She did not expect to be arrested, but she was, after she refused to leave.

And she did not expect the archdiocese to close her beloved East Harlem church, two weeks early, but late Monday night, that is exactly what it did.

Toby Patanella prayed outside Our Lady Queen of Angels in East Harlem. [Photo by] James Estrin/The New York Times

“We wanted a peaceful vigil,” she said yesterday after some sleep and a change of clothes. “Things changed because the diocese — the tactics it used were so inappropriate.”

Ms. Villegas and some fellow parishioners occupied the sanctuary for about 28 hours, protesting the archdiocese’s plan to shut down Our Lady Queen of Angels on March 1. Late Monday, police officers led Ms. Villegas and five other parishioners out of the red-brick church in plastic handcuffs. They were given summonses for trespassing.

A small group of parishioners occupied the church on Monday before the protest ended in arrests. [Photo by] James Estrin/The New York Times

They had decided to remain in the church after it became clear that anyone who did not leave would be arrested. The others in a crowd of about 40 left, with some saying they feared deportation if arrested.

“I can’t believe that they would go to such lengths to get us out of the church when all we were doing was praying, all we were doing was singing, all we were doing was trying to protect where we’ve gone to church,” said Patricia Rodriguez, 43, one of the six arrested.

A spokesman for the archdiocese, Joseph Zwilling, released an account that dovetailed with what the protestors said unfolded in the church on Monday night. “As a result of this regrettable event and the possibility of future events of this kind,” he said, “ it has been decided that the parish is to be closed immediately.”

Yesterday, the church’s double red doors were locked tight.

The protest had begun quietly on Sunday, when a small group of parishioners stayed behind as the lights and heat were turned off after the evening Mass. Others took their places on Monday morning and spent the day praying and singing “Ave Maria” from time to time.

But the mood became tense when the guards appeared on Monday evening. “They have guards and we are armed with rosaries and Bibles,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “Really, what harm were we going to do?”

The guards accompanied Msgr. Dennis Mathers, the vice chancellor of the archdiocese, who had worked on the church-closing plan. With him was Edward Reigadas, the archdiocesan director of insurance.

The archdiocese said the two officials carried a letter from Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan, the vicar general of the archdiocese, asking the protesters to leave the church building. It also urged them to become active at one of four other churches that are within a few blocks of Our Lady Queen of Angels, which is on East 113th Street between Second and Third Avenues.

The monsignor delivered that message to the protesters from the pulpit. “He didn’t say ‘hello’ or ‘how are you,’ ” said Ms. Villegas, who recognized him from meetings about the church-closing plan. “He had a red book in his hand. He opened it and said, ‘The church is closed, you can go to Mass at St. Ann’s, St. Cecilia.’ He said, ‘You can go to this church, to that church, to that church, to that church; you have to leave.’ ”

As he left the sanctuary, Ms. Villegas said that she called after him, saying the protesters had questions they wanted to ask. He did not return.

Mr. Reigadas took the pulpit and read a similar message in Spanish.

Ms. Villegas said she was so offended that the archdiocese had not sent higher-ranking officials that she began shouting that parishioners should withhold contributions to a fund that goes to the archdiocese.

Then, she said, her cellphone rang. The caller was Melissa Mark-Viverito, a city councilwoman who represents East Harlem. She was outside the church and said the guards would not let her in.

One of the guards in the sanctuary “approached me to hear what I was saying,” Ms. Villegas said, so she walked into the vestibule on the 113th Street side of the church — the main entrance. The guard did not follow her.

The church’s front door had been closed and locked from the outside all day. The protesters and reporters covering the vigil had been coming and going by a side door that had been propped open. But by evening that door, too, had been locked.

Ms. Villegas flung open the front door. Ms. Mark-Viverito and a throng of television camera crews, reporters and parishioners rushed through. With them, Ms. Villegas said, were several police officers.

Before long, she said, the officers were joined by others who conferred with church officials in a room off the sanctuary. Finally, after 10 p.m., a police official told the crowd to leave by 11:30, she said.

“I said, ‘If they’re going to arrest us, let’s do it so everybody in the world will know what Cardinal Egan has done to us,’ ” Ms. Villegas said.

The police said yesterday that the officers had begun monitoring Our Lady Queen of Angels after two parishioners at a church in Yonkers also being shut down were arrested in a sit-in on Sunday.

The police said that the archdiocese wanted everyone out of the church, and the guards passed that word to the officers on the scene.

Yesterday, some parishioners talked of organizing a service outside the church on Sunday. Some walked by and looked at a sign that had been taped to the front door, saying the church was closed. Some remembered weddings, baptisms and funerals.

“This,” said Toby Patanella, referring to the arrests and the closing, “has been a nightmare for us, my wife and I. It’s like a slap in the face.”