Our Lady of Mount Carmel
(815)727-7187 407 E. Irving St. Joliet, IL 60432
Welcome to Mount Carmel
New Parishioners: We invite new members to join our community of faith. Come to the parish office Monday through Friday between 10:00 am. and 7:00 pm., to register.
History: Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been serving the Hispanic Community in Joliet for more than 50 years. In the late 1920's, as the Mexican community started to grow, Rev. Matthew O'Neil saw the Mexican community needed a church where they can come and worship God in their own language. The building on Collins Street was first rented and it was named, "Our Lady of Mount Carmel". Rev. Aquinas Colgan became the first spiritual director of the church.
The first mass in the nearly completed chapel in Irving and Collins streets was celebrated by Fr. Gabriel Pausback on Christmas Eve, 1948. The formal dedication and benediction of the Chapel, presided by Bishop Martin D. McNamara, the first Bishop of the new Diocese of Joliet, which was formed the same year, took place on the 1st of May, 1949. Immediately, the Chapel began to function as the catholic center of the religious, social, and cultural life of the Hispanic community in Joliet.