BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – St. Charles Church and the Knights of Columbus, located at 31 Cherry Street in Bellows Falls, is observing its 140th birthday with a year-long celebration, featuring monthly events throughout 2025.
“We will be hosting many monthly functions, such as multiple Knights of Columbus events, potluck suppers, spaghetti dinners, bazaars, food drives, coats for kids programs, local high school scholarships, and new pastoral groups, including men’s, ladies’, and ‘Lenten Fish Fry Fridays,’” Grand Knight James Kelley said in a recent interview.
“We have also resurrected the weekly bingo events that were popular with the St. Charles community before Covid took its toll.”
The origins of St. Charles Church began when Catholics first arrived in Rockingham in the late 1840s, when, at the time, the southern Vermont area was predominantly English Protestant. In 1850, Bishop Fitzpatrick, of Boston, had visited Bellows Falls, and after being unable to find a suitable location to celebrate Mass, Bishop Fenwick decided to offer an outdoor Mass, not far from where the current St. Charles Church stands. Catholics came from as far away as 25 miles to attend, and there were four Masses, in French and English, celebrated that day by more than 1,000 people, with 75 even receiving their Confirmation.
In 1871, St. Charles received its first resident pastor, Father M. Gendreau, who first bought a piece of land and a small house to start the foundation of the church in 1872, before buying the property for the current church in 1879 from the Bellows Falls Canal Company, for the price of $2,000. The same year, the stone foundation was laid and the terraces were constructed, and, not long after, the stairs leading up to the church were built.
As this new church was being constructed, the residents of North Walpole attended St. Mary’s Church in Claremont, N.H., as work on St. Peter’s Church in North Walpole then began in 1877. Father Edward Reynolds would assume the pastorate of St. Charles in 1883, and within a year, construction began on the present St. Charles Church, and the dedication of the new building happened on Nov. 4, 1885. The total cost of the construction was $28,000.
Reynolds next bought new land for the church’s cemetery in 1894, and after the Knights of Columbus had been founded by Father Michael McGivney in 1881, they organized at St. Charles in 1903. In 1912, Reynolds started leasing the old high school, which would become the St. Charles Catholic School, before he finally built the church convent in 1913, to house the teachers.
Reynolds would resign from his position and retire in 1913, and resided in Bellows Falls with his cousins Kate and Mary Reynolds until his passing. St. Charles Church has always been a pillar of strength and faith in the community, which certainly deserves this recognition and celebration.
“Father Victor Cruz, who has been with us for almost a year, is the administrator of our parish, and is a very comforting presence in our church and community,” Kelley added. “Our church attendance is about 50% higher than it was just one year ago. Our pastoral council and Knights of Columbus have taken on more active roles, thanks to Father Victor’s inspiration and leadership. We will also be starting a podcast soon, and have already started recording and streaming our Mass weekly online.”
St. Charles daily Masses are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, at 7 a.m.; Saturday, at 4 p.m.; and Sunday, at 9 a.m. Anyone interested in seeing a list of the church’s monthly events can visit the Bellows Falls Knights of Columbus web page at www.stcharles.vermontcatholic.org/knights-of-columbus.