St. Mary's Mission of Maxstone

The heritage value of St. Mary’s Mission of Maxstone lies in its long service to the Catholic residents of the Maxstone district. Homesteaders, mostly German-speaking Catholics from the Bukovina region of Austria-Hungary, began arriving in the area around 1909. In the early years, travelling priests celebrated Mass in the settlers’ homes. In 1916, Father Louis-Pierre Gravel, the founder of the French-Catholic settlement at Gravelbourg, helped the homesteaders secure permission to erect their own church. In 1917, community members contributed money and labour to build St. Mary’s Church on a parcel of land donated by Edward Lolacher. Mr. Lolacher, who was also a stonemason and experienced church builder, and local residents Anton Kwasnicki and John Pilsner, both skilled carpenters, directed the construction. The vestry at the rear of the building and the entry porch were added ca. 1926.

St. Mary’s was blessed by Father Poirier of Assiniboia on August 15, the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in 1917. The church’s first Mass was celebrated by Father Gravel. For the next 50 years, priests from nearby parishes came to St. Mary’s Mission to serve the spiritual needs of the district’s Catholics. In 1969, however, the church was forced to close due to a shortage of priests in the region. Today, the church is a community museum, and still hosts a lay service every Father’s Day.

Further heritage value resides in the cemetery’s connection to the area’s pioneers, many of whom were laid to rest within its grounds. The first interment in the cemetery occurred before the church was completed, and burials are still periodically conducted. The iron cross markers on some of the graves, likely made by Maxstone’s former blacksmith, are of a style associated with German-speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe.

Source:

Rural Municipality of Stonehenge No. 73 Bylaw No. 5/04.