The work went slowly and Father Forestal died in 1847 before the work was completed. Visitations by other priests occurred for a few months until a new pastor was appointed. Reverend James O’Kane became the first “resident pastor” and was well acquainted with the parish. He was an employee of nearby Friend's Asylum before entering the seminary. In Father O’Kane’s first year, the church was completed and the first mass was held. Until then the people of St. Joachim’s worshiped at another church, St. Ann’s, until the building was complete. In 1849 cholera desolated the area. Father O’Kane, along with the Rev. Henry S. Spackman, rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, threw aside their own safety and tended to those who fell victim to the disease and administered to the dying.