25th Anniversary Celebrations at St. Louis and St. John of Rochester Churches and Open House at the Clothing Closet

Heritage Munyakuri arrived alone in Rochester in March 2007, after having traveled 8,000 miles. It was the first time the 20-year-old Congolese man had seen snow. “Am I going to be able to live in this country?” he wondered. “It was very cold.”

The shock of a snowy Rochester winter was alleviated by the warm welcome he received, especially when he arrived at the Saint’s Place Clothing Closet. “I got a brown jacket, it was very warm, and I loved it so much,” he recalls with a big smile. Today, Heritage is the pastor of a local church that he founded, and he works for World Relief Western New York, helping newly arriving Ukrainians. 

In 1998, St. Louis Church parishioner Colleen Knauf started Saint’s Place in her garage, serving a few Somali families who had arrived in Rochester with nothing but the clothing on their backs. As Saint’s Place celebrates its 25th anniversary, we marvel that Colleen’s initial effort has resulted in helping more than 31,000 refugees by providing clothing, household goods (including new beds and mattresses), and school supplies. 

Today, Saint’s Place operates the largest clothing closet in the Rochester area, located on the campus of St. John of Rochester Church in Fairport. The agency also has a large truck, a new van, a warehouse with more than 7,000 square feet, and more than 120 active volunteers and another 100 for special projects. Saint’s Place is a joint ministry of St. Louis Church in Pittsford and St. John of Rochester Church. 

Refugees arrive legally from the four corners of the world through the U.S. State Department working with Catholic Charities Family and Community Services in Rochester and World Relief of Western New York. In 2022, Saint’s Place also assisted 350 Ukrainians displaced from the war and who arrived in Rochester. 

Saint’s Place expects to help hundreds more Ukrainians in 2023, along with hundreds of refugees from other countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo, Venezuela, Haiti, Sudan and those displaced by the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria.  The agency is on track to welcome a record number of refugees, approximately 1,200 from July 2022 through June 2023. 

Founder Colleen Knauf, who remains active in the ministry, noted: “This year, as we celebrate our 25th anniversary of helping legal refugees acclimate to a new life in Rochester, we continue to answer our Christian call to ‘show hospitality to strangers,’ and we have no doubt that, as Paul wrote to the Hebrews, ‘in the process, we have entertained angels.’ At Saint’s Place, we live out Christ’s challenge: ‘What you do for the least of my brothers and sisters, you do for me.’ We are ever mindful that, in welcoming refugees, we are welcoming Christ and the Holy Family, who were also refugees, fleeing death and going to live in a strange land.”

“Over the years, the growth of Saint’s Place has been expansive,” Saint’s Place Executive Director Isabel Miller said. “We now have in place a sterling Educational Initiative Program; we are giving the refugees higher quality products such as washers and dryers that lessen their burden of costs of doing laundry, along with computers to help acclimate them to our society. All of these good works over the years are due to our volunteers and the Holy Spirit guiding us.” 

Saint’s Place continues to help refugees further their education to lift them out of poverty through its Educational Initiative Program. Since the program launched in 2018, Saint’s Place has awarded more than $240,000 in scholarships for college and vocational training, textbooks and school fees, along with laptops and tools for graduates going into the trades.