USA: Redemptorists continue a 119-Year Tradition of Preaching the Novena to Good St. Anne in San Francisco

Pope Leo XIV’s Teachings inspire St. Anne Novena

Five Redemptorist missionaries carried on a long-standing tradition and preached the 119th Novena to Good St. Anne at St. Anne of the Sunset Church in San Francisco. The confreres – Fr. Kevin Zubel, Fr. Aaron Meszaros, Fr. Ted Lawson, Fr. John Schmidt, and Fr. Patrick Keyes − preached on a book by Pope Leo: The Power of the Gospel: Our Christian Faith in Ten Words. “Our hope was to help people come to a better understanding of Pope Leo and his teaching and thus be able to live a better Christian life,” Fr. Patrick explained. Three services were held each day during the novena: the sacraments were celebrated and the Word was proclaimed. Visits also were made to homes. On the Saturday of the novena, Fr. Kevin carried the Blessed Sacrament and led a procession throughout the neighborhood, and the Redemptorists hosted a potluck dinner in the parish hall.

St. Anne’s was founded by Irish immigrants at the beginning of the 20th Century. There are still a few Irish brogues heard in the pews, but the majority of parishioners are now from China and the Philippines.

The American Redemptorists conducted the first California mission in Los Angeles way back in 1885. The next year they headed north and were welcomed at St. Patrick’s Church in downtown San Francisco. In that year, the St. Louis Province was offered St. Boniface Parish but begged off for lack of manpower: there were only 48 priests in the entire Province, and 10 of them were in California preaching missions.

By 1907, the Redemptorists had established a presence in San Francisco and a reputation for exceptional preaching. Fr. Joseph J. McCue, the first pastor of St. Anne’s, introduced the Novena to St. Anne that year. The Jesuits preached the novena for a couple of years, but the pastor commissioned the Redemptorists in 1910. Redemptorist confreres have been preaching the Novena to Good St. Anne ever since.

Before World War I began in 1914, the novena was so popular that people came all the way from Sacramento, an almost 90-mile trip on today’s interstate highways. Fr. Don MacKinnon, who grew up in San Francisco, remembers that the novena was the biggest event in San Francisco during July. Nearly 100,000 people followed   the San Francisco Municipal Band in procession for 20 city blocks to the parish, he said. Participation has waned over the ensuing decades – from the thousands to the hundreds but the Redemptorists have faithfully returned every year to preach the Novena to Good St. Anne at St. Anne of the Sunset Church.

By Kristine Stremel (denverlink issue no. 29 of July 31, 2026)
Photos by Fr. Patrick Keyes