St. Francis of Assisi's Church (Manhattan)

The Church of St. Francis of Assisi is a parish church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and is located at 135–139 West 31st Street, Manhattan, New York City. The parish is staffed by the Order of Friars Minor.Parish historyThe parish was established in 1844 by the Reverend Father Zachary Kunze, O.S.F. (now O.F.M.), an immigrant from the Kingdom of Hungary, who had been the founder and first pastor of the nearby German speaking St. John the Baptist Church in 1840. The problems with St. John's Board of Trustees were so great that the parish had been placed under an interdict (which would last until 1845) by the Bishop of New York, the Right Rev. John McCloskey.Following this disharmony with the lay Board of Trustees there and the subsequent interdict, Kunz requested that McCloskey authorize a new parish. This request was granted and the friar soon acquired a plot of land near his first parish. He resigned from St. John's and, with a significant portion of its congregation, founded the Parish of St. Francis of Assisi. The cornerstone of the new church was laid on May 9 of that same year, in a ceremony presided over by Bishop McCloskey.