), 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.

[4] During the 1860s, under the leadership of the Italian missionary and first Minister Provincial of the Order in the United States, Father Pamfilo of Magliano, O.S.F., a school was opened for the children of the parish.

[4] At the beginning of the following century, however, the neighborhood of the parish experienced a major change, as the working class population moved out, replaced by the people of the growing theater industry.

The friars came to realize that they were now serving a largely transient congregation of shoppers, commuters and tourists, and they sought new ways to provide the services which would best answer the spiritual needs of this population.

Special permission was later given for a midday service to accommodate daytime workers in the area, becoming the first church in the United States to offer this.

With further changes in the demographics of the region and congregation, the friars began to offer new services for immigrants and those alienated from the Catholic Church.

In 1980, the friars established St. Francis Friends of the Poor, intended to provide housing in the neighborhood for the chronically mentally ill.