St. Stephen’s Church in Boston's North End Honors Two Irish Women, Accused Witch Ann Glover and Matriarch Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

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St. Stephen's Church, image courtesy of Digital Commonwealth

The next time you are exploring landmarks along the Boston Irish Heritage Trail, take a walk over to the North End and visit Saint Stephen's Church, 401 Hanover Street, in the heart of the city's Italian neighborhood.

Originally designed in 1802 as a Congregational Church by famed architect Charles Bulfinch, St. Stephen’s became a Catholic Church in 1862, after Bishop John Fitzpatrick purchased the church to accommodate growing numbers of Irish immigrants settling Boston and this neighborhood in particular. Like nearby St. John the Baptist Church, which St Stephen's replaced, this "would not simply be another parish church, it would be a free church without pew rents," according to Boston Archdiocese archivist Thomas Lester.

On the walls outside of St. Stephen's Church are two plaques that speak to a range of experience of Irish women in Boston over two centuries. 

The first plaque honors Ann "Goody" Glover, an Irish Catholic immigrant who was falsely accused of being a witch, part of a mass hysteria taking place in the Puritan community during that era.  An indentured servant who had been sent to Barbados after Cromwell's invasion of Ireland, Glover moved to Boston with her daughter  and was working as a housemaid for the Goodwin family when the children suddenly accused her of being a witch.  Based on flimsy evidence and lots of innuendo, she was taken to trial.

In the courtroom, there was confusion over Glover's testimony, since she refused to speak English, despite knowing the language, and only spoke in her native Irish tongue. This prompted Rev. Cotton Mather to call her "obstinate in idolatry."  Glover was found guilty and hung by Boston's town elders on November 16, 1688.



A second plaque honors Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, mother of U.S. President John F. Kennedy and the matriarch of the Kennedy Family, whose accomplishments in politics, business and community advocacy is well known.  She was born nearby at 4 Garden Court Row, and baptised at St. Stephen's, where he family were parishioner.  

All four of Rose's grandparents were emigrants from Ireland who had fled the Irish Famine in the 1840s.  Rose's father, John 'Honey Fitz' Fitzgerald, was a U.S.Congressman and mayor of Boston during his illustrious career. 



St. Stephen's Church is being added to the Boston Irish Heritage Trail in 2025, as the trail expands across downtown Boston and the neighborhoods, and eventually, across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Read more about new landmarks being added to the Irish Heritage Trail.



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