A member of the founding congregation
of All Hallows Parish School, the Sisters
of Charity of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, in the "traditional bonnet" worn
until 1960.  By 1967, the BVMs
(as they were called) eliminated
the traditional habit entirely.

All Hallows Parish was founded in a Stockton Boulevard storefront in 1942, on the 100th Anniversary of the founding of All Hallows Seminary in Dublin.  Naming the parish “All Hallows” was testimony to the contributions of the hundreds of priests who had come to Sacramento – and who were to come to All Hallows - from this famous Irish seminary.  In Latin, All Hallows translates to “Omnium Sanctorum,” or All of the Saints.  In Spanish - Todos los Santos.  The parish's founding families were immigrant sons and daughters of Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Mexico. 

In 1946, the parish came to its current location on 14th Avenue and 55th Street, beyond the edge of Sacramento’s Oak Park residential district, adjacent to land that was still farmed and ranched.  But the rural was soon to give way to the fast-growing residential areas of Tahoe Park, Tallac Village, Fruitridge Manor and Colonial Heights, mostly built in the 1940s and 1950s, and composed almost exclusively of homes financed by the World War II GI Bill.  

Reflecting the late-forties influx of families into the new neighborhoods, a parish school opened in 1948, staffed by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The parish school became the City of Sacramento’s seventh Catholic elementary school, matching the architectural styles of its contemporaries Holy Spirit and Sacred Heart Schools.  Classes at All Hallows School in the fifties and sixties frequently numbered into the seventies, taught by still-famed All Hallows BVM Sisters Mary Sarah James (Dolores Doohan), Francilla (Kirby), Julia Patrice (Ange Cadigan), St. Austin (requiescat in pacem), Paul (requiescat in pacem), Margaret, Margretina (requiescat in pacem), Pauline (requiescat in pacem), Incarnata (Gephardt), Beatrice (requiescat in pacem), Ann Irene, Margaret Daniel (requiescat in pacem), John William (Nan Ross), Romaine (requiescat in pacem), Teresetta (Ellen Murphy), Elizabeth (Olsen), Frances, Sylvia, Virginie, Katherine Patrice (requiescat in pacem) and, of course, Noella (Cavallero).  (Reflecting All Hallows’ Irish pedigree, girls’ and boys’ uniforms always included the color green – a tradition that continued well into the 1980s.)  Famed lay teachers include Mrs. Nan Wilbur (requiescat in pacem), Mrs. Mary Kassis (who taught two generations of All Hallows students), and Mr. Eamon Kelly.

In 1960, then-Bishop Joseph McGucken dedicated the current All Hallows Church.  Much-beloved All Hallows pastor, Monsignor John Maguire, died soon after dedication while preparing for Mass in the new Church.  And his new Church was indeed a wonder of its time, featuring green-flecked terrazzo floors, twenty imported stained-glass windows, a full choir loft, two traditional apses, and a full-sized campanile.  Imported Italian marble was used in the altar, sanctuary, communion rail, and in all internal statues - all life-size.  Recognizing its heritage of Saints and church history, 14 three-story high stained glass windows each picture a different saint, including St. John de LaSalle, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Pius IX and, of course, Sts. Brigid and Patrick.  Smaller stained glass windows picture the Nativity, Jesus and Mary at Joseph's Death, and the Assumption.  An extraordinarily large stained-glass rose window features Jesus at its center, surrounded by the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - now newly surrounded by organ pipes, donated in 2007 as complement to the William A. Bakes Memorial Organ (also donated and installed in 2007).  The Parish's Yamaha Conservatory Grand Piano arrived in 2005.  A small-statue gallery of Saints resides in the vestibule, along with a artisan-restored BVM Rosary.  While All Hallows Church originally sat 720, renovations have reduced capacity to about 630. 

During the 1960s, “All Hallows” was synonymous with “Father Cornelius O’Connor,” an impassioned supporter of the parish school and certainly the last of an era.  From his dramatic Stations of the Cross, to his Monday-morning classroom critiques of weekend altar boy diligence, Father O’Connor was a presence!  And he had a heart of gold.  Many families received free Catholic educations at All Hallows because of his generosity.  In 1967, he added a striking new convent chapel still in use in what is now the Extended Day and Preschool Center.  

In 1972, new pastor Monsignor Patrick Corkell oversaw Vatican II renovations in the church.  The redesign brought the altar forward, eliminated the communion rail, and introduced a broad canopy covering the entire sanctuary, a feature that had the entirely unexpected consequence of vastly improving the sound of music in the church.  In 1977, a new full gymnasium was constructed, later named for Monsignor Corkell.  In 1989, Sister Mary Noella, BVM, teacher and principal for 25 years, retired, placing the school under all-lay administration.  In 2005, the Sisters Servants of the Blessed Sacrament assumed the administration of the school, restoring the All Hallows tradition of Sisters staffing the parish school, now shared with St. Peter Parish and renamed for His Holiness John Paul II. 


Below: Rev. Cornelius O'Connor, Pastor (1963 to 1972), at First Communion (1964), and a renewal of vows (1970).