About St. Margaret of Scotland Parish
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In the very early 1900’s a family from Chicago by the name of Foley came to the Baldwin County area of Alabama , close to the Gulf Coast. At that time there was no town known to us today as Foley. This family of Foley’s from Chicago possessed a great foresight and a distinctive pioneering spirit for they homesteaded a large area some 9 miles from the Gulf Coast about the midpoint between Mobile, Al and Pensacola, Fl.
Mr. John B. Foley and his wife Mary were generous people and knew that there were several religious sects in the area and provided property to each religious group. The Catholics chose, in what was then an “outlying” section, five acres. It was on June 10, 1906 that Mr. Foley, through the Magnolia Land Company deeded five acres to Bishop Allen in Mobile.
In 1906 St. Margaret’s was founded as a mission church. At that time the “work of the church” was carried out in the Foley area by the Benedictines from St. Bernard Abbey in Cullman, Al. One such priest, Father Heibel was “Pastor” for a short time. (At this time there was no resident pastor.) His rectory was in Elberta with Foley as a Mission. It is reported that there were no more than twenty-five persons in the Foley parish.
On Thanksgiving, November 24, 1910 Bishop Allen (Bishop of the Mobile Diocese) traveled to Foley to dedicate the church building.
The parish in Foley grew until a resident pastor became a necessity. In 1950 the mission was designated a parish and since that time until 2000 the Benedictine’s provided the pastor
In 1951 the parish had more than forty families and was rapidly growing. A new brick church seating 250 was built to replace the frame church that had served the parish for forty years.
St. Margaret’s is a lovely and vibrant parish which has shown a very steady growth. The recent years reveal a 438% increase of parishioners between December 2003 and 2015. As the years passed and the whole Foley region continued to grow it became apparent that the parish would soon exceed 350 families.
Clearly, the parish has been rapidly growing as well as providing a “home away from home” for our winter parishioners. Hence, it was obvious, looking toward the future of the need for a larger church building. Weekend Masses had become full to overflowing. Further, the Christmas seasons of 2003 through 2006 as well as the Holy Week celebrations of 2004 through 2006 literally swamped the parish with standing room only at all Masses.
Even though our old church provided a worthy house of worship for 57 years, growth within the city of Foley and the area development had rapidly outstripped the ability of St. Margaret’s to provide sufficient space for parishioners. With this in mind groundbreaking for our new church was held on February 18, 2007. The new church was dedicated by Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi on Sunday, November 16, 2008.
Truly, the expression, “if you build it, they will come,” has applied to the growth
St. Margaret of Scotland has experienced since the building and dedication of its new parish church. By God’s grace, the parish is now home to 922 families. With God’s help, we pray that St. Margaret of Scotland parishioners will continue to strive to share the Good News that Jesus is Lord of Foley, Alabama.
