The scene around this old church a few weeks ago had the autumn colors as a backdrop instead of the white snow that fell again today. Built in 1920, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Herbster, Wisconsin, had its first Mass celebrated in January 1921 by Father Amen, who came with the mail carrier from Park Falls. With a dwindling congregation and a shortage of priests, the church was closed in 1992 and the bell was moved to the cemetery.
Old Church in Herbster
While this not the typical white rural church picture I normally would post on some Sundays, this church is still a rural church in a small village of less than 800 people in the farming community of Plain in southwestern Wisconsin.
It is actually the fifth Catholic church built in Plain after a cyclone in 1918 destroyed the the third church, leaving only the steeple. The parishioners decided not to rebuild on the site where the first church was built in 1861 and the where the second and third church had also been built on, especially after a visiting priest made this comment on the old location, “A location, which even seemed to draw down the disapproval of God in destroying the third attempt to build in the poorest place in Plain – to erect a beautiful House of God in a hole surrounded by unsightly horse sheds.”
My great grandfather was one of the majority who voted yes to rebuild at a new location and so a combination church and school was built in 1919 on a new location and served as the fourth church until this fifth and current church was completed in 1940. On the left of the picture, a corner of the combination church and school building can be seen which still serves as the elementary and middle school now but also served as the high school in the past where my mom and her siblings attended.
St. Luke Catholic Church
Nestled amongst the farm fields of Southwest Wisconsin, you can stumble upon small rural country churches like St. Peter Catholic Church near Cuba City, Wisconsin.
Country Church
With the promise of sunshine for day, it gives a ray of hope that spring may come, even if the temperature is still chilly. Nestled in the rolling hills of southwestern Wisconsin in Seymour Township, Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church was built in 1869.
Our Lady of Hope
Happy New Year!
Some may have rang in the new year last night, but church bells that rang today may have been ringing for peace in the new year. Pope Francis spoke of peace today and said, “This brings a responsibility for each to work so that the world becomes a community of brothers who respect each other, accept each other in one’s diversity, and takes care of one another.”
I wish everyone a wonderful, healthy and peaceful new year!
Ringing in the New Year
