The first Passionist to reach American soil, months before the founders at Pittsburgh. Fr. Peter Magagnotto, CP, a missionary, linguist and professor, arrived in San Francisco in May 1852 to offer his services to Bishop Joseph Alemany.
In August 1852, the bishop asked Magagnotto to begin a parish among the gold mining camps in the town of Marysville, California.
For five years, Magagnotto served as the first pastor of St. Joseph’s Church. In March 1857, he was called back to San Francisco and appointed vicar general of the Diocese of San Francisco (northern California and much of Nevada and Utah).
In 1861, Marysville became the center of a new diocese. In 1868, the seat of the diocese was shifted to the city of Grass Valley and finally, in 1886, the diocesan seat shifted to Sacramento, California.
Bishop Eugene O’Connell was the vicar apostolic of northwestern California, Nevada, and parts of Utash. He offered Magagnotto land in Virginia City, Nevada, for the Passionists to build a monastery.
In the fall of 1862, Magagnotto sailed to Rome to place the request before the leaders of the Congregation. He returned to Marysville in July 1863 with four Passionist priests and one brother.
The eager band of missionaries proceeded across the mountains to Virginia City, a town of 15,000 people, sitting on the richest silver deposit ever discovered. They built the first Passionist monastery in the West, a simple frame building, on a 1.7 acre piece of land, and ministered to the Italian silver miners and their families.
A dispute with the bishop arose over the ownership of properties held by religious. Rather than get embroiled in the dispute, it was decided to leave Virginia City in late 1864. Two Passionists headed to Mexico and others to the East Coast. Magagnotto made his way to Latin America where he continued his missionary activity.
