One of Cincinnati’s oldest Catholic churches, St. Francis Seraph Church in the city’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, will close this summer after more than 160 years of worship and service, Franciscan officials from the Order of Friars Minor said. 

According to a report from Xavier News Wire, the church will celebrate its final Mass on June 28 and will be put up for sale, ending a long-standing relationship between the parish and the Franciscan friars who have staffed it since the 19th century.

The friars currently assigned to the parish — Father Alan Hirt, OFM, the pastor, and Br. Timothy Sucher, OFM — will be reassigned to St. Clement Catholic Church in the Cincinnati suburb of St. Bernard. Franciscan leaders encouraged parishioners to continue worshiping with the friars at their new parish.

The stated reason for the parish’s closure is that the friary connected to the church has been largely unoccupied for two years, excluding the parish office, according to the report. 

While the church itself will close, its affiliated ministries will continue. Those include St. Francis Seraph School and the parish’s social outreach programs, such as its St. Anthony Center ministries, which provides food, clothing and other assistance to people in need in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood.

“As the friars move through this transition, they hope their presence of many years have nurtured parishioners to continue to be a community of brothers and sisters to each other and to all,” said Kerting Baldwin, executive director of communications and engagement for the Franciscan Friars of the Providence of Our Lady of Gudalupe, “thus, a living church that extends beyond buildings into the neighborhoods.” 

According to the report, St. Francis Seraph sits on land that once held Cincinnati’s first Catholic graveyard, established in 1819 alongside a small wooden church known as Christ Church and later called St. Patrick’s due to its largely Irish immigrant congregation. 

The property was later designated for Franciscan use by Bishop John Baptist Purcell to serve the area’s growing German Catholic population, and the current church was completed and dedicated in 1859, with a statue of St. Francis added above its main doors in 1868. 

Franciscan leaders said they remain committed to serving Cincinnati despite the closure of the parish — often referred to as the “Heart of Over-the-Rhine” — and emphasized that the community’s mission will continue beyond the church building.