Barrow - Saint Patrick Catholic Church
Barrow is located on the edge of the Arctic Ocean. This Inupiat village is 330 miles north of the Arctic Circle and 503 air miles northwest of Fairbanks. Saint Patrick Church at Barrow can boast that it is the most northern Catholic Parish in the United States.
Christianity came early to Barrow. It was introduced by Presbyterian clergymen in the year 1890. Jesuit missionary, Fr. Francis Barnum visited Barrow briefly in 1898. He stayed a short time and, in his words, "to see what prospects were for missionary work." Catholicism took root in 1954 under Fr. Thomas Cunningham, S.J., St. Patrick's first resident pastor. He built the first church with abandoned WW II military salvage buildings from a nearby Army base. After Fr. Cunningham's death in 1959, Barrow's Catholic Community was sustained by itinerant priests serving the DEW Line and nearby Naval Arctic Research facilities.
Fr. Angus McDonald, the first Diocesan priest ordained in and for the Fairbanks Diocese, established residence in Barrow from 1966 until 1971. During his tenure at Barrow, Fr. McDonald kept the quonset hut church, but improved the living space by adding a small prefabricated rectory.
After Fr. McDonald's tenure, Fr.Thomas Hanley, S.J., arrived and served the Barrow parish community from 1973 until 1974 from his post at the Naval Arctic Research Laboratory. Fr. Francis Mueller, S.J., of Fairbanks, was appointed itinerant pastor after Fr. Hanley and served the Barrow congregation on alternate weekends. Fr. Mueller served as Saint Patrick's pastor for almost 25 years, having the distinction of being the longest serving Catholic pastor at Barrow. Fr. Mueller's many parish activities included tearing down the old quonset hut church and overseeing the building of a complete new structure with living quarters. Construction began in 1992 of a beautiful new church which was completed for the Christmas 1992 Midnight Mass. Saint Patrick church was dedicated by Bishop Michael Kaniecki, S.J., the following March 28, 1993.