Fourteen shields prominently displaying the Dominican coat of arms completely encircle the towering choir stalls at St. Dominic Church in Benicia, symbolizing the parishes and mission churches established by Dominican Fathers based at St. Dominic.

They tell just some of the story of a religious order of priests who arrived in Benicia 150 years ago on a remarkable mission.

These pioneer Dominican priests would preach, praise God and bless people living in Solano and Contra Costa counties and build a novitiate and priory to form religious leaders to pastor the people.

To celebrate the parish’s 150th anniversary, a Mass was held March 20 with the parish community that has grown to include 2,300 families. Concelebrants were Bishop William K. Weigand, Dominican Father David Ferrugia, pastor of St. Dominic, and Dominican Father Martin DePorres Walsh, director of the Dominican Mission Foundation based in San Francisco, who preached the homily.

A dinner reception at the parish center followed the Mass.

Father Ferrugia, who first served as parochial vicar at St. Dominic when he was a young priest in the 1960s, said the Dominican presence in Benicia has always been about evangelization.

“The Dominicans go where the people are,” he said, recalling that in 1854 Benicia was not only the state capital but home to four colleges.

The Dominicans’ master plan, he said, included building of a novitiate and priory the same year they completed the parish’s first church, a small wooden structure located on the corner of East Fourth and J Streets.

“This was a center of learning. If you wanted to become a Dominican priest, this is where you came,” Father Ferrugia said.

Parishioner Harry Wassman, 85, is the parish’s resident historian. Wassman becomes a work of animation as he recounts tales of the early Dominican priests who traveled by horseback and ferryboat carrying the word of God to communities that have become such cities as Vallejo, Concord, Walnut Creek and Antioch.

He remembers his own baptism at St. Dominic and his first impressions of the brothers and priests, of the beauty of their voices as they sang in the choir, of listening to the Mass in Latin as his family sat in a front pew near the statue of St. Isabel.

And he remembers the parish’s great church, built 114 years ago with its towering walls of brick.

“The church is still as beautiful as ever in my eyes,” said Wassman, who also has a special place in his heart for the Dominican nuns who staffed the parish elementary school.

To longtime parishioner Jean McInerney, there was always “a welcoming spirit” about her parish fostered by both its priests and the Dominican nuns who were her teachers at nearby St. Catherine’s Academy. The nuns also taught her daughter, Dominican Sister Maureen McInerney, former co-director of vocations for the diocese and current vice president of sponsorship and Dominican representative at St. Mary’s Health Network in Reno, Nev.

“I loved the sisters and was so taken with their interest in me,” said Sister McInerney of the nuns’ role in her decision to become a woman religious. “They love people and I thought what a wonderful way to live your life.”

Olivia Corran and Patricia Vogelpohl lived down the street from the McInerney family and remember walking together the eight blocks to church to attend Mass.

“Walking into the church was like walking into the Basilica of St. Peter with its great columns and windows high above,” Corran said.

The three women, now affectionately known as “the golden girls,” also cherish their memories of St. Catherine’s and the nuns who taught there until St. Dominic School was opened in 1961. They remember the convent with its highly waxed floors where the nuns fixed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as an after school snack for their students.

Father Ferrugia said that while the small town of Benicia has experienced tremendous growth, with a current population of approximately 28,000, the parish community has retained the caring spirit of its early years.

“It is a very close-knit community and I think the beauty of it is how all these people come together, the young and the old, those born here and those who have come,” he said. “The church brings us together.”

They are people such as Dorothy Lindsay, who came to the parish in 1949. Newly married at the time, she was a newcomer who first found herself involved with the church as a driver for the Dominican nuns who would be her children’s teachers at St. Catherine’s Academy. Next, she began working at the rectory as receptionist and soon was a eucharistic minister.

“That was 17 years ago,” said Lindsay. “I have come to love this church.”

Peggy Fulton and Jeanne Hart are members of the parish’s MOMS group, a ministry begun in 1992 to provide spiritual support and understanding for mothers of young children.

“I feel families are really cherished here,” Fulton said. “MOMS was a turning point for me to build on my own faith and have that support of the other moms.”

As Father Ferrugia looks to the challenges ahead for the parish, he said one area of ministry where more work is needed is outreach to youth.

“We have a dedicated group in our youth ministry and its good to see them together but it’s not enough,” said Father Ferrugia, who mentioned starting a 5:30 p.m. Mass on Sunday a year ago for teen-agers where they serve as eucharistic ministers, ushers and liturgical musicians.

“It’s good to see them together and growing, but we have to do more to get them here and keep them here,” he said.

The parish also is working in collaboration with neighboring parishes in the Solano Deanery to share resources and more effectively minister to single adults.

St. Dominic is planning further events in the months ahead to celebrate its 150th anniversary.

An 11 a.m. Mass for the homebound and elderly is scheduled for April 3, followed by a light lunch at the parish hall.

Other events include a combined youth rally held with Solano Deanery parishes and a gala dinner for the parish, both planned for the fall.

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