About Sacred Heart of Jesus · Ione, California
Sacred Heart of Jesus Mission is a Roman Catholic mission church serving the small Gold Country town of Ione in Amador County, California. It is a dependent mission of St. Katharine Drexel Parish in nearby Martell within the Diocese of Sacramento, and sits in the Gold Country Deanery. The parish's modern home on Relihan Drive was built in 1967 as a $60,000 replacement for the historic 1874 church built under the direction of Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany. Today the mission is staffed by a Parochial Administrator assigned by the diocese, and shares sacramental and pastoral life with the cluster of Catholic communities around Jackson, Martell, Sutter Creek, Plymouth, Pioneer, and Volcano.
- Established
- 1874
- Patron
- Sacred Heart of Jesus
- Rector
- Rev. Ryan Mahar (Parochial Administrator; assigned through parent parish St. Katharine Drexel, Martell)
- Diocese
- Diocese of Sacramento (Gold Country Deanery, Amador County)
Why belong here
Sacred Heart of Jesus Mission is the Catholic home for Ione and the surrounding Gold Country foothill communities, offering Sunday and weekday Mass in a small, family-sized setting of about 225 seats. As a mission of St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Martell, it shares in the wider Amador County Catholic life — including faith formation, youth ministry, and Sacramental preparation — while keeping a personal, easy-to-enter community in Ione itself. For visitors and locals who want a quiet, traditional Catholic church with deep Gold Rush roots (going back to 1874), Sacred Heart is a natural place to worship and belong.
Mass times at Sacred Heart of Jesus
Weekly Mass schedule
About Sacred Heart of Jesus Mission
Sacred Heart of Jesus Mission is a small Catholic mission church serving Ione, a Gold Country town in Amador County, California. It is a mission of St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Martell within the Diocese of Sacramento's Gold Country Deanery. The mission's address is 20 Relihan Drive, Ione, CA 95640, and the parish office phone (shared with St. Katharine Drexel) is (209) 223-2970. Because it is a mission, the Catholic community of Ione shares one Parochial Administrator and sacramental life with neighboring parishes in the deanery.
- Type: Mission church
- Diocese: Sacramento
- Deanery: Gold Country
- Parent parish: St. Katharine Drexel, Martell
- Address: 20 Relihan Dr., Ione, CA 95640
- Phone: (209) 223-2970
History of the Ione Catholic Community
Catholic life in the Ione Valley goes back to the California Gold Rush. Irish and other immigrant miners formed the first Catholic congregation in the 1850s and built an early Sacred Heart chapel; that chapel closed in 1864 as the goldfields declined and population shifted uphill. Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany, OP — the first Archbishop of San Francisco — sent Fr. Patrick Walsh to Utah in 1869 to establish a new Catholic mission there. In 1874 a second Sacred Heart Catholic Church was built on a hill at the southern edge of Ione, again under Archbishop Alemany's direction. That handsome 19th-century church served Ione Catholics for almost a century, until the post-war growth of the parish made a larger worship space necessary. In 1967 the parish built a new $60,000 church seating 225 people right next to the 1874 building. According to the Sacramento Bee of August 7, 1967, Mass was offered for the first time in the new church on August 6, 1967, and a formal dedication and blessing were planned for the following fall. The 1967 building remains Sacred Heart's worship space today, and the mission is now served as part of the wider diocesan cluster of Amador County parishes.
- 1850s–1864: First Sacred Heart chapel in the Ione Valley (Gold Rush era); closed in 1864.
- 1874: Second Sacred Heart Catholic Church built on a hill at the southern edge of Ione under Archbishop Joseph Sadoc Alemany.
- 1967: New $60,000, 225-seat church completed adjacent to the old church; first Mass offered August 6, 1967.
- Today: Operates as a mission of St. Katharine Drexel Parish, Martell, within the Diocese of Sacramento.
Clergy & Parish Leadership
Sacred Heart of Jesus Mission is currently led by a Parochial Administrator assigned by the Diocese of Sacramento and shared with the parent parish of St. Katharine Drexel in Martell. The mission does not maintain an independent staff listing; sacramental, faith-formation, and pastoral services are coordinated through the parish offices in Martell.
- Parochial Administrator: Rev. Ryan Mahar
- Pastoral offices coordinated through St. Katharine Drexel Parish, Martell
Parish Identity & Patron
The parish is named for the Sacred Heart of Jesus, one of the most widely beloved devotions in the Catholic Church, symbolizing Christ's love for humanity. The mission continues that devotional tradition in the heart of California's Gold Country, even as its institutional identity has shifted from an independent parish (founded 1874) to its current status as a mission of St. Katharine Drexel Parish.
- Patron: Sacred Heart of Jesus
Contact & Visiting
The mission shares its contact information with St. Katharine Drexel Parish, the parent parish in Martell. Visitors and parishioners are invited to call ahead for current Mass times, confession schedules, and information about baptisms, weddings, and funerals.
- Address: 20 Relihan Dr., Ione, CA 95640
- Phone: (209) 223-2970
- Website: scd.org/parish/sacred-heart-jesus-mission-ione (Diocese of Sacramento listing)
Amador County Catholic Cluster (Gold Country Deanery)
Sacred Heart is part of a network of small Catholic missions and parishes that together serve Amador County under the Diocese of Sacramento. The sister missions in the deanery extend the Church's presence into the historic mining towns of the Mother Lode, including Sutter Creek, Jackson, Plymouth, Pioneer, and Volcano, plus a chaplaincy at Mule Creek State Prison.
- St. Katharine Drexel Parish, Martell (parent parish)
- Immaculate Conception Mission, Sutter Creek
- Our Lady of the Pines Mission, Pioneer
- St. Patrick Mission, Jackson
- St. Mary of the Mountains Mission, Plymouth
- St. Bernard Mission, Volcano
- Mule Creek State Prison chaplaincy, Ione