A Brief History of Our Two Chapels

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre visited the chapel in 1982. A picture of this visit is still hanging on the chapel wall to this day.Fr. Timothy Hopkins came to Miami in 1989 and became the priest of the Shrine of St. Philomena.Fr. Carl Pulvermacher an associated priest of the SSPX serviced Our Lady of Victory chapel in Davie, Florida, since 1991.

In 1991, Fr. Timothy Hopkins lost the use of the church on Flagler and move the Shrine of St. Philomena at the 6th Street Chapel.In 2005, when Fr. Pulvermacher left Davie due to many health complications, he entrusted his flock to his confreres, the Society of St. Pius X. Over the next years, SSPX priests flied to Davie, Florida for the weekend mission, ran from all over the United States of America.In 2010 the Society of St. Pius X established the St. Thomas More Priory in Sanford, Florida which took care of Our Lady of Victory Chapel as well as Lake Worth and Fort Myers. The priests would come each weekend, driving the three-and-a-half hours down from Central Florida to Davie, Florida.On November 2, 2011 Fr. Timothy Hopkins passed away. The faithful at the Shrine of St. Philomena requested the care of the Society of St. Pius X. During a while, the SSPX sent a priest from Kansas City every weekend.

Eventually the Priory of St. Thomas More, in Florida, took over and serviced both chapels of Miami and Davie. Fr. Rainer Becher and Fr. Anthony Haynos divided time and energy between the two locations.In 2014, Fr. Anthony Haynos attempted to merge the two chapels of South Florida into one location; the project didn’t go through as no suitable location was found and too many faithful opposed to the idea.In 2016, after long exhaustive efforts were made either to find or to build a new shrine in honor of St. Philomena in the present location on 6th street but the initial fundraising did not reach the expectations which could make the project feasible.At the end of 2019, the attendance at the Shrine of St. Philomena is the same as in 2011, around 100 people. At Our Lady of Victory attendance increases and lightly overpasses 100 peopleIn March 2020, the COVID-19 crisis hits South Florida. The stay at home order of the City of Miami effectively closes the Shrine of St. Philomena. No public Masses have been celebrated since.

Attendance numbers at Mass in Davie increases significantly: without counting the faithful of the Shrine who were obliged to come now to Davie during this unfortunate crisis, Latin Mass people reach out to the only public Latin Mass in the area, many others discovered Our Lady of Victory as the other churches at large are closed.

In May 2020, the relic and statue of St. Philomena are moved from the Miami Shrine to Davie where the Saint now finds a place of honor in the sanctuary.

The attendance growth is staggering for the Sunday Masses now surpassing 450 faithful in attendance for Sunday's Masses.

The combination of the two communities and the newcomers allow a better Liturgy: the servers and the Choir from both places, united have significantly improved the quality of the ceremonies.

The manpower for the cleaning and arrangements cuts the workload and increase the camaraderie.

The collections have gone up meanwhile we do not have to pay the overheads of two locations. The bookstore increased the sales in particular with more Missals in English as well as in Spanish.The story continues...

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