ABOUT US
Our parish (St Peter's) here in Roath, Cardiff, is one of the oldest Catholic parishes, and is the oldest Catholic church in the city. The Rosminian Fathers responded to the Bishop's (Browns) plea to send priests from Newport (begun in 1847) to Cardiff in 1854. All of the city of Cardiff and its surrounding areas were initially entrusted to the Institute of Charity (The Rosminians). They were the serving priests until 1885 and remain resident at St Peter's Church Roath, serving the people of Cardiff.
In 1847 three members of the Institute of Charity (The Rosminians) arrived in England. The order was asked to administer services in Newport, and later in 1854, it also became responsible for Cardiff.
In 1881 there were about 10,000 Catholics in Cardiff, one-third of the population. one of our brother (Fr Fortunatus Signini) was keen to build St Peters 1854 to 1862. Fr Stephen Bruno spent all his priestly ministry in Cardiff. Others including Fr Gastaldi and Fr Costa joined them at a later date. Fr Signini put all his efforts into building Catholic Schools.
From street collections and other initiatives among Catholics, Fr Signini was able to begin schools and then plan and develop other parishes such as St Patricks and St Marys. Three Rosminian Sisters later arrived in 1856, and their work concentrated on looking after their first school in David Street.
This was the beginning of an extended and successful mission to many schools in Cardiff.
Today the Parish of St Peter's is an active and thriving community, truly international in its membership. Being very central to the city it ministers to an established older community as well as a younger student group and young families, many of whom have come from overseas. It has devotional prayer groups, charitable outreach activity through the St Vincent de Paul and Justice group, musicians, singers, altar servers, the St Peter's Rugby Club, scouts and brownies. The Parish Council has oversight of various activities. During the year 2000 and following an enhanced appeal for bells. New bells were installed; also a full redecoration of the interior of the church was carried out.
More recently, in 2006, a new Swiss Spath organ was donated. And In 2007 many parishioners formed a group to travel to Novara, Italy for the Beatification of Father Antonio Rosmini.
2010 saw the 150th Anniversary of the first Mass at St Peter's. In 2020 the Citizen's group was influential in assisting a Syrian refugee family in settling in the city. The Rosminian community serving at the parish includes 4 priests and a Deacon.
