St. Martin of Tours, Bethpage

Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

The parish of St. Martin of Tours is located at 220 Central Avenue, Bethpage NY 11714, telephone 516-931-0808.  The parish website is linked here.  The church, rectory, and other parish buildings are within the triangle created by Broadway, Central Avenue, and Seaman Avenue.  The location is three blocks southeast of the Bethpage train station.
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An informative history of the parish is at this link.  Diocesan priests served the parish from 1924 until 1986, when they were replaced by Redemptorists of the province of Baltimore, which is headquartered in Bay Ridge!

Above is the religious education center, built as an elementary school in 1955, and the church, on busy Central Avenue.  

A wedding was being celebrated the Friday afternoon the above 2011 photo was taken on Central Avenue. 
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Within seven miles of each other are two parishes whose patron is St. Martin of Tours.  In Amityville, Suffolk County, the parish of St. Martin of Tours was founded in 1898.  This parish in Bethpage, Nassau County, was established in 1923.  
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Born in 316 in what is now Hungary, Martin moved around with his father, an officer in the Roman Army.  Martin became a Christian, and he was the third bishop of Tours, France, from 371 to 397.  His successor was the renowned St. Brice.

St. Brigid, Westbury

St. Brigid's parish in Westbury, Long Island, has a church on Post Avenue, immediately south of the Westbury railroad station, and an extensive school building a mile northwest on Maple Avenue. St. Brigid - Our Lady of Hope Regional School includes a parish chapel, used for four Sunday Masses.  Clicking on any photo will enlarge it.
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The parish address is 75 Post Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590, telephone 516-334-0024. The parish website is here, and it includes photos. The Mass schedule is here. Daily Mass is in the church. On weekends, seven Masses are scheduled in the church, four in Our Lady's Chapel in the Maple school, as pictured above.

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Fortunately, there is a traffic signal with a pedestrian button at Post Avenue and Fifth Avenue, allowing people to cross safely from the east side of Post Avenue (church, rectory, park-like grounds, and Holy Rood Cemetery) to the west side of Post Avenue (parking lot, parish center, parish hall).

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Below are photos of the parish school on Maple Avenue.

Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

The address of St. Brigid - Our Lady of Hope Regional School is 101 Maple Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590, telephone 718-333-0580. Its website is linked here.

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The bishop of Brooklyn, John Loughlin, established a church, but not a parish, in Westbury in 1852.  In 1892, his successor, Charles McDonnell, St. Brigid's as a parish.  The parish boundaries include a greater area than most Nassau parishes.  In 1987, the Carle Place chapel was established as its own parish of Our Lady of Hope.

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An excellent photo of St. Brigid's church is here on Flickr.

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Please see a parish bulletin for an explanation (atop page 3) of St. Brigid's cross, seen several places in the parish and on the website.

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Below, one can see the influence of St. Brigid's parish on its neighborhood.

Holy Family, Hicksville

Above is the parish sign facing NY Highway 106, Newbridge Road, about a mile southwest of the Hicksville railroad station.  The intersection with Fordham Avenue has a traffic signal.  Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.  Photo from early 2012.

The address is 17 Fordham Avenue, Hicksville, NY 11801, telephone 516-938-3846. The parish website is linked here.  

This view looks west along Fordham Avenue towards Newbridge Road.  One entrance of the church, at the tower, leads to both naves, with the altar where they meet.  At the right of the above photo, the white door leads to the new foyer created during the 2013 renovations. The smaller nave (in the distance) had pews for about 130 but now has chairs.  The window honors the St. Ann, as shown below.  (In editing, I just realized the appropriateness of this window, as Ann is Grandma to Jesus, in the Holy Family.)
  

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The altar now faces the longer nave, as shown below.  The shorter nave is to the left of the altar.

Each photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.  Note the representation of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, Joseph) to the right of the altar. Also, please note at the right the wise installation of a ramp for those who find the altar steps difficult. The baptismal font is at the left in this photo.

Clear glass provides light for the church and offers a beautiful view of trees.  Before the construction of the school in 1960, this long nave had rooms for religious ed classes during the week.  On Sunday, partitions were folded back and chairs arranged for the overflow of Sunday congregants.
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The parish was established in 1951, and a cornerstone of the smaller nave has the date 1953.  As the families grew simultaneously in the Levitt homes there was a surge in population.  The homes of parishioners have Hicksville, Westbury, East Meadow, and Levittown addresses.  Recall that William Levitt's first houses were built near Center Lane near Hempstead Turnpike.  As the years progressed, he continued to build on farmland in each direction.  At some point, he was limited by the older homes in Hicksville or places where other builders had purchased land.  Tax records show a 1952 construction date for homes near the church.

Holy Family parish school is at 25 Fordham Avenue, Hicksville NY 11801, telephone 516-938-3846. Its website is linked here.  The church is to my left.  

That's my school bag.

St. Bernard, Levittown

St. Bernard's church is located at 3100 Hempstead Turnpike, Levittown, New York 11756, telephone 516-731-4220.  The well-maintained parish website is linked here.  As of February, 2015, there is a current Facebook page here.

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Lined with stores, Hempstead Turnpike (NY 24) is the principal east-west thoroughfare of Levittown.  St. Bernard's church is clearly marked with the above tower on the south side of the highway, on a service road.  A driveway at the stop sign leads to the the church entrance and the six buildings which surround a vast parking lot.  The tower and rectory have scant frontage on Hempstead Turnpike, but the property runs deep to the south.

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The main entrance to the church, seen in this view north towards Hempstead Turnpike. The rectory is to the right of this driveway.

 The above view looks west.

The tower serves its purpose.  On busy and cluttered Hempstead Turnpike, the large cross marks the building as a Christian church.  From the inside, one would not guess that the tower is to the right of those windows ahead.  Like a campanile, the tower and its windows have no presence inside the church, but each (the tower and the church) serves its purpose well.
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The parish was established in 1948, shortly after the first Levitt houses were constructed nearby.  An excellent history of the parish is provided here.  At the center of Levittown, St. Bernard's is the only Catholic parish with a Levittown address.  To the north, Holy Family parish, Hicksville, includes many families living in Levitt houses.  To the east is St. James parish in northern Seaford.  To the south is the parish of St. Frances de Chantal in northern Wantagh.  To the southwest is St. Raphael, East Meadow, and to the northwest is St. Brigid, Westbury.  I do not know how many of 53,000 inhabitants of Levittown live within the borders of St. Bernard's parish.

There seem to be six or seven buildings in the parish complex. Left to right: the parish center, with the Clairvaux house (an older building peeking over the center), the church, the rectory (a white frame house), a gymnasium, and a large school now shared by Faith Formation (youth and adults), a child-care program, and classes of the Nassau Board of Cooperative Educational Services.  A convent is to the left, but behind the camera.
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The church is about a mile east of the Wantagh Parkway.  Four Long Island Bus routes ply Hempstead Turnpike in front of the church: N70, N71, N72, and N73.

St. Raphael, East Meadow

The new church of St. Raphael, East Meadow, has risen on a field behind other parish buildings.  The parish address is 600 Newbridge Road, East Meadow NY 11554, telephone 516-785-0236.  The parish website is linked here.

The lobby has a shrine of Archangel Raphael.  To read the text, please click on the photo.

More than twenty-five inspiring stained-glass windows surround the pews. Unlike the famous windows of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and those at St. William the Abbot parish, these windows still illuminate the church brightly.

I find it difficult to categorize the shape of the church.  Not Gothic?  Romanesque arches?  Byzantine?  Colonial?  Six pillars appear to support arches.  The dome is square, the nave and transepts T-shaped.  the pews in five directions face the altar.

Weekday Masses are at 7:30 and 9 a.m.

The parish reports 5,700 registered families.  Its geographic boundaries are, I believe, extensive, with St. Bernard to the east, St. Brigid to the north, and Sacred Heart to the south. Maybe the west boundary is the Meadowbrook Parkway, with St. Martha beyond.  The parish website is linked here.  A bulletin gave the Mass Attendance for Sunday, December 23, 2012, as 2,909.  
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It seems that one of the many ethnic groups in the parish is Filipino.  Ten years ago, a Filipino resident of Queens pointed out to me that, unlike some other groups that settled where their landsmen were (giving New York Irish, Italian, German enclaves, for example), Filipinos were spread throughout the parishes of our metropolis.
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About 1992, St. Raphael's elementary school was absorbed into St. Elizabeth Ann Seton regional school, supported by four parishes, and principally located at St. Barnabas, Bellmore.

Above are the buildings that face Newbridge Road.  To the right is the old church.  The rectory is in the center.  The school is to the left, the upper floor used by Nassau County's Academy for Emergency Medical Service personnel.  Further to the left is the entrance for the Religious Education program, apparently using the first floor; then the convent; then some rooms for the Pius XII Council of the Knights of Columbus.
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To reach the new church, one passes around the left end of the school, or one uses Pendroy Street, on the north side of the old church.  This location is about one mile north of Exit 25 of the Southern State Parkway.  Newbridge Road is also NY 106.

St. Ignatius Loyola, Hicksville

St. Ignatius Loyola parish is located at 129 Broadway, Hicksville, NY 11801, telephone 516-931-0056.  The Mass schedule is linked HERE.  The parish Facebook page is linked HERE, 

Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

A former school building faces East Nicolai Street.

Another former school building is at 30 East Cherry Street.  The bishop of Rockville Centre closed the school in 2012.  Holy Family parish school is a mile south.

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The parish buildings are located on a rectangular block, with the church and rectory facing southwest on Broadway (NY 107), one former school on the northwest side (East Nicholai Street), and other parish buildings on the southeast side (East Cherry Street).  The northwest side borders the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road's main line, constructed here in 1841, three decades before the parish was canonically established.  According to the history on the parish website, the rectangle of property was begun piecemeal with a donation of two lots by 1859.

Our Lady of Mercy, Hicksville

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Our Lady of Mercy parish is located at 500 South Oyster Bay Road, Hicksville NY 11801, telephone 516-931-4351.  The parish website is linked here.  The location is in northeast Hicksville,  about a mile south of Exit 36 of the Northern State Parkway. The parish buildings are on the west side of South Oyster Bay Road, and across the street is Plainview.

The upper church, which is bright, seems to be locked on weekdays, except for funerals.

The parish website reports that the first pastor learned of his assignment on September 23, the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, and thereby chose the name.

Looking north, the above photo shows the elementary school and church.  This is not a business district, and the parish is surrounded by single-family homes.
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The mailing address of the school is 520 South Oyster Bay Road, Hicksville NY 11801, telephone 516-433-7040.  The school's website is linked here.