St. Michael Parish was created by Bishop Lawrence S. McMahon as the first Italian-American parish in Connecticut, in response to the influx of Italian immigrants to New Haven. Bishop McMahon had assigned priests to serve the Italians in their temporary places of worship – St. Patrick Hall, the Union Armory, and the Boardman building. For decades after its founding, the parish had been staffed by The Congregation of The Missionaries of St. Charles/Scalabrinians, founded in 1887 by Blessed John Baptist Scalabrini who visited this church in 1901.

 

Father Vincenzo Astorri, C.S., was assigned as first resident pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish, formally established on September 1, 1889. Father Astorri soon bought a former German Lutheran church on Wooster Street.  The property was speedily renovated and dedicated in the fall of 1889 under the protection of St. Michael.

 

As New Haven’s Italian population increased dramatically, Father Louis Lango, C.S., moved to secure more worship space. He purchased a Baptist church that had been a Congregational meeting house on Wooster Place. The Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Sebastiano Martinelli, dedicated the new St. Michael Church on April 23, 1899.

 

In 1936, Father Leonardo Quaglia, C.S., opened a parish school at 125 Green Street, staffed by the Apostles of the Sacred Heart. In 1940 the parish built a separate school at 234 Green Street. In 1966, St. Patrick Church merged with St. Michael Church. St. Michael School merged with St. Stanislaus School in 1993. Both closed in 1995.

 

The church is still strongly associated with Italian-American heritage and culture and is supported by parish groups such as the Santa Maria Maddalena (Saint Mary Magdalene) Society and Saint Andrew the Apostle Society.