[1] The parish was founded by a priest named Sanguinetti who had come from Italy with the approval of John Hughes, the Archbishop of New York, to help provide the services of the Catholic faith to his countrymen who had emigrated to the United States.

The congregation initially worshiped at the former site of the Church of St. Vincent de Paul built in 1841 on Canal Street, which Sanguinetti leased from that parish.

He lasted in that ministry for only about a year, however, as he returned to his homeland, feeling overwhelmed and disheartened from the various obstacles which arose for the parish.

Hughes' successor, John McCloskey, appealed for help to Pamfilo of Magliano, the Minister Provincial of the Franciscan friars then based at St. Bonaventure College in Allegheny, New York.

Between 1886 and 1888, the parish funded the building of a new church on Sullivan Street, designed by Arthur Crooks in the Romanesque Revival style.