Five confreres will carry on a long-standing Redemptorist tradition and preach the Novena to Good St. Anne on July 18-26 at St. Anne of the Sunset Church in the Inner Sunset District of San Francisco. The confreres – (left to right) Fr. Aaron Meszaros, Fr. Kevin Zubel, Fr. Maurice Nutt and Fr. Patrick Keyes – will preach on Fratelli Tutti, the third encyclical of Pope Francis.

The American Redemptorists conducted the first California mission in Los Angeles way back in 1885. The next year they headed north to San Francisco, and were welcomed at St. Patrick’s Church downtown. In that year, the St. Louis Province was offered St. Boniface Parish, but begged off for lack of manpower: there were only 48 priests in the entire Province, and 10 of them were in California preaching missions.

By 1907, the Redemptorists had established a presence in San Francisco and a reputation for exceptional preaching. Fr. Joseph J. McCue, the first pastor of St. Anne’s, introduced the Novena to St. Anne that year.

The Jesuits preached the novena for a couple of years, but the pastor commissioned the Redemptorists in 1910. Redemptorist confreres have been preaching the Novena to Good St. Anne ever since. “The Redemptorist connection with St. Anne was known and celebrated throughout North America, and St. Anne of the Sunset was known as the St. Anne de Beaupré of the West,” explained Fr. Don MacKinnon, who was born and grew up in San Francisco. “San Franciscans were very pleased with that affiliation.”

Before World War I began in 1914, the novena was so popular that people came all the way from Sacramento – an almost 90-mile trip on today’s interstate highways. “It was the biggest event in San Francisco in July. Nearly 100,000 people followed the San Francisco Municipal Band in procession for 20 city blocks to the parish,” Fr. Don said.

Participation has waned over the ensuing decades, but confreres have faithfully returned to preach the Novena to Good St. Anne at St. Anne of the Sunset Church in San Francisco every year.