According to the United States Catholic Directory no more than a half dozen parishes are dedicated to St. Martha, sister of Mary and Lazarus of Bethany, friends of Jesus. The handful of Catholic families that lived in Sarasota County at the turn of the century were served as frequently as possible by visiting Jesuit priests from

church_under_construction_1940-1941Tampa, who celebrated Sunday Mass first in the homes of Catholic families, and then in a small white frame church that stood not far from the site of the present Church. In 1927, Bishop Patrick Barry, of St. Augustine, established St. Martha as a parish and appointed its first resident Pastor, Father C. L. Elslander, who remained Pastor for 41 years until his retirement in 1968. Even then, Sarasota was the winter home of the circus, and time and time again these performers generously gave of their talents and skills to help the ever-growing parish. During his tenure as Pastor, Monsignor Elslander built the present Church, rectory and school, originally staffed by the Benedictine Sisters (San Antonio, Florida). Contemporaneous with the establishment of St. Martha Parish was the establishment of St. Joseph’s Parish in Bradenton. For years these two parishes served all of the Catholics in Manatee and Sarasota Counties.

After the retirement of Monsignor Elslander, the Parish has been served by four Pastors, the Rev. John Lawler, Rev. Jerome Carosella, Rev. John Rourke, and now Rev. Fausto Stampiglia, S.A.C.  In 1975, the Church was renovated, and in 1980 the Parish Hall and Center were built to accommodate an ever-growing congregation and expanded services. In 1982, St. Martha Parish sponsored a 78-unit apartment house (under the U.S. Government Housing Act) for the elderly which is located immediately south of the school. The present boundaries of St. Martha Parish are as follows:

Northern Boundaries: Easterly from Sarasota Bay along DeSoto Road to I-75 in the central part of the State.

Eastern Boundaries: The Manatee-Hardee County Line southerly DeSoto Road to the imaginary extension of Hyde Park Street.

Southern Boundaries: Easterly from Sarasota Bay along Hyde Park Street to I-75.

Western Boundaries: Sarasota Bay northerly from Hyde Park Street to DeSoto Road and including Bird Key, St. Armand’s Key, Lido Key and City Island to New Pass.

After years of meeting in one another’s homes when a priest from Sacred Heart Church in Tampa would come to say Mass forthem, the Catholics in Sarasota started, in 1912, to build a small frame mission church. The mission became St. Martha Parish in 1927 and was the only Catholic parish in Sarasota County until the mission in Venice became Epiphany Parish in 1958. By then St. Martha and Sarasota had grown to the extent that Incarnation and St. Michael the Archangel parishes were set up to the south and, in 1959, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs to the north.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine

The shrine is located in the Northwest Courtyard wall corner. In 1980, the Very Reverend Jerome Carosella requested Patrick Our Lady of Guadalupe Wall StatueWhite, the owner of White Stained Glass Studios in Sarasota, to provide an original piece of art to recognize the growing number of Hispanic heritage parishioners joining the parish. Our Lady of Guadalupe was chosen. She is the patroness of Mexico, and her feast is celebrated each year on December 12.

The mosaic artist was Jack Cartlidge. He was a professor at the then Ringling School of Art and Design and a sculptor. The portrait is made from venetian glass mosaic tile imported from Italy. The shrine and frame is made from wrought iron fabricated by Kreissle Forge in Sarasota.

Patrick White had a knack for selecting good artists and then challenging them to execute works in new media and to produce works of religious art. He was also responsible for the fabrication and installation of the stained glass window, designed by my sister, Kate White-Estep, in the rectory chapel. Mr. White’s stained glass studio also did repairs and restoration on the leaded stained glass windows in St. Martha Church prior to the installation of the exterior storm glass and present day hurricane storm shutters.

Information obtained by Sean White, St. Martha parishioner.