When he served as pastor of St. Martin of Tours Parish in Gaithersburg, Maryland, then-Msgr. Mark Brennan was moved when after telling a person in the community that he served at St. Martin’s, that person responded, “That’s the church that feeds people!”
Now the bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, Bishop Brennan recounted that incident as he spoke at the Nov. 13 dinner at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Gaithersburg that closed out the two-year centennial commemoration for St. Martin’s, where he was pastor from 2003 until Pope Francis named him as an auxiliary bishop of Baltimore in 2016.
Reflecting on that description of St. Martin’s, he said, “What a beautiful image,” and he added it was especially fitting that the building behind the church houses an Adoration Chapel on one side, where people pray before the Eucharist and are fed spiritually, and the St. Martin’s Food Pantry on the other side of the building, where volunteers give food to their neighbors in need.
“My prayer is that unity will continue,” said Bishop Brennan, who became the bishop of Wheeling-Charleston in 2019, the same year he was the main celebrant at an opening Mass at St. Martin’s celebrated in English, Spanish and French that kicked off the parish’s centennial.
St. Martin of Tours in Gaithersburg was founded in 1920, and the celebration of its 100th anniversary in 2020 was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘The pandemic brought out the best in our parish’
Speaking at the parish’s closing dinner for its centennial, held one year later, Father David Wells, St. Martin’s pastor, said, “Rather than this being a centennial year bust, the pandemic brought out the best in our parish. We put off celebrating for a year, because we were called on to respond in time of crisis.”
Father Wells noted that the centennial year theme “We serve the Lord” from Joshua 24:15 reflected the parish’s faith-filled responses to God’s call, which since the pandemic have included bedside anointings for hospitalized COVID patients, funeral Masses, outdoor parking lot Holy Hours and Confessions, virtual and in-person classes for students in the parish school and attending religious education classes, live-streamed Masses and talks and retreats, and thousands of people helped with food, baby supplies and money.
In his talk at St. Martin’s 100th anniversary dinner, Father Wells echoed Bishop Brennan’s comments about the parish feeding people spiritually and materially.
“First and foremost, we are a parish centered on the Eucharist,” he said, noting that St. Martin’s offers more weekly Masses than any other parish in The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.
St. Martin’s, one of the largest and most diverse parishes in the archdiocese, includes parishioners from more than 3,000 households, and each weekend, 10 Masses are celebrated there for the Saturday vigil and throughout the day on Sunday, including four Masses in English, five Masses in Spanish serving parishioners with roots in Central and South America, and one Mass in French serving immigrants from Africa.
Noting those Masses and the daily Adoration there, Father Wells said Christ’s Eucharistic presence is “at the heart of our parish,” and he added that “the Eucharist truly is the source and summit of our parish’s life and activities.”
St. Martin’s pastor noted how the parish reflects its patron saint by its service to those in need. According to a famous story, St. Martin of Tours – a fourth century soldier – cut his cloak in half to give to a poor man, and that night he had a vision where the beggar revealed himself to be Jesus. St. Martin’s has a statue of its patron saint in the back of the church, and it holds an annual coat drive to honor his legacy.
Father Wells praised the outreach of St. Martin’s food pantry, noting, “During the pandemic, when everything else was shut down, our pantry remained in operation. Our parishioners, school families and really parishes from all around rallied around our pantry to provide for families in an unprecedented way.”
He said local stores and businesses “joined forces with parishioners to supply thousands of families with vital food and resources,” and “yeoman’s work was carried out by pantry volunteers who are some of the unsung heroes of our parish.”
St. Martin’s Food Pantry, founded in 1992, served an average of 257 families per week in 2020, a record for its three decades in operation. In 2021, the food pantry has served about 220 families a week, distributing an average of four tons of food per week, about half of which is non-perishable, and the other half includes fresh and frozen meat, fresh vegetables and fruit, bread and pastries donated by individuals, local churches and schools and stores.
Building reflects parish’s twin focus
On Dec. 10, a typical day at the parish, the building behind St. Martin of Tours Church housing the Adoration Chapel and St. Martin’s Food Pantry reflected the parish’s twin focus of prayer and service.
In the chapel, five people prayed quietly before the Eucharist, and on the other side of the building, seven volunteers sorted out food in the pantry for the next Monday’s distribution.
In email comments afterward that were translated into English, Hispanic parishioners praying in the chapel that morning reflected on why they were there.
“I feel so happy being in front of the Blessed Sacrament,” said Edna Mérida. “I feel peace, the Holy Spirit pours over me, I feel chills, and I know what it is because I feel the presence of Jesus. He is my friend, my beloved Father who consoles us and listens to our sorrows and worries, and our prayers too. You can feel His presence so real, nothing or no one can give you the peace that only He gives.”
Dolores Contreras added, “To whom shall we go if not to be in the presence of our beloved who listens to us and consoles us? That is why I come to be in His presence.”
And Nely Alarcon said, “For me it is to be in heaven here on Earth because we are in front of Him in his real presence.”
In St. Martin’s Pantry that morning, the volunteers were led by longtime parishioner Lois McKearney, 93, who began helping out there about two decades ago after the death of her husband Thomas.
McKearney was getting bags ready for other volunteers to put cans and boxes of food in for the weekly Monday distribution. Volunteers sort the donated food and fill the bags on Thursdays and Fridays. That morning, Joe Matelis, a volunteer from St. Raphael Parish in Rockville, explained, “I’m the rice and bean man,” as he was breaking down a 50-lb. bag of rice, putting its contents into smaller bags.
Asked why she was volunteering to serve the poor, McKearney said, “Isn’t that what He (Jesus) has asked us to do in the Bible?”
She added that stopping in at the chapel afterward is part of her regular routine.
“After I leave here, I usually go over and say a few words and talk to the Lord,” said McKearney.
Lucy McCallion, another St. Martin’s parishioner, was sorting out fruits and vegetables that morning. A retired media assistant for Montgomery County public schools, she started helping out at the pantry about 14 years ago on Sundays during Lent.
“It’s been a long Lent,” she joked, adding, “I knew the ladies here (at the pantry). I was going to the Adoration Chapel, and I stopped to say hi, and they nabbed me.”
Nearby, St. Martin’s parishioner Cathy Myers was packing bags with cans of vegetables and fruit, boxes of pasta and jars of pasta sauce, and other items.
“I retired about three years ago, and I wanted to do something at the parish,” said Myers, who worked as a program manager for the Department of Energy. “I feel like I’m giving back something.”
Kathy Norcross from Our Lady of the Visitation Parish in Darnestown was packing bags of food, while Betsy Knowles of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Derwood was sorting food.
“I just think it’s a great thing to do. I believe in the mission,” Norcross said.
In another section of the pantry, volunteer Marleny Salinas, also a St. Martin’s parishioner, was getting packages of diapers ready to distribute to families, and also helping to sort the food. Salinas works as a bus driver for Montgomery County public schools, picking up special needs students and driving them home, and she volunteers at the pantry several days a week.
“I love to help people,” she said.
Chuck Smith, the longtime coordinator of the St. Martin’s Food Pantry who continues to serve on its board, said the pantry has a corps of about 30 regular volunteers and 10-20 other people who help out. The pantry is supported by St. Martin’s Parish and School, and also by several other area Catholic parishes, and by Catholic Charities and volunteers from Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church. During the pandemic, the Shrine of St. Jude in Rockville and St. John Neumann Parish in Gaithersburg started parish food pantries, which helped meet the need of people needing assistance in Montgomery County.
“We could not exist without St. Martin’s support, but neither would this operation be viable without the wider help,” Smith said.
Looking back and looking ahead
At the closing dinner for St. Martin’s 100th anniversary, Deacon Carlo Caraballo and his wife Yolanda served as masters of ceremony, telling how as Hispanic immigrants to Maryland they had found a home at St. Martin’s, where they raised their family.
Yolanda Caraballo said, “Our blessed time at St. Martin’s was like a university,” where they learned to love and serve their neighbors and bring Christ to them.
A video at the dinner highlighted the history of St. Martin of Tours Parish, noting that the first Mass there was celebrated on Dec. 12, 1920 by Father John Stanislaus Cuddy, who became the founding pastor. Masses were first celebrated in people’s homes, and then a chapel was constructed from former Army mess hall buildings used at a Washington, D.C. base during World War I. St. Martin of Tours School opened in 1925, staffed by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Father Cuddy died in an accident at a nearby railroad crossing in 1928, and today a bridge spanning that section of Route 355 is named after him.
St. Martin of Tours Church was dedicated in 1957, and the present St. Martin’s school building opened 30 years later. St. Martin’s Church hosted some history of its own in December 2020, when it welcomed Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory for his first parish Mass after he was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis.
In his talk at the centennial dinner, Father Wells noted how St. Martin’s, in addition to being centered on the Eucharist and focused on serving others, is also known as a community that praises God with heartfelt prayer and music, a place where people encounter the Lord and each other, and a place were immigrants from Latin America and Africa are welcomed and have helped reinvigorate the parish with their faith.
Noting that the 100-year-old parish was part of a 2,000 year-old Church, Father Wells said St. Martin of Tours parishioners will build on that spiritual foundation as they face the challenges of today and the future and continue the work entrusted to them.
“With our Eucharistic Lord to strengthen us, the praise of God on our lips, encountering God and each other in graced friendship, welcoming the newcomer in our midst, and in generous service to the poor and needy, we extend the kingdom of God in our day,” he said, before repeating the theme of the parish’s centennial. “It is our privilege and joy to exclaim as parishioners of St. Martin of Tours, ‘We serve the Lord.’”
(The St. Martin of Tours website has information on how to support St. Martin's Pantry.)
