Jul 11, 2008 / 01:15 am
St. Patrick Catholic Church in Newcastle, Maine will celebrate its bicentennial this weekend. The church, whose building was completed in 1808, is the oldest continuing parish in the northeastern United States.
The celebrations will begin at noon on Saturday with the ringing of the church bell, one of the last church bells to be cast by the American hero Paul Revere, the Bangor Daily News says.
Parishioners will conduct tours of the church cemetery and portray in costume some of the historical personages buried there.
Bishop of Portland Richard J. Malone will celebrate Mass on Saturday afternoon in the modern $2 million church finished in 2004. On Sunday a Latin Mass will be celebrated in the original church building, a small brick church set on a hill overlooking the Damariscotta River.