Founded: May 1963
Location: 11766 Shoshone Avenue,
Granada Hills
San Fernando Region: Deanery 5

Pope St. Gregory the Great formulated the first Litany of the Saints around 595. Today, that list of invocations recited usually at the Easter Vigil, includes more than 50 names besides the angels, Mary, Joseph, apostles and martyrs --- most of them familiar.

But the name of St. Euphrasia is generally found only among the other 3,000 saints in the present church calendar under her feast day, April 24.

This 19th century saint, born Rose Virginie Pelletier, was the ninth child of Dr. Julien and Anne Pelletier who were refugees from the Vendee wars living on an island off the coast of France. Rose endured family deaths, separations and harsh teachers before her acceptance at the convent of Our Lady of the Refuge. She chose the name of "Euphrasia," a fifth century saint from North Africa known for her gentleness and patience.

Those qualities also sustained the nun who eventually established the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, approved by Rome in 1835. Sister Euphrasia directed the new community, dedicated to helping girls and women in danger, for 33 years and opened 110 convents in four continents. She died in 1868 and Pope Pius XII canonized her in 1940.

"Do well all that you do," she wrote to her followers. "You have to adapt to all circumstances. Do the best you can, while remembering that, according to the spirit of our calling, we must be everything to everyone."

That spirit continued when the Good Shepherd Sisters arrived in Los Angeles in 1904 and, through their courageous ministry, became a mainstay shelter and home for girls and women in serious trouble. Recognizing their contributions, Cardinal James Francis McIntyre chose the foundress of the order as the patron saint for the new parish he established on May 14, 1963 in the north San Fernando Valley.

The area --- first known as Sunshine Ranch and noted for dairy farms, orchards and rabbit breeding --- became Granada in 1927 with "Hills" added 15 years later. In the early 1950s there was only one small tract of new homes, but the beauty and peace of the surrounding hills and canyons soon attracted many young families. To serve them, the new parish began under the pastorate of Father (later Msgr.) Laurence O'Brien, a native of Winnipeg, Canada, who grew up in Los Angeles.

A member of St. John's Seminary class of 1943, Father O'Brien celebrated the parish's first Masses at the Knollwood Country Club, and led the fight against the city zoning board that had denied the church's attempt to build. Approval came in 1965. "It was a very exciting day in our history," he said at the time, "and the neighbors who had been upset later grew to like us."

Mass in the new church was first celebrated Oct. 23, 1966, the same year the permanent building for the school opened. Father O'Brien served for nine years at St. Euphrasia, for 14 years as pastor of Incarnation in Glendale, and died in 1998 at age 82.

Father Paul Kelly, from Des Moines, Iowa, and a member of St. John's class of 1947, became pastor in 1972 and headed the parish for eight years. During his pastorate plans were made for the kitchen and hall that became an active center for parish events. It was in the 1970s and '80s that Father Paschal Hardy served St. Euphrasia's for 10 years as both associate and administrator. The Irish native --- known as "Paschal the rascal, the old radical" --- was extremely outspoken on social justice issues; he died of cancer in 1989 at age 56

The third pastor, Father Raymond Saplis, was born in Boyle Heights and was ordained from St. John's in 1958 after leaving a career as a mining geologist, surveying Okinawa after World War II. During his 18-year pastorate, he was responsible for the stained glass window of the Resurrection placed over the main door. Father Saplis served on several archdiocesan committees and taught catechesis at St. John's Seminary. At his retirement he repeated the philosophy that epitomized his pastorate: "We love one another as the Lord loves us to create a better community --- a better world." He died in 2004 at age 81.

The current pastor is Father Michael Wakefield of Pasadena, a member of St. John's class of 1981, who started his first pastorate at St. Euphrasia in 1998 and has overseen many improvements in the church interior, parish hall and kitchen, and the installation of a sign for the pine tree-surrounded church on the corner of Shoshone and Mayerling. It proclaims the presence of an active community that has grown from 400 families to more than 1,200 --- a community where St. Euphrasia is found in the Litany of the Saints.