[Photo Credit: City of Green Bay, public social media post 02-25-2026]
Before Green Bay was a city (February 27th, 1854), before the Green Bay Diocese was established (March 3rd, 1868), and before most of the landmarks we know today — there was St. John the Evangelist.
Founded in 1831 by Dominican missionary Venerable Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, St. John’s is the oldest continuous Catholic congregation in Wisconsin. It began as a small log church near what is now the Allouez Cemetery, serving French-Canadian fur traders and local Indigenous communities. From that humble beginning, it grew into the “mother church” of Green Bay — the German, Irish, Dutch, and Belgian parishes that shaped this city all trace their roots back to St. John’s…