Saint Stephen Church is located on the edge of historic Kossuth Colony in Old North Dayton. The parish was established in 1906 originally as a mission of Holy Name Church to serve the spiritual needs of Hungarian families in the colony, and later, in the community at large.

Noodle Making, Sausage making…
Some of our activities which help us preserve our ethnic identity as well as a sense of community are: noodle making, sausage making (mmm), our Christmas Bazaar and hosting an annual Hungarian Dinner to celebrate Hungarian Independance day. The money raised from this dinner is then sent to help parishes in Hungary.

A Brief History of St. Stephen’s Parish
St. Stephen’s Mission was founded to serve the spiritual needs of the Hungarian Catholics in the “Kossuth Colony” which was formed for a group of laborers imported under labor contracts. In 1906 there were 80 families living in the completely self-contained Kossuth Colony. St. Stephen’s Mission was established when Father Policheck of Holy Name Church secured a cottage, which had been used by a Reformed Protestant Congregation. It was blessed as a Roman Catholic Church on August 12, 1912.

The first church was a modest frame building at 544 Baltimore Street. Father Voynich, also of Holy Name Church, served the Mission for a number of years, probably from 1921 to 1936. Father Oberlander began to organize the Mission into a Parish in 1936, but it was only ten years later, on March 15, 1946, that the old church building was destroyed by fire. Many parishioners today still recall how the Blessed Sacrament was rescued in spite of fire and smoke by fireman George Palatas.

Under their pastor, Father Brenner, the congregation began work on another church building and the foundation was laid before the end of 1946. The basement was used for services until the structure was completed in 1952.

The new church, designed by Edward J. Shulte, is located at 1114 Troy Street. It was blessed and dedicated to God by Archbishop Alter on Sunday morning November 16, 1952, under the patronage of Saint Stephen, King of Hungary (R. 1001 – 1038).

We are proud to be serving the Hungarian Catholic community of greater Dayton. Let us help each other live out our Christian calling that together we may all come to a more profound relationship with God in Christ.

The origins of the Hungarian community in Old North Dayton
For more information about Kossuth Colony and the origins of the Catholic Hungarian community in Old North Dayton, you may click on Old North Datyon, and scroll down to read the section on Kossuth Colony. Or you can click here, and scroll down to the article on “Jacob D. Moskowitz and the Dayton, Ohio Hungarian Colonies”.

Stephen I (975 – 1038)
Stephen I (975 – 1038). Vaik, son of the Magyar voivode (duke) of Geza in Hungary, was born at Asztergom and baptized in 985 when he was ten, at the same time as his father, and christened Stephen. He married Gisela, sister of Duke Henry III of Bavaria (who was to become Emperor Henry II in 1002) and became ruler of the Magyars on his father’s death in 997. Through a series of wars against rival leaders who opposed his Christianization policies, he consolidated the country and in 1001 was crowned the first King of Hungary with a crown sent to him by Pope Sylvester II, the famous crown of St. Stephen captured in World War II by the American army and returned to Hungary by the United States in 1978. Stephen organized a hierarchy under St. Astrik (also known as Anastasius), who became Hungary’s first archbishop and began establishing sees, building churches, and ordering tithes to be paid for their support. Stephen finished building St. Martin’s Monastery (Pannonhalma), begun by his father, inaugurated widespread reforms, including a new legal code and a reorganization of the government in the kingdom, ruled wisely, and was very generous to the poor. He united the Magyars, made the nobles vassals to him, and was the founder of an independent Hungary. His later years were embittered by squabbles about the succession (his only son, Bl. Emeric, had died in a hunting accident in 1031). Stephen died at Szekesfehervar, Hungary, on August 15, and was canonized by Pope Gregory VII in 1083, when his relics were enshrined at the Church of Our Lady in Buda. August 16. (feast day)