The first Catholic priests to visit Utah came with the 1776 Escalante expedition. Unless others passed through anonymously on their way west, the next did not visit until 1863, when John Baptist Ravardy called on soldiers at Camp Douglas. The first to spend time here was the Rev. Edward Kelly, whose remarkable 1866 mission laid a permanent foundation for Catholic worship and education in Utah.

Kelly was dispatched by Sacramento’s Bishop Eugene O’Connell in May. Tradition reports that he first celebrated Mass at the Mormon Tabernacle late in June, but new research reveals that for five weeks before that date he had been holding services at Independence Hall twice each Sunday, and lecturing there on weekday evenings. Continue reading Father Edward Kelly: Irish Priest in Brigham’s Zion →