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St. Bernard's Church was dedicated on October 13, 1867 by the very
Rev. William Gleason, administrator of this diocese from Buffalo,
after the land had been purchased and built upon by Rev. Bernard
McCool, Pastor of St. Agnes Church, Aurora, N.Y. The original
thirty-two by forty-five church was enlarged to the present
structure in 1877 by Rev. Hugh Rafferty.
Due to declining attentance St. Bernard's was closed and the
final mass was held on 3 December 2006 and the property sold
on March 14, 2007. In 2017 the historic 1,600 pound bell was
rescued from the old church steeple. This was a daunting and
very delicate operation as the steeple timbers were so rotted
that St. Bernard's hadn't been able to ring the bell for decades
without the whole structure collapsing. The bell was restored
and rang out again, from it's new location under a pretty
gazebo in St. Bernard's Cemetery, on Christmas 2020.
