User:Blogspg/St. Patrick's Guild

St. Patrick's Guild is a provider of religious books, gifts, and church supplies located in the Twin Cities.

History
In 1947, Bob Doran was working at the St. Paul Catholic Youth Center as a 24-year-old World War II veteran when a few local priests spoke to him about supplying pamphlets to the back of their churches. Doran decided to begin a business around religious supplies and soon had more than 100 churches buying his pamphlet. Bob chose the name “St. Patrick’s” because of his Irish heritage.

He incorporated St. Patrick’s Guild in 1949 and, after more coaxing from the local clergy, he opened a 1,000 square foot store at 1554 Randolph Avenue in the Highland Park area of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Doran doubled the size of the store in 1958 and added a church good annex in an adjacent house. He opened a Minneapolis store in 1960 and business continued to flourish. Then Vatican II happened and, like most of the Catholic stores in the mid 60’s, sales stagnated and the annex and Minneapolis store were closed. Bob died in 1971 at the age of 48 but left a rich legacy as his oldest son Mike stepped in.

Mike expanded the company to 4 stores over the next 30 years. The original store in St. Paul (now 10,000 sq. feet), Minneapolis, Richfield, and the Mall of America.

After 33 years as president, Mike's brother, Tim, took over as president in June of 2004.

Partnerships
St. Patrick's Guild partners with The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

