Believe it or not, St. Philomene Parish celebrated its first Mass in the Bungalow Club. The Bungalow Club was a dance hall, and twenty-nine people attended. Fr. Daniel Twomey founded the parish in 1948 as the first Sacramento suburban church of the post-war era. The parish was named after the legendary virgin and martyr St. Philomena.

After a year of planning and building, St. Philomene said good-by to the Bungalow Club and moved into a new two-wing building constructed on seven acres at El Camino and Bell Street. St. Philomene School was launched in 1949, and the six grades were staffed by six Loretto sisters. Fr. Twomey worked with the architectural firm of Dean & Dean to design the sanctuary, school and auditorium. Frescoes by John De Rosen, a noted artist, were commissioned and added to the sanctuary along with stained-glass windows, a hammered copper baptismal font by Hans Crag, and a custom-built organ.

An area was set aside for a bell tower, and in 1961, the work was completed. Today, the tower holds well over two tons of bronze bells forty-nine feet above the earth. The Church grew rapidly, thanks to burgeoning house construction in the Arden-Arcade Area. From its humble beginnings in the Bungalow Club, St. Phiomene has grown not only into its own parish, but three other parishes, which spun off from it – Our Lady of Assumption, St. Ignatius, and Presentation parishes.

Today, St. Philomene Parish serves 850 families with lay people participating in leading parish ministries. The Spanish community has tremendously grown.  There are different cultures belong to our parish as well.  So, St. Philomene Parish  is now a melting pot.

St. Philomene has been blessed with exceptional Clergy:

1947-68 ~ Rt. Rev. Msgr. Daniel Twomey, Pastor
1949-51 ~ Rev. F. P. Reinfels
1951-53 ~ Rev. J.P. McDonnell
1953-59 ~ Rev. Michael Lynch
1956-57 ~ Rev. P.F. Keane
1959-60 ~ Rev. Chas. Fagan
1959-67 ~ Rev. J. Van Snellenberg
1960-63 ~ Rev. C.V. O’Shaughnessy
1963-64 ~ Rev. Bernard Burns
1964-66 ~ Rev. Ed. O’Neil
1966-68 ~ Rev. C. O’Donnell
1967-71 ~ Rev. Chas. Brady
1968-73 ~ Msgr. R. Renwald, Pastor
1968-73 ~ Rev. John J. Maloney
1969-70 ~ Rev. Hugh Bannon
1969-74 ~ Rev. V. O’Reilly
1970-74 ~ Rev. Edward O’Hara
1972-73 ~ Rev. Thos. MaGuire
1973-82 ~ Rev. James O’Dea, Pastor
1973-83 ~ Rev. Edward Lyznicki
1974-80 ~ Rev. John Cantwell
1980-83 ~ Rev. Gerald J. Ryle
1983-94 ~ Msgr. Patrick M. Nolan, Pastor
1984-88 ~ Rev. Philip J. Wells
1986-93 ~ Rev. Leon Juchniewicz
1988-94 ~ Rev. Thos. L. Seabridge
1994-95 ~ Msgr. Patrick M. Nolan
1994-99 ~ Msgr. James F. Church, Pastor
1994-97 ~ Rev. Terry A. Fulton
1999-00 ~ Rev. Chris Egege
2000-03 ~ Rev. John Hannan, Pastor
2001-02 ~ Msgr. Patrick M. Nolan
2001-02 ~ Rev. Paul Ricks
2003-04 ~ Rev. Tim Nondorf
2003-04 ~ Rev. Thomas Bland
2004-07 ~ Rev. Rodolfo Delgado, Pastor
2004-06 ~ Rev. Brian Atienza
2005-06 ~ Rev. Renier Siva
2005-06 ~ Rev. Mitch Maleszyk
2005-06 ~ Rev. Tony Gurnell
2005-09 ~ Rev. Gerald J. Ryle, Pastor
2008-09 ~ Rev. Troy Powers
2011-12 ~ Rev. Patrick Lee
2009-14 ~ Rev. Eduino Silveira, Pastor
2014-19 ~ Rev. Martin Ramat, Pastor
2019-Present ~ Rev. Francisco Velazquez, Parochial Administrator