The congregation was established in 1902 by Lászlo Perényi, a Catholic priest from Hungary to serve the growing immigrant population from that country in the city.

Growth in the parish led to plans to build a new church and school in 1927 in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan, which became a center for several Central European ethnic groups, most notably German and Hungarian.

[6] A High Mass for the Feast of St. Stephen took place on August 23, 2015, the last major event for the parish.

Plans were filed for a three-story brick church and school (both with basement and tile roofs) in 1926 to designs by Joseph H. McGuire of 5 Columbus Circle at a cost of $240,000.

[1] According to the AIA Guide to NYC (Fifth Edition, 2010), the Romanesque Revival church was built (or at least completed) in 1928 to the designs of a different architect, Emil Szendy.