St. Paschal Baylon celebrates 40 years  




LISA ADAMS/Thousand Oaks AcornSUNDAY MASS AND CELEBRATION-Monsignor Joseph George welcomes his congregation. Saint Paschal Baylon Church celebrated its first 40 years in a giant outdoor festival that took place on the church's grounds on Sunday in Thousand Oaks near the intersection of Janss and Moorpark roads.

LISA ADAMS/Thousand Oaks AcornSUNDAY MASS AND CELEBRATION-Monsignor Joseph George welcomes his congregation. Saint Paschal Baylon Church celebrated its first 40 years in a giant outdoor festival that took place on the church’s grounds on Sunday in Thousand Oaks near the intersection of Janss and Moorpark roads.

St. Paschal Baylon celebrates 40 years

 


Saint Paschal Baylon Catholic Church, the oldest and largest Catholic church in the Conejo Valley, celebrated its first 40 years with a huge multilingual Mass and barbecue that took place at the church last weekend.


During the Mass, prayers were said in Spanish, French, German, Vietnamese and Portuguese to reflect the diversity of the parishioners’ ethnic backgrounds.


The church was founded in 1960 when Father Thomas Aquinas Greaney, born in County Limerick, Ireland, journeyed to the Conejo Valley at the bequest of the Los Angeles Archdiocese to build a church.


The congregation first found a home at the Acorn Theater, at Hampshire Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard. Later, the church set up facilities inside Peterson’s Barn, at Janss Road and Windsor Drive, and also held services inside Griffin Brothers’ Mortuary/Chapel on Wilbur Road.


Parishioners Bill and Rosemary Boykin have been in Thousand Oaks since 1946, and are two of the original parishioners. All of their five children received their sacraments in the parish and attended the parish school.


Bill fondly remembers Father Greaney and the early days of the parish when Mass was celebrated before fewer than than 30 people. The parish now is home to more than 4,500 families.


"Father Greaney loved his pipe, but not as much as his German shepherd named Queeny," Boykin said. He said that the biggest challenge the parish faced in those early days was building the church.


"It took a lot of work and time to get the design finalized," Boykin said.


Groundbreaking at its current Janss and Moorpark roads site took place in 1962. The current church was dedicated in 1979, and the original church building was converted to the parish hall at that time.


Father Greaney served until his retirement in June of 1983. Greaney passed away while living in Ojai in 1988 at the age of 72.


Monsignor Joseph S. George now leads the congregation.


The parish is named after St. Paschal Baylon, a Franciscan lay brother born in 1540. He’s the patron saint of Eucharistic congresses and cooks.


St. Paschal Baylon was known for his charity to the poor and the afflicted. Though poorly educated, it’s said that the saint was sought after by the rich and poor alike for spiritual counseling.


He was beatified in 1618 and canonized in 1690.


– John Phane


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