Holy Rosary Church has stood on Northeast Clackamas Street in Portland's Lloyd District since January 28, 1894, when Archbishop William H. Gross blessed a Palladian Italian Renaissance-style church that the Dominican friars of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus had literally moved nine blocks by men and horses. More than 130 years later, the parish remains the first Dominican parish and the first priory in the Pacific Northwest, a community of roughly 900 registered families that gathers each weekend for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the ancient Dominican Rite in Latin, and a schedule of devotions anchored by the Rosary. The stained glass, the statuary, the music, the preaching, and the rhythms of public prayer together give the parish a character that one pastor described as a shrine to the Queen of the Holy Rosary and a center of Dominican evangelization.
Two Rites Under One Roof
Mass is offered in two forms, side by side, in the same sanctuary. On Sundays, the schedule begins at 7:00 AM, continues at 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM, and the 11:00 AM Mass is the Solemn Dominican Rite Latin Mass, accompanied by Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony; the day closes with a 5:30 PM Mass. Weekday Masses are celebrated Monday through Friday at 6:00 AM in the Dominican Rite, 7:00 AM in the Ordinary Form, and at Noon. Saturday brings the 6:00 AM Dominican Rite Mass, an 8:00 AM Mass, and a 5:30 PM Sunday anticipatory Mass; a 9:00 AM Mass is also offered at Calaroga Terrace, the retirement community across the street. On First Fridays, a 7:30 PM Dominican Rite Low Mass with Devotion to the Sacred Heart follows a 7:00 PM hour of confession.
Both liturgies are celebrated in the sanctuary, with the Ordinary Form drawing families and large crowds on weekends, and the Dominican Rite Mass on Sunday morning a particular draw for those who love Latin, chant, and the older Roman ceremonial. Booklets explaining the Dominican Rite and the proper postures for participation are available in the church, and Fr. Joseph Selinger, OP, welcomes those interested in learning to serve at the Dominican Rite Mass.
Confession, Adoration, and the Divine Office
Confession is heard half an hour before every Sunday Mass, weekdays from 11:00 AM to Noon, on First Fridays from 7:00 to 7:30 PM, on First Saturdays from 7:30 to 8:00 AM, and on Saturdays from 4:00 to 5:30 PM. Eucharistic Adoration follows the weekday Noon Mass and continues until 4:00 PM, with First Saturday Adoration from 8:30 to 9:00 AM and a Nocturnal Adoration on third Saturdays from 7:00 to 8:30 PM, when members of the Nocturnal Adoration Society from across the Portland metro area gather to pray before the Blessed Sacrament. The parish also prays the Liturgy of the Hours in public. Lauds and the Office of Readings are prayed weekdays at 7:35 AM, the Rosary is recited weekdays at 11:30 AM, Saturdays at 7:30 AM, and Sundays at 10:30 AM, and Solemn Vespers in the Dominican Rite are sung on First Saturdays at 4:30 PM, September through May.
The First Friday and First Saturday devotions hold a particular place in the parish's life. First Friday brings confession, a Low Mass in the Dominican Rite with Devotion to the Sacred Heart, and a Holy Hour. First Saturday follows the Five First Saturdays devotion promoted by Our Lady of Fatima, with confession and the rosary at 7:30 AM, Mass at 8:00 AM, and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament until 9:00 AM. Every Sunday, the 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM liturgies are livestreamed on Vimeo, and a video archive of past Masses is also available there.
A Walkable Catechism: The Art and Architecture
The church is, in a sense, a walkable catechism written in glass, stone, and wood. The 20 large stained glass windows on the side walls tell the Mysteries of the Rosary, beginning on the right (south) front wall with the five Joyful Mysteries, one per set of windows, and continuing on the opposite wall with the five Sorrowful and five Glorious Mysteries. The iconography is rich with Dominican symbolism. A dalmatian, recalling the vision of St. Dominic's mother that her unborn son would set the world afire, appears in every Joyful and Glorious window and grows as Jesus matures. An eight-point star, said to have appeared on Dominic's forehead at baptism, marks the stained glass of the inner entrance doors. Above the choir loft, four large windows honor St. Thomas Aquinas, Pope St. Pius V, St. Louis de Montfort, and St. Alan de la Roche, each tied to a specific chapter in the Rosary's history; the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the day commemorated as the Feast of the Holy Rosary, is depicted above Pius V.
The altar and the red sanctuary lamp came from St. Dominic's Church in San Francisco, which was destroyed in the earthquake of 1906. The tabernacle, installed during the 1994 renovation, is two-tiered: the lower tier holds the ciboria, and the upper tier holds the monstrance with a consecrated Host exposed for adoration. The triptych behind the altar places God the Father at the top, the Holy Spirit as a dove below, and Christ on a cross of old growth Douglas Fir suspended over the sanctuary; the side panels depict St. Dominic with his torch-bearing dalmatian and St. Catherine of Siena, the lay Dominican who became a Doctor of the Church. At the corners, smaller windows bear the papal coats of arms of Leo XIII, the pope who reigned when the church was built in 1894, and John Paul II, the Dominican Order's cross, star, and motto laudare, benedicere, praedicare, and the Western Dominican Province shield with the motto God Will Provide.
The Rosary Shrine on the south center wall shows Mary seated with the infant Jesus, handing the Rosary to St. Dominic while a torch-bearing dog watches; a rosary encircles the chandelier above, and a globe at Mary's feet marks the parish's spot in the world. The stained glass includes local touches: in the Assumption window, the dalmatian is joined by the Western meadowlark, Oregon's state bird, and the coffin is filled with roses in honor of Portland, the City of Roses. The Coronation of Our Lady window below shows the twin glass spires of the Oregon Convention Center, Mount Hood, and the rooftop of Holy Rosary itself. A bronze bas relief over the side entrance depicts Sts. Dominic and Francis meeting in Rome, with the dog and torch marking the spot where the 1993 fire began.
A Parish Moved by Horses
Holy Rosary's first home was nine blocks east. The friars of the Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus accepted Archbishop Gross's invitation in 1893, but local residents protested a legal clause that prohibited any religious building on the original block. An exchange of land was arranged, and the nearly completed church and convent were physically moved west to their present location, where Archbishop Gross blessed the new church on January 28, 1894. The title Queen of the Most Holy Rosary was no accident: the iconography of a Dominican Rosarian church is woven through the art, the name, and the devotional life.
In 1908 the church became a traditional territorial parish, and the following year the Dominican house was raised to the dignity of a priory, making Holy Rosary the first Dominican parish and the first priory in the Pacific Northwest. Holy Rosary School opened on September 3, 1912, staffed by four Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose, with forty-three students. A new school and parish hall followed in 1923. The Great Depression took its toll: by 1932 the school was retrenched and restructured, and in 1935 priest reductions lowered the Dominican community from priory to house. World War II and the postwar boom brought financial stability, the first public address system, a paid-off mortgage, and, beginning in 1951, a daily radio broadcast of the Rosary from the church. In 1989 the parish was pivotal in creating the first lay-sponsored Catholic radio station in the United States, KBVM, later renamed Mater Dei Radio.
Holy Rosary School closed in 1955 as the surrounding neighborhoods were reshaped by the construction of the Banfield and I-5 freeways, suburban flight, the Lloyd Center, and Veterans Memorial Coliseum. In 1958, Father William Aquinas Norton, OP, became pastor and began the physical reconstruction that gave the parish its parking lot, the Lourdes Grotto, and the hand-carved statue of the Blessed Mother giving the Rosary to St. Dominic. He also advocated for the Calaroga Terrace retirement community across the street. The parish continued to face external pressures through the 1960s, but by the 1980s renewal was visible: a new parish hall in 1980, significant church renovations in 1981, a fully rebuilt Kilgen organ as a concert-quality pipe organ in 1983, and a new convent in 1987. The Dominican community was once again elevated to the status of a priory in 1988, and by the mid-1990s Holy Rosary had the largest Sunday Mass attendance in the Portland metropolitan area.
A fire on November 9, 1993, threatened to destroy the church in the middle of an ambitious 95-percent-complete renovation. Smoke and water damage were extensive, and the 1924 vintage organ was lost. The parish rebuilt, completing a new baptistry mural, tabernacle, monstrance, stained glass, and a tracker pipe organ, and Archbishop Thomas Cajeton Kelly, OP, of Louisville formally re-dedicated the church on January 28, 1996, the 102nd anniversary of its original blessing. The bronze bas relief over the side entrance, depicting Sts. Dominic and Francis meeting in Rome, is dated with a small inscription marking the spot where the fire began.
Education for Every Age
Religious education at Holy Rosary runs from the parish nursery through adult formation, with a Dominican character in every classroom. CCD classes meet on Wednesdays from 4:30 to 6:00 PM in Aquinas Hall, beginning with the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a Montessori-based approach for children under six that draws on the Parable of the Good Shepherd, and continuing through the Faith and Life Series and the Baltimore Catechism for older children, and a four-year rotation in Catholic philosophy and moral topics for teenagers in the post-Confirmation years. First Confession and First Communion are a two-year program beginning at age six, with First Confession in February and First Holy Communion in May of the second year; Confirmation is a two-year program beginning at age eleven. Sacramental preparation requires registration as a participating member of the parish, regular Sunday Mass attendance, and submission of the appropriate sacramental certificates. CCD is led by Coordinator Cary Schmidgall, with the support of volunteer teachers and helpers.
The Order of Christian Initiation for Adults, OCIA, is the path by which unbaptized adults and already-baptized Christians enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. Holy Rosary's OCIA process begins with an informational evening in September and continues on Wednesday evenings in Aquinas Hall, with a sponsor completing a Sacramental Sponsor Form and candidates moving through the stages of inquiry, catechumenate, and election toward reception at the Easter Vigil. For adults seeking intellectual formation in the Catholic tradition, the Adult Catholic Education program, called ACE, meets weekly on Wednesdays in Siena Hall. A fall and winter series on St. Augustine, A Companion in a Time of Transition, is taught by Henry Coates, a former Presbyterian pastor with a Master of Divinity from Princeton and a Master of Theology from Harvard who was received into the Catholic Church at Easter. The parish also recommends Aquinas 101, a free online course produced by the Thomistic Institute, and FORMED, a digital library of Catholic video, audio, and reading material.
The Young Church
Catholic Kids Camp, a half-day morning program, runs for a week each summer at the parish for incoming kindergartners through incoming sixth graders, with incoming seventh through twelfth graders invited to volunteer as small group leaders. The four monthly Saturday youth groups meet from 10:00 AM to noon and run September through May. Boys in seventh through twelfth grade gather as the Boys' Discernment Club, with priests and seminarians visiting each month to share their experience and answer questions about priestly vocations. Girls in seventh through twelfth grade join the St. Veronica Junior Sacristan Society, learning to sew and mend altar linens and assisting the sacristans in the care of the altar. Children in kindergarten through sixth grade participate in the Squires of St. Dominic Boys Club and the Little Flowers Girls Club, growing in virtue through lessons on the lives of the saints, scripture, music, games, and crafts. Older teens may serve as helpers for the younger groups.
The Rosary Center and Dominican Laity
The Rosary Center, located on the southwest corner of Third and Clackamas, is the home of the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, a worldwide prayer movement entrusted to the Dominican Order by the Holy See more than five hundred years ago. Intentions of Confraternity members are united with hundreds of thousands of others around the world. Fr. Dismas Sayre, OP, serves as Director of the Rosary Center, and the parish is closely identified with the recitation of fifteen decades of the Rosary in Latin, walked on a Rosary Pilgrimage through the parish properties on third Wednesdays to invoke St. Joseph's intercession.
Two chapters of the Dominican Laity meet at the parish. The Holy Family Chapter was formed by families seeking to affiliate more closely with the Dominican Order while supporting strong family life, and it organizes the potluck brunch that follows the 11:00 AM Sunday Mass each month. The Holy Rosary Chapter gathers on the fourth Sunday of the month for Mass, the Divine Office, the Rosary, fellowship, and study, living out the four pillars of Dominican life - prayer, study, preaching, and community - according to the Dominican Laity Rule. The parish also welcomes those interested in building an Ordinariate community in the Portland area.
Music and the Byrd Festival
The parish has long supported a strong program of sacred music, with Director of Music Blake Applegate leading a schedule that includes the Solemn Dominican Rite Mass on Sunday mornings. The Dominican Rite, a Western liturgical tradition approved by Pope Clement IV in 1267 and preserved by the Order of Preachers after the reforms of Pope St. Pius V, has its own chant repertoire and a simpler ceremonial than the post-Tridentine Roman Rite. Cantores in Ecclesia, a Portland-based early music ensemble directed by Applegate, brings the Byrd Festival to the parish each August, with Solemn High Masses in the Dominican Rite, lectures, and chamber concerts featuring the music of William Byrd; Dr. Kerry McCarthy has lectured on Tudor-era vocal performance, and the festival's chamber concerts are held in Aquinas Hall. The organ, completely rebuilt as a concert-quality pipe organ in 1983, was lost to fire in 1993 and replaced with a tracker pipe organ during the post-fire renovation.
Outreach in Northeast Portland
Knights of Columbus Council 15605 supports the parish in faith, community, family, youth, and fellowship, coordinating the Order-wide Cor initiative, a monthly gathering of men for prayer, formation, and fraternity in the Fireplace Room of Aquinas Hall on the fourth Monday of each month. The parish is also home to a traditional Boy Scout troop and Cub Scout pack of about thirty active boys and their dads; most are home-schooled and Catholic, earning religious emblems presented at an annual Scout Mass in February. The St. Vincent de Paul Society provides emergency food, rent, and utilities assistance to parishioners and Portland neighbors, and the St. Martin de Porres Food Pantry works with the Society to ensure families have food on the table. A Community Clothing Swap, organized by the homeschool ministry, fills Siena Hall several times a year, with any leftover items donated. The Chesterton Academy of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, a classical Catholic high school based at the parish, shares Holy Rosary's mission of forming joyful leaders and saints educated in the classical tradition and the truths of the Catholic faith.
Each weekend, more than five hundred parishioners and visitors gather for Mass, adoration, and the Eucharist, and the parish hall complex - Siena Hall and Aquinas Hall - hosts CCD classes, adult education, retreats, receptions following feast day Masses, and the monthly community potluck brunch that follows the 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM Sunday Masses. A Young Adult Ministry for those aged 18 to 35 meets every other Friday in the Aquinas Hall Fireplace Room, and a homeschool support ministry welcomes prospective, new, and veteran homeschoolers to monthly meetings. The Rosary Sunday celebration, held in honor of the parish's patroness, Our Lady of the Rosary, fills the morning with a rosary procession inside the church, a Knights of Columbus breakfast in Siena Hall, and the full Sunday schedule of Masses.
The Master Campus Plan
The Western Dominican Province, the parish, the priory, and the Rosary Center together own approximately five city blocks around Holy Rosary, and a Property Steering Committee has been working on a Master Campus Plan to address deferred maintenance, security, parking, and the need for new parish, educational, and Rosary Center facilities. The committee includes lay parishioners and friars, supported by legal, real estate, and financial consultants. Two development partners have been selected: Cairn Pacific for market-rate housing and Gorman & Company for affordable housing, working with Holst Architecture. The envisioned plan includes a new three- or four-story parish building with classrooms, gathering spaces, an adoration chapel, a private courtyard, and a grotto, alongside a mix of market-rate and affordable housing intended for working families and individuals with annual incomes between roughly $50,000 and $75,000. The former Garden Hotels property across the street has been acquired and will serve as additional parking after demolition, an immediate relief on Sundays and major feast days.
Free Sunday parking is at a premium in the parish's Lloyd District neighborhood, which is part of the City of Portland's event-district parking system. Paid street parking is activated on Sundays and other days when events at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the Moda Center, or the Oregon Convention Center are expected to draw ten thousand or more people, and the schedule is available on the Parking Kitty app. Bulletins are archived on the parish site going back several years, and a weekly email digest is sent through Flocknote. Online giving is available through the parish's Flocknote giving portal, and an annual report is published each fall.