Mission:

Our Lady of Victory Parish exists as a local expression of the Universal Church. Its vast congregation of diverse brothers and sisters in Christ is called to pray and worship in community, as an external sign of common faith and cherished traditions of the Catholic Church in the renewed community spirit of the Second Vatican Council. This Faith Community witnesses to the trut and love proclaimed by the Lord Jesus and reaches out to all people in Christian service.

History :

Since 1923, the Spanish mission-styled Church, on a gently rising hill overlooking the surrounding area, has been a dominant and integral part of the life and times of Harveys Lake, long a mecca of tourists for its sylvan beauty.

It is both gratifying and rewarding to trace its beginnings so firmly rooted in the staunch Catholic beliefs of its founders. The true beginning of the parish is found in the dim records of the middle 19th century. The Myron Williams Family, the Kern Family and Nellie Shultz formed the nucleus of a budding Catholic life at Harveys Lake. It was a challenge to keep fanning the flame of faith by arduous trips to Kingston and Luzerne for Feast Days and Holy Days of obligation. It meant family rosaries and familiar prayers recited on many Sundays in place of Mass, and it also meant being different in an area noted for conformity in belief and practice. These acts of piety, however, were noted by neighbors and earned a genuine respect for the Faith and its practitioners.

During the second decade of the 20th century, the weekend vacationers and summer visitors had turned into a property owners in increasing numbers. Beautiful homes and simple cottages dotted the winding shore of the fast growing popular resort. To meet the needs for facilities for reading Mass, Monsignor Michael E. Lynott, St. Ignatius Church, Kingston, decided a permanent chapel was imperative. The site he selected commanded a broad view of the beautiful lake and is the location of the Church today.

Doctors, lawyers, businessmen from all over Wyoming Valley who were summer residents and those who enjoyed it as a recreational center, joined with local residents to finance the building of the new chapel. It was built in 1923 and dedicated on Labor Day of that year by Most Reverend Michael J. Hoban under the title of Our Lady of Victory, and the striking statue on the lower level of the site bears witness to the continuing patronage of Our Lady.