For the Schedule of the day, click here: July 4th Quasquicentennial Celebration
Archive for the ‘Parish History’ Category
Schedule for July 4th Celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the Founding of St. Mary Parish, Salem
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010Sisters of the Presentation BVM
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
The Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin were founded on Christmas Day in 1775 by Nano Nagle in Cork, Ireland, to teach poor children. When not teaching, they also ministered to the sick.
The Catholic Church in South Dakota has a long history with the Presentation Sisters, beginning in 1880, when they arrived in the Dakota Territory from Dublin, Ireland, to teach the children of the Lakota Indians and the French settlers in the area. During their first year they experienced the isolation and suffering of the blizzard of 1880.
Eventually, the community grew! The Sisters began teaching throughout what would soon be the Diocese of Sioux Falls. The also openend and staffed Catholic hospitals, the most famous being McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls.
You can learn more information on the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by visiting the website of their South Dakota Motherhouse in Aberdeen:
http://www.presentationsisters.org
St. Mary, Salem was never blessed with having the Presentation Sisters staff our schools. The first Religious Sisters to staff our schools (and for the longest time) were the Sisters of St. Francis from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For a few years, we had the Bernardine Sisters of Loretto, PA. The third and last group of Religious to teach at Salem were the Benedictine Sisters from Yankton, South Dakota.
However, in the early 1960’s, during the tenure of the Benedictines, St. Mary High School was honored with the presence of two Presentation Sisters: Sister M. Anne, PBVM (pictured below, photo on the right), taught Social Studies and Biology, and Sister M. Suzanne, PBVM (photo on the left), taught English and Government. The photos below are from the 1962 yearbook of St. Mary High School, Marylight.
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- Sr. M. Suzanne, PBVM
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- Sr. M. Anne, PBVM
October 1: Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus
Friday, October 2nd, 2009In the years following her canonization in 1925, a statue of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face was venerated on the epistle side of the church sanctuary, to the left of the side altar dedicated to St. Aloysius Gonzaga. In the 1960’s, following the Council, this statue was removed, its whereabouts rumored to be the cistern now covered over by the school yard/parking lot.
The Priest of Salem asked the Carmelite Nuns in Alexandria to pray that he could find a suitable statue of St. Therese, the Little Flower of Jesus. After a few months, their prayers were answered, and a beautiful 61″ (circa 1935) statue of the young Doctor of the Church, in need of a new home, was located and donated. On October 1st, following the Holy Mass and before Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament (First Thursday Adoration for the Year of the Priesthood), the statue was blessed.
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- Zoom showing original statue
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- 1930’s Sanctuary
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- New statue installed in church
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- St Therese when delivered
Postcard of Epistle Side of Sanctuary, circa 1910
Thursday, August 20th, 2009Tonight I was given this postcard by a parishioner. It is in great shape, having made it through the postal system way back then…and only cost a 1 cent stamp!
Video of bell tower and steeple
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009Very interesting video taken by 10th grade parishioner John Streff, with the help of his younger brothers Mark and Andrew. John and his brothers enjoy ringing the church bell before High Mass and during the Elevation of the Sacred Host and the Precious Blood.
Click here for the video: Tour of the Bell Tower
Father Weixelberger, the second Pastor of St. Mary’s, Salem, purchased the first church bell, which was christened “Maria” on May 5, 1891 by the Very Reverend A. L. Ricklin from Sioux Falls, under delegation of Bishop Marty. Realizing that the first church was too small for the growing parish, Father Weixelberger began making plans for the new church. Unfortunately, he died in early November, 1896.
The consecrated bell in our tower was the victim of “graffitti” in the 1960’s – the artwork of students from St. Mary’s High School (which closed in 1970) who used to climb the tower to smoke (I am told!). Anyone interested in cleaning the bell? If so, contact the Pastor at rpmartinus@gmail.com.
St. Mary’s Catholic Church Bell Tower and Steeple Pictures
Friday, August 7th, 2009-
- looking down ladder going up to bell
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- looking up ladder going into steeple
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- approximate thickness of bell
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- the toller
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- chip out of the bell from use of the toller
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- the bell, “Maria”
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- !! A DEAD BAT !!
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- stairs behind the organ
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- one of four speakers for the electronic bells
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- in the bell tower, vent-like windows
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- John going down through hole in steeple floor
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- another view of steeple interior
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- John coming down through the hole
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- looking down through a hole at the ladder that goes up to the steeple
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- looking up the ladder
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- ladder on side of steeple interior
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- floor of steeple
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- Upward view of steeple interior
taken by parishioner John Streff on Aug. 7, 2009
Original Church Bell
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009This photo was taken by parishioner John Streff. The bell in the picture is the original bell of the church. The bell is still rung before Mass, at the Consecration, and after Mass.
- original church bell
Bishop Swain to offer Mass of Thanksgiving at Salem on February 14
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
Bishop Swain
On Saturday, February 14 at 6:00pm, Bishop Paul Joseph Swain will be in Salem to offer a Pontifical Mass in thanksgiving for the recent restoration of St. Mary Church. Following the Mass, there will be a parish dinner in St. Mary Hall. All parishioners and members of the community are invited and encouraged to attend, as we gather to thank the Blessed Trinity and the most holy Virgin Mary for our beautiful house of prayer and worship.
St. Mary Church, under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, is the second Catholic church in Salem, built under the direction of St. Mary’s third pastor, the Right Reverend Monsignor John Bernard Weber.
Born in Germany on November 6, 1869, Father Weber studied for the priesthood at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee, and was ordained on June 24, 1893. Father Weber, who arrived in Salem on January 22, 1897, continued Father Weixelberger’s (second pastor) plans for a new stone church, but changed the proposed location from N. Main Street to its present location on Vermont Street. The cornerstone of the new stone church was laid on July 4, 1898, with the church opening for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in 1899. The three altars and the pulpit, carved in Bavaria, arrived in 1905, with the appointments from the first church used in the intervening years following the opening of the church.
Amidst great fanfare and enthusiasm, St. Mary’s Church was solemnly consecrated by the Right Reverend Thomas O’Gorman, Second Bishop of Sioux Falls, under the title of Our Lady, Help of Christians, on June 18, 1907.
The Right Rev. Msgr. John Bernard Weber, P.A.
Saturday, August 30th, 2008A Sung Requiem Mass, in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, will be celebrated on Msgr. Weber’s birthday, Thursday, Novemeber 6, 2008 in the newly-restored Church of St. Mary, Salem. All are invited to assist at this Mass offered for the repose of the soul our third pastor, offered at the beautiful high altar he installed in 1905.
Our third pastor, the Reverend John Bernard Weber, arrived in Salem on January 22, 1897. Born in Germany on November 6, 1869, Father Weber studied for the priesthood at St. Francis Seminary in Milwaukee, and was ordained on June 24, 1893. Father Weber continued Father Weixelberger’s plans for a new stone church, but changed the proposed location from N. Main Street to its present location on Vermont Street. The cornerstone of the new stone church was laid on July 4, 1898, with the church opening for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in 1899. The three altars and the pulpit, carved in Bavaria, arrived in 1905, with the appointments from the first church used in the intervening years following the opening of the church. Amidst great fanfare and enthusiasm, St. Mary’s Church was solemnly consecrated by the Right Reverend Thomas O’Gorman, Second Bishop of Sioux Falls, under the title of Our Lady, Help of Christians, on June 18, 1907.
Father Weber began the building of the first school building in 1901, and invited the Sisters of St. Francis from Milwaukee to serve as teachers. In 1929, the High School was opened and served the parish until it closed in 1970. Father Weber was named a Monsignor on January 16, 1923 and a Protonotary Apostolic by the Servant of God, Pope Pius XII in 1952, the same year he celebrated the 60th Anniversary of his Ordination to the Priesthood.
In June of 1956, Msgr. Weber resigned as pastor and moved in with his niece, Frances Weber, and her husband, Steve, on their farm northeast of Salem. Msgr. Weber died six months later, on December 11, 1956, and his Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated on December 15, with the Reverend Urban J. Rodenbur (third native son of St. Mary’s to be ordained a priest) as Celebrant. Father Henry Kolbeck, another native son of the parish, served as the Deacon of the Mass, and the Reverend Patrick C. Conway, future pastor of St. Mary’s, serving as Subdeacon. The body of the famous third pastor of Salem lies in St. Mary’s Cemetery, awaiting the Resurrection of the Body on the last day.
In 1985, St. Mary’s Parish celebrated its centennial, and the church was formally placed on the National Historic Register. In 2010, St. Mary’s will celebrate its 125th anniversary.
August 21: Feast of Pope St. Pius X
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
Quotes from the writings of Pope St. Pius X (born Guiseppe Sarto in 1835; elected Sovereign Pontiff in 1903 and died in 1914 on the eve of World War I), who was Pope when St. Mary’s Church, Salem was consecrated by Bishop Thomas O’Gorman in 1907:
“Truly we are passing through disastrous times, when we may well make our own the lamentation of the Prophet: ‘There is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land’ (Hosea 4:1). Yet in the midst of this tide of evil, the Virgin most merciful rises before our eyes like a rainbow, as the arbiter of peace between God and man.
“God could have given us the Redeemer of the human race, and the Founder of the Faith, in another way than through the Virgin, but since Divine Providence has been pleased that we should have the Man-God through Mary, who conceived Him by the Holy Spirit and bore Him in her womb, it only remains for us to receive Christ from the hands of Mary.
“My hope is in Christ, who strengthens the weakest by His Divine help. I can do all in Him who strengthens me. His Power is infinite, and if I lean on him, it will be mine. His Wisdom is infinite, and if I look to Him for counsel, I shall not be deceived. His Goodness is infinite, and if my trust is stayed in Him, I shall not be abandoned.
“Let the storm rage and the sky darken – not for that shall we be dismayed. If we trust as we should in Mary, we shall recognize in her, the Virgin Most Powerful “who with virginal foot did crush the head of the serpent.
“Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven.”
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from the apostolic constitution of Pope Saint Pius X on Sacred Scripture:
“The collection of psalms found in Scripture, composed as it was under divine inspiration, has, from the very beginnings of the Church, shown a wonderful power of fostering devotion among Christians as they offer “to God a continuous sacrifice of praise, the harvest of lips blessing his name.” Following a custom already established in the Old Law, the psalms have played a conspicuous part in the sacred liturgy itself, and in the divine office. Augustine expresses this well when he says: ‘God praised himself so that man might give him fitting praise; because God chose to praise himself man found the way in which to bless God.’ …
“The psalms have also a wonderful power to awaken in our hearts the desire for every virtue. Athanasius says: ‘The psalms seem to me to be like a mirror, in which the person using them can see himself, and the stirrings of his own heart; he can recite them against the background of his own emotions.’ Augustine says in his Confessions: ‘How I wept when I heard you hymns and canticles, being deeply moved by the sweet singing of your Church. Those voices flowed into my earts, truth filtered into my heart, and from my heart surged waves of devotion.’
“Indeed, who could fail to be moved by those many passages in the psalms which set forth so profoundly the infinite majesty of God, his omnipotence, his justice and goodness and clemency, too deep for words, and all the other infinite qualities of his that deserve our praise? Who could fail to be roused to the same emotions by the prayers of thanksgiving to God for blessings received by the petitions, so humble and confident, for blessings still awaited, by the cries of a soul in sorrow for sin committed? Who would not be fired wiht love as he looks on the likeness of Christ, the redeemer, here so lovingly foretold? His was ‘the voice’ Augustine heard in every psalm, the voice of praise, of suffering, of joyful expectation, of present distress.”
