St. Marys Of The Annunciation at 1225 Olive Street, Oakdale, CA 95361 US - A brief history of St. Mary's

In 1888 Fr. Thomas McGuire of Modesto supervised the erection of a small church which seated about 100 people in the North part of Oakdale.  The land was donated by a Jewish banking firm, which controlled the Oakdale property.  At this time St. Mary's was officially established as a Mission Church.  Two other Modesto Priests, Fr. Patrick Smith and Fr. W.J. Madded, served the Oakdale Mission from 1894 to 1902.

Then in 1902, Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco, recognizing the accelerating growth of both the town of Oakdale and its Catholic Community, created the parish of St. Mary's of the Annnunciation in Oakdale with Fr. William A. Nevin as the first appointed pastor.

The parish included the earlier churches of La Grange and Eugene as missions assigned to the care of the Oakdale pastor.  St. Louis Church at La Grange remained in the Oakdale Parish until 1980 when it was re-assigned to St. Anthony's in Hughson.

In 1906 Fr. Michael Horan was appointed pastor of Oakdale.  He remained there for 2 years.

A number of priests were assigned over the next few years.  In 1951 the church, that was located on Yosemite Avenue, was burned to the ground.  It was suspected that faulty wiring was the cause.

On February 21, 1952 Fr. Bryan T. Orourke was appointed pastor.  He was assigned the task of building the new church at its present location.  The first Mass was celebrated at Midnight Mass on Christmas 1952.

In 1962 St. Mary's had it's first Associate Pastor, Fr. B. Joseph Mannion. In September of 1980 when Msgr Orourke retired Fr Manion who had been reasigned, returned to became St. Mary's Parish Administor.  He was appointed Pastor on Oct 1st 1980.

On October 25th 1986 Roberto Magdaleno became the first Permanent Deacon.

Father Aloys Conrad Gruber was appointed Pastor of St. Mary's on September 1st, 1996

In June of 1999 Sister Nina Shephard of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration came to Oakdale as our parish sister, and Pastoral Associate.

Fr. Misial Avila was assigned to St. Mary's in 2004 as the Parochial Vicar. He presides over the Spanish Masses and is the director of the Spanish community.

In November of 2007 Deacon Tom Ciccarelli was assigned to St. Mary's as the second Permanent Deacon