FrameChurch

At the end of the nineteenth century, Catholic families living on farms in Millersville area appealed to priests at St. Mary's parish in Annapolis to say mass on a regular basis in their area. The first mass was celebrated on May 17, 1891 in the living room of Mrs. Easby Smith on St. Stephen's Church Road . Other families took turns as host, including Mrs. Josephine Cecil, and Frank and Mary Gies.

Mrs. Cecil donated a piece of land on Cecil Avenue for a chapel to be built around this time. Today this is the area of Knollwood Nursing Home. Frank Gies and his sons, Frank and Henry, laid the foundation for a chapel and helped in the construction. The chapel became the worship place for the newly created "mission" of St. Joseph when it was completed in 1902. Our community was a "mission" of St. Mary's Parish in Annapolis until 1965. As a mission we had three names: St. Joseph 's at the beginning, "St. Mary's Millersville", and finally "Our Lady of the Fields". The Redemptorist Order of Priests and Brothers served our community from 1902 until we became a parish in 1965.

In 1908 the Woodward family dedicated a private family memorial chapel at a site near present church. Fr. Henry Urban from St. Mary's in Annapolis offered the first mass there on August 15, 1909.

In 1910, faced with problems with the original 1902 building for the St. Josephs mission, Fr. Frank Klauder, rector of St. Mary's Annapolis , approached the Woodwards about acquiring their private chapel for the mission. The family agreed to deed the chapel and property to the Redemptorists provided that mass be said there at least four times a year. The move was then made on May 10, 1910 when altar, statues, and other religious articles were removed from St. Joseph 's.

In 1945, a shrine to Our Blessed Mother was built outside the chapel, and in 1950 the old chapel was renovated to increase the seating capacity to fifty people.

Fr. Edward Droxler, C. SS. R. served the mission at this time. To respond to the steadily growing number of Catholics in the area, further plans were soon made to build a completely new church and hall. The Baldwin family donated land around the original chapel site to accommodate the growth. In December 1957, the current building was completed.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore took the mission over in 1965, turning it into a parish and assigning Fr. Francis J. Linn as the first pastor. Fr. Linn served at the parish for twenty-three years. In 1978 part of the parish area was broken off to create St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Crofton. In 1988 Fr. John Auer became pastor and in 1993 a beautiful new parish center was constructed. A new faith formation wing, housing offices for religious education, was completed in September 2000.

Fr. Gene Nickol became the pastor in 2002 after Msgr. Auer's retirement. Due to steady growth, Our Lady of the Fields is looking forward to expanding its facilities in the near future.