Clergy

Rector: Very Rev. R. Paul Beach
Vice-Rector: Very Rev. David J. Carr
Permanent Deacons: Scott T. Hedges and Richard P. Zoldak

Pastoral Staff

Director of Youth and Young Adult Formation: Brett Snow
Director of Sacred Music: Dr. Emily Meixner
Schuhmann Center Director: Jim Nix
Business Manager: Jackie Carlin
Finance Manager: Shelia Williams
Secretary: Karen Schneider

Mass Schedule

Sundays — Sat evening: 4 p.m.; Sun: 8:00 a.m., 10 a.m., 12 noon (EF-Latin)
Holy Days — Vigil: 7 p.m.; Holy Day: 12 noon; 7 p.m. (EF-Latin)
Daily — Mon–Fri: 12 noon

Reconciliation

Saturdays — 3 p.m.

Eucharistic Adoration

24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

Two Heart Devotionals

The first Friday of each month as follows:

6 p.m. Confessions
7 p.m. Mass/Exposition/Rosary/Offices
11 p.m. Confessions
11:45 p.m. Benediction followed by Midnight mass.

Our Mother of Perpetual Help Novena

2^nd Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m.

Rosary

Mondays-Thursdays — 11:30 a.m.
Sundays — 7:30 a.m.

Stations of the Cross

Fridays — 11:30 a.m.

History

St. Martin of Tours ranks among the more unique and historic parishes of the Archdiocese. St. Boniface Parish was bursting at the seams with a burgeoning German immigrant population. To accommodate the overflow, Bishop Martin John Spalding founded a new parish and named it in honor of his baptismal patron saint. The first pastor was Father Leander Streber.

Almost as soon as the church opened, xenophobic mobs threatened it with destruction during the riots of Bloody Monday in 1855. Immigrants, considered “foreigners,” were targeted.

Among the significant contributions the parish made was introducing the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville into the diocese and fostering a significant number of priestly vocations. St. Martin counted nearly one thousand families by 1900, one of the largest parishes in Kentucky.

By the time of the 1953 centennial celebration, numbers were declining. New parishes had been carved from its original boundaries, the neighborhood was becoming industrialized, and the suburbs were drawing people out. The school closed sometime between 1968 and the late 1970’s, ending its long relationship with the Ursulines. Parish membership was only 125 by the mid 1970s; Sunday collections sometimes amounted to four dollars.

Father Vernon Robertson, pastor in 1977, began a renaissance. He polished the dusty, decrepit gem. He hired a choir and attracted worshipers with beautiful music and rich liturgy. Membership rebounded, launching a major restoration of the church and the pipe organ. The next pastor, Father Dennis Cousens, developed a full schedule of special liturgies and devotions, including perpetual Eucharistic adoration.

In early 2023, current Rector, Father Paul Beach petitioned for St. Martin of Tours church to become a shrine. On May 18, 2023, Archbishop Shelton Fabre designated the church a diocesan shrine.

The Shrine of St. Martin of Tours now serves the entire Archdiocese of Louisville as a special place of prayer and pilgrimage serving more than 1800 members. The Shrine of St. Martin of Tours is best known for its active prayer life, beautiful statuary, stunning windows, majestic organ, full skeletal relics of two third-century martyrs (Saints Magnus and Bonosa), Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, and liturgical excellence.