The Roman Catholic Church of Saint Isaac Jogues, Evesham Township, New Jersey was established as a parish on April 20, 1996 by the late Bishop John C. Reiss, then Bishop of the Diocese of Trenton, and formed from portions of the parish boundaries of St. Joan of Arc, Marlton and St. John Neumann, Mt. Laurel. Then Reverend Phillip C. Pfleger was appointed “Founding Pastor” on March 1, 1996. In 2013, he was named Episcopal Vicar of Burlington County. Very Reverend Father Pfleger was also appointed as the Administrator of St. John Neumann Parish, Mt. Laurel and later named its new Pastor as well.
 
We celebrated our first Mass at the Frances S. DeMasi Schools on April 20, 1996. Weekend Masses continued there with daily Mass celebrated at the rectory until 2002. On October 19, 1997, the feast of St. Isaac Jogues, our “Building the Dream” campaign began to fund our own church facilities. We realized our dream with the completion of construction and dedication of our beautiful Church on October 19, 2002. Several years later, our Holy Family Parish Center also became a reality. The third phase, a formal Parish Social Hall, remains.
 
Our Church building and subsequent Holy Family Parish Center were constructed on 23 acres of farmland at the intersection of Elmwood and Evesboro-Medford Roads, acquired by the Diocese in 1994 and transferred to St. Isaac’s in February 1997. The first rectory was a home in the Country Farms section of the Township, purchased in April 1996. The rectory relocated in 1999 to a property adjacent to the church on Lord Place in Marlton.
 
Our parish namesake was selected as a tribute to the Native American heritage and influence in the South Jersey area. Saint Isaac Jogues, a Missionary of the Society of Jesus and a Martyr, was born in France on January 10, 1607. He proclaimed the Gospel among Indian Tribes living along the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes in New France (Canada). Returning from ministering to the Huron Indians, he was captured by the Iroquois, enslaved, and tortured. Father Jogues escaped, but on a subsequent peace mission to the Iroquois in upper New York, was martyred on October 18, 1646 because the Indians believed that his evil spirit was responsible for a crop failure and epidemic. He was canonized in 1930 along with seven others similarly executed by the Iroquois – five French priests and two laymen – the first martyrs in the new lands. They are venerated as the North American Martyrs with shrines in Auriesville, New York and Midland, Ontario.
 
As noted above, there are two different dates of importance in our past – April 20, 1996 and October 19, 2002. In 2016, we marked the 20^th Anniversary of the founding of our parish, an auspicious day for the Catholic Church in the Marlton area. Following the retirement of Founding Pastor Father Pfleger in 2023, Bishop David M. O'Connell appointed Father James Smith to become the next pastor of the Church of St. Isaac Jogues. Our Parish Family has become a robust community of over 2,000 families and is blessed with hundreds of volunteers in various ministries supporting the spiritual, educational, charitable, and social needs of the parishioners and others in our local area.