritual disillusionment through the character of John
Loving, saying: "He abased and humbled himself before the Cross—and,
in reward for his sickening humiliation, saw that no miracle would
happen" (Collected Plays, 955). For the remainder of his life, O’Neill
never attended mass.
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