With the assistance of Protestant members of the community, a schoolhouse was built in 1864. In 1865, two years after becoming a "Mission-Centre", St Francis Xavier was chosen as the titular saint of the parish. Ten years later, the Carfin Mission was separated from Wishaw Parish and the first priest to take charge of the Mission was Fr Thomas Moran. Soon after his appointment to Carfin, however, Fr Moran decided that he preferred to live with his brother, who was the resident priest in Chapelhall, and again Carfin was served from another Parish. In 1876, he took up residence in Cleland and Carfin was listed as part of the Cleland Mission. The new Church of St Francis Xavier was opened on 2nd July 1882 and was served from Cleland by Fr Moran and then Fr Hughes until 1890 when Fr Cunningham was appointed as resident priest in Carfin.

Before the turn of the century, Carfin had its own Chapel house and in 1897 the new school was opened. The chapel house is still standing but the school gave way to the present school in the mid-1930s.

At that time, the Parish included Newarthill, New Stevenston and the boundary extended down to the Calder Bridge. In 1946, New Stevenston Parish of St John Bosco was formed and, in 1956, Newarthill separated from Carfin

and became St. Teresa's Parish. Sometime during the 1980's, that part of the Parish south of the Cleekhiminn was ceded to the Cathedral parish. Possibly so that Canon Carey could claim the golf course as part of his parish.

1908 saw the purchase of a piece of land by the Parish priest at that time, Fr Charles Webb. He purchased an acre of waste ground, across from the church, which was eventually to become the Carfin Lourdes Grotto.

The Parish continued to grow and, in 1915, Fr Thomas Nimmo Taylor was appointed Parish Priest, where he remained until his death on 1st December 1963.

From that time, the Parish began to develop a special devotion to the Little Flower because of Fr Taylor's particular interest in St Therese and, following a pilgrimage undertaken by some parishioners in 1920, the history of the Parish became inextricably linked to the Grotto. The opening of the Grotto in 1922, and the re-introduction of street processions in the early-1920s, produced a backlash from the more extreme Protestants in the district who invoked some penal law, which prohibited processions and the wearing of religious habits in public. This action eventually led to repealing of the obsolete Anti-Catholic legislation governing processions and such events.