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Founded in 1790, Saint Vincent Parish was the first Catholic parish in Pennsylvania west of the Allegheny Mountains. Father Theodore Brouwers, O.F.M., purchased 300 acres of land called "Sportsman's Hall Tract" and thus founded Sportsman's Hall Parish, the early name for Saint Vincent Parish.
The Parish was later placed under the patronage of Saint Vincent de Paul, when a new church was built, under the supervision of Father James Stillinger. Bishop Francis Patrick Kenrick dedicated the church on July 19, 1835. It was Bishop Kenrick's custom to name churches after the saint whose feast occurred on the day of the dedication, and the new church was dedicated on the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul.
In 1846, Benedictine Father Boniface Wimmer arrived at Saint Vincent and founded the first Benedictine monastery in the United States. From then on the parish has been inseparably linked with the Benedictine monastery and educational institutions which share its name.
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