On June 1, 1861, the Reverend Amandus Van Den Driessche, from the Detroit Diocese, helped establish a Catholic mission at Utica Junction (now Roseville). The Sacred Heart mission, composed of Irish, German, Belgian and French families, completed its first permanent church, a modest log structure, with seating for 300, in 1864.
The mission became a parish in 1872. The next year, the parish purchased land for a cemetery.
