About St. Patrick · Dungannon, Virginia
St. Patrick Catholic Church is a small mission parish in the rural community of Dungannon, in Scott County, Virginia, in the far southwestern corner of the Commonwealth near the Tennessee border. Founded in 1946, the parish is historically tied to the Glenmary Home Missioners who ministered to the area's growing Catholic population of coal miners, railroad workers, and mountain families. It belongs to Deanery 14 of the Diocese of Richmond and is served as part of a three-parish cluster alongside St. Anne in Bristol and St. Bernard in Gate City. The church itself is a distinctive hand-built round-log structure, evocative of the log houses of the region's pioneer settlers.
- Established
- 1946
- Patron
- St. Patrick
- Rector
- Rev. Thomas (Tom) Lawrence III, V.F.
- Diocese
- Diocese of Richmond
Why belong here
St. Patrick welcomes visitors to a small but historic Catholic community in the Virginia mountains, where the Glenmary missionary legacy and a one-of-a-kind log church make it unlike anywhere else in the diocese. As a mission clustered with St. Anne (Bristol) and St. Bernard (Gate City), it offers the personal, family-scale worship of a rural parish backed by the wider deanery's faith-formation and fellowship. For anyone traveling through Scott County or living in Dungannon, it is a convenient and prayerful place to celebrate Sunday Mass and belong to a tight-knit Catholic family.
Mass times at St. Patrick
Weekly Mass schedule
History & Heritage
St. Patrick was founded in 1946 by Glenmary Home Missioners — Fathers Ed Smith and Joe Dean — who served the growing Catholic population of Scott County from their base in nearby Norton. The missionaries chose a piece of land donated by Barney Hagan, whose family had come from Dungannon, Ireland in 1853 and given the Virginia town its name. The priests built the church themselves out of round saddle-notched logs, modeling it on the simple log houses of the region's pioneer settlers.
- Parish founded 1946 under the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston
- Built by Glenmary missionary Fathers Ed Smith and Joe Dean
- Constructed of round saddle-notched logs with corner pavilions
- Land donated by Barney Hagan, descendant of Irish immigrant Patrick Hagan
- Realigned to the Diocese of Richmond in the 1970s
The Log Church Building
The church is a small, irregular-shaped log building with a rectangular gable-roofed main section containing the sanctuary, plus rear and right-side extensions. Two square corner pavilions with pyramidal roofs flank the central entrance, and a large wooden cross rises above the doorway and emerges beyond the apex of the front gable. Fixed sanctuary windows with diamond tracery are later twentieth-century additions, complementing the rustic pioneer-era exterior.
- Round saddle-notched log construction
- Corner pavilions with pyramidal roofs flanking the entrance
- Large wooden cross above the doorway
- Diamond-tracery sanctuary windows added later
Diocese & Deanery
St. Patrick is parish #547 in the Diocese of Richmond and sits in Deanery 14, the deanery that covers the far western counties of the diocese. The mission belongs to a three-parish cluster served by a single priest, a common arrangement in the rural southwestern part of Virginia. In October 2024 the deanery marked 50 years since the realignment that brought southwestern Virginia parishes from the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston into the Richmond diocese.
- Diocese of Richmond
- Deanery 14 (far western Virginia)
- Parish ID 547
- Clustered with St. Anne (Bristol) and St. Bernard (Gate City)
Clergy & Leadership
St. Patrick is administered by Very Reverend Thomas (Tom) Lawrence III, V.F., who also serves as pastor of St. Anne in Bristol and St. Bernard in Gate City, and as Dean of Deanery 14. In August 2024 Bishop Barry C. Knestout moved Father Lawrence from administrator to pastor of the three-parish cluster. As a small mission, day-to-day parish life is coordinated through the St. Anne Bristol office, reachable at (276) 669-8200.
- Rev. Thomas Lawrence III, V.F. — Administrator/Pastor; Dean of Deanery 14
- Sacramental emergency line: (276) 945-6513
- Office contact: (276) 669-8200
Mass & Worship Schedule
St. Patrick offers Sunday Mass at 12:00 PM in English, with occasional additional services such as a 5:30 PM Mass on some Sundays as listed by diocesan and aggregator sources. The parish encourages worshippers to call ahead to confirm times, since office hours vary and the mission schedule can change with the broader cluster's needs.
- Sunday Mass: 12:00 PM (English)
- Additional Sunday Mass at 5:30 PM as listed by some diocesan sources
- Office phone for confirmation: (276) 669-8200
Southwest Virginia Catholic Heritage
The mission's story is part of a larger history of Catholicism in the Appalachian coalfields. Glenmary and other missionary priests on horseback served the first Catholic coal miners and railroad workers who settled these mountains, often saying Mass in private homes until enough families could convince the diocese they could sustain a church. St. Patrick's 1946 log church stands as one of the living monuments to that missionary era in southwestern Virginia.
- Catholic presence traces to coal miners and railroad workers
- Missionaries often said Mass in private homes before formal parishes formed
- Log church is a tangible reminder of the Glenmary mission era