The Archdiocese of Liverpool announced in the summer that either St Mary’s, Wigan, where Higginson used to worship, or nearby St John’s Church will close.
Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool said he had decided to keep the churches open.
Both churches are Grade II-listed and pre-date the Catholic Emancipation of 1829, with St Mary’s built in the neo-Gothic style in 1818 and St John’s in the neo-Classical style a year later.
In a statement read out at Masses, Archbishop McMahon said the churches will be clustered with St Patrick’s Church, Wigan, to form the parish of St William.
He said: “I have listened to the concerns raised by all three communities and by the wider community of the archdiocese.
“I know that my decision will be received with joy in the parish.”
St Mary’s is the church where Higginson worshipped in the late 19th century when she was being oppressed by the Devil and beginning to receive divine apparitions.
It was also the church were Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, began his priestly ministry as a curate following his ordination.
St John’s, formerly overseen by Jesuits who ran a mission in the Lancashire town between 1686 and 1933, is acknowledged as one of the most beautiful Catholic churches in the England and was included in Fifty Catholic Churches to See Before You Die, the acclaimed 2020 book by Elena Curti.
The future of both churches, each of which are extremely well attended by local Catholics and produce disproportionate vocations for the archdiocese, was thrown into crisis earlier this year with the death of Fr John Johnson, the parish priest of St Mary’s.
A solution to keeping St Mary’s open was sought by converting it into a shrine church under the custody of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.
The canons, who celebrate the liturgy exclusively in the Tridentine rite, came out twice a week from New Brighton, the Wirral, on a provisional basis to offer Mass and confessions.
Although there was no local opposition to the Masses, which were well attended, the archdiocese decided however that they would not continue.
Parishioners were then invited to a series of meetings to make a case for keeping their preferred church open to senior archdiocesan officials.
In his announcement, Archbishop McMahon announced that from January 2025, Fr Paul Grady will take over from Fr Ian O’Shea as parish priest, supported by recently-ordained Fr Hugh Dunleavy as curate.
Fr O’Shea will take up a new post as parish priest of Our Lady’s, Parbold, Wigan, and St John’s, Burscough, Lancashire.
St Mary’s is well known because of its connection with Higginson, who went to Mass there daily.
In the biography, Teresa Helena Higginson, author Lady Cecil Kerr dedicates several early chapters to the mystical phenomena experienced by the visionary when she was teaching at the adjacent primary school.
One chapter, entitled “St Mary’s, Wigan”, tells of how Higginson was attacked by the Devil, was tempted by every kind of sin, and received numerous divine apparitions. When she was making the Stations of the Cross in St Mary’s, Higginson on one occasion went into a state of ecstasy.
Before she left Wigan, Higginson received the stigmata and the mystical espousal of a bride of Christ. She went on to request a devotion to the Sacred Head of Jesus as the “seat of divine wisdom” and the antidote to intellectual pride and rebellion.
Her cause for canonisation was opened by the Archdiocese of Liverpool soon after her death but shelved as non-expedit (not expedient) by the Vatican in the 1930s. Recent attempts to reopen her cause have been unsuccessful.