By Gia Myers • Posted December 5, 2025

Nestled quietly between Glen Mills and Aston in Delaware County sits St. Francis de Sales Parish in Lenni, a community with deep roots and a renewed sense of mission. Founded in 1894, the parish has “a rich history,” according to Mark Griswold, who since last July has been serving  as Parish Life Director, a new role of parish leadership in the Catholic Church of Philadelphia.

“The original church is still present with us,” he said of the elegant white, steeple-topped wooden structure reminiscent of a New England chapel. Griswold affectionately calls it “the little cathedral on the hill,” a stately landmark on a campus that also includes a cemetery, a convent housing four Sisters of St. Francis who work at nearby Neumann University, and a former gym and field house currently serving as a warehouse for the St. Jude Shop of Havertown.

With approximately 800 families and about 2,000 parishioners, St. Francis de Sales is a community where “generations of families have worshipped,” Griswold said.

Although the parish school closed in 2016, merging into Holy Family Regional Catholic School in Aston, the parish maintains a strong identity, one rooted in tradition but looking toward renewal.

Griswold himself is new to his current role, but not to ministry. A veteran of 35 years in lay pastoral ministry, he spent 23 years on staff at St. Norbert Parish in Paoli, serving as Director of Family Life and Formation, Youth Minister, and even participating in the parish’s music ministry.

“You name it, I did it at St. Norbert,” he said with a laugh.  He was also instrumental in organizing AbbeyFest, the large annual Catholic music festival known for its day-long concerts, Mass, eucharistic adoration, confessions, and community celebration.

Yet Archbishop Nelson Pérez’s Trust and Hope initiative, announced last January, caught Griswold’s attention. The initiative aims to strengthen the Catholic Church of Philadelphia by exploring new models of parish leadership, something urgently needed amid growing pastoral demands, clergy retirements, and fewer priestly ordinations. “It did pique my interest quite a bit,” Griswold recalled.

A providential coffee with his friend, Msgr. Brian Bransfield, started Griswold on the path to his current role. The priest, who at the time was both parochial administrator of St. Francis de Sales and pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Aston, shared how beneficial a Parish Life Director could be for “the little cathedral on the hill.”

St. Francis de Sales  needed “someone on the ground, day by day,” Griswold said, to coordinate administration and tend to some pastoral and spiritual needs. When Msgr. Bransfield was reassigned as pastor of St. Eleanor Parish in Collegeville, he recommended Griswold for the role at St. Francis.

After prayer and reflection, Griswold accepted the offer for the position. The fact that he already lived within the parish boundaries in Aston felt like “a sign from God,” he said.

His first months in the new role were devoted to “an observational type of learning,” he said, and focused on “building relationships” and “being present” to parishioners. He expressed gratitude for the many generous priests in the Archdiocese who assist with weekday and weekend Masses and sacraments at the parish.

One of Griswold’s priorities is to engage more young people in the parish. He hopes eventually to launch a youth ministry initiative, while also strengthening vibrant existing ministries, including charitable outreach to St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Chester, the cancer care ministry, and the prayer shawl ministry, whose members knit blankets, hats, and shawls for the sick, homebound, and newborns.

“The sky’s the limit in what we can do moving forward,” he said.

Griswold’s vocation is deeply rooted in his own upbringing. Born and raised in Louisiana, he grew up in a small, close-knit parish where his father, who was Methodist and converted to Catholicism, sang in the church choir and even cut the grass, while his mother cooked spaghetti every Wednesday for parish suppers.

After leaving Louisiana for Franciscan University of Steubenville, he earned a degree in theology and met his future wife, X’Hail. Today the couple has four grown children, and his wife teaches seventh grade at St. Mary Magdalen School in Media.

Griswold calls worshiping together at St. Francis de Sales “a blessing to our family.”

With respect for the past and hope for the future, Griswold looks forward to helping St. Francis de Sales Parish continue to “grow a vital Catholic presence” in Delaware County, rooted in faith, history and community.