St. Raphael Church

St. Raphael-Holy Angels Church is located in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey. From 1950-2005 the name was "St. Raphael School and Church", but after the closing of several schools in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton, the parish of Holy Angels merged with the Parish of St. Raphael school.

Together Again

Immediately after the merging of the parishes, the school hung a banner over the front entrance of the school that read "Together Again". Many people of the parish were curious about what the banner meant. The back story is quite interesting.

In the late 1940s, the diocese decided to make another parish and school. They wanted to make a parish that was better than the others in the diocese. Their plan was to have two churches on the campus. The first one was for the students of St. Raphael School and the other, which was never made, would be for the other members of the parish. The students' church was connected to the school so it would be easier for the students to get to. But after building the church, the soon to be parish went bankrupt. At their lowest point, they sought the help of Holy Angels Parish, which was in its prime. The parish gave St. Raphael School a great amount of money and the Parish of St. Raphael was able to put the finishing touches on the school and pay off the other expenses. Year and years after the St. Raphael parish was built (The year now is early 2005) the diocese closed down many schools that were in financial debt. Some of which were Immaculate Conception (Trenton, New Jersey), Holy Cross (Trenton, New Jersey), St. Anthony's (now called Trenton Catholic Academy) and Holy Angels. Saint Raphael's merged with Holy Angels which would make sense of the banner "Together Again".