The story of St. Michael parish is interwoven deeply with the Benedictine tradition of Belmont Abbey. Our story is intertwined with theirs and without them we would not exist.
This is but a brief synopsis of our over 100 year history. 

St. Michael Parish was founded on April 19th, 1903 by the Right Reverend Leo Haid, a Benedictine Bishop and Abbot on Long avenue and Falls street in downtown Gastonia. The funding for the church was helped along by St. Catherine Drexel.

St. Katharine Drexel and Bishop & Abbot Leo Haid	Original St. Michael Church in 1903

The next chapter of our parish is in our education through the school. The original schoolhouse was built in 1942 and eventually evolved into (part) of our current school building 10 years later in 1952.

Original St. Michael School in 1943	St. Michael School in 1952

Following our school building the second church with attached rectory was built next to the school building in 1958. We added a Parish Center and Gym building to our growing campus in April, 1979 for an investment of $500,000.
Our Hispanic ministry began in 1993 with our current Hispanic minister, Fr. Jose Juya being assigned to St. Michael by the diocese in 2000.
Our current church was dedicated on March 8th, 2003 for an investment of $2.1 million.

St. Michael's Second Church & Rectory in 1958	St. Michael's Third and current Church

Our full history is quite storied and full of lively details. We have a 93 page book detailing our full history that was made in November, 2003 if you would like to know more.

As a more recent addition, we have the talk by Dr. Bill Thierfelder, the current President of Belmont Abbey college and St. Michael's parishioner, which details a bit of the past that St. Michael and Belmont Abbey share.