The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York announced today that Saint Brigid's Roman Catholic Church at 119 Avenue B in the East Village on the edge of Tompkins Square Park has been saved from demolition by an anonymous $20 million donation to the Parish and its school.

The church was closed in 2001 and, according to a press release from the Archdiocese, "will open after a $10 million restoration and an additional donation of $2 million to establish an endowment for the parish so that it might best meet the religious and spiritual needs of the people living in the community."

The statement added that "the donor has also made a separate gift of $8 million to support Saint Brigid's School, and other Catholic schools in need. The Archdiocese has been supporting and maintaining the parish school in order to provide quality education for the elementary school children in the East Village."

"The donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, made the offer to Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop of New York, who accepted the unexpected but very welcome gift following a private meeting at the Cardinal's Residence," according to the release.

The church is named after St. Brigid of Ireland and originally served immigrants from Ireland although in recent years its congregation has become more Hispanic. The cornerstone was laid in 1848 and the building, which was designed by Patrick Keely, had twin steeples that were removed by the Archdiocese in the 1960s.

The Archdiocese disbanded the parish in 2005 and began demolition in 2006, but in response to protests by The Committee to Save St. Brigid's, State Supreme Court Justice Barbara R. Kapnick halted the demolition on July 26, 2006 and, according to an entry on the church at wikipedia.org, but before arguments in the case took place, "a demolition crew arrived and demolished the stained glass windows and remaining pews, knocked an eight-foot hole into one wall and erected scaffolding."