The baptismal records of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury indicates that there were Catholics in Middlebury as early as 1864. Just as with the earliest Protestants, these Catholic settlers had to travel the long distance into Waterbury, or Watertown, in order to attend Mass. It would be another seventy-two years before a Catholic mission would be granted ecclesiastical status in Middlebury under the direction of Father John F. Loftus, pastor of Saint John's parish in Watertown, on August 23, 1904. There is some indicccation that a mission may have existed as early as 1886 (November 16th) under Father James Lancaster, also of Watertown. Father James Lancaster was a Hartford native and his father was a Trustee of Saint Joseph's Cathedral for many years. Middlebury may have been added to Saint John's parish in Watertown, shortly after his arrival there, in May of 1886.