The stone reads:
[IHS logo]
Arthurus F.
Versavel S.J.
Sacerdos
Natus Apr. 24, 1871
Obiit Aug. 13, 1952
R.I.P.
"Union Avenue’s mystery priest has a well-documented life outside Pueblo.
A white stone marker for Arthurus F. Versavel, SJ, stands in a small flower bed adjoining the sidewalk near 308 S. Union Ave. His grave is elsewhere.
Why the marker for a man born in Belgium and buried in Wheat Ridge, who ministered to souls in the former Indian Territory and in Honduras?
“We were looking for that Pueblo connection and just didn’t find it,” says Charlene Garcia
Simms, a librarian in the special collections department of Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library.
Garcia Simms assisted Puebloan Toby Kramer in his search for information about Versavel, whose name appears as Arthur Francis Versavel in Jesuit archives and U.S. Census data.
Kramer started researching Versavel because he was out walking with his baby, saw the marker and could find no one among his acquaintances who knew about the priest.
“I’m a new Puebloan — I moved here around three years ago — and learning things like the history of the hanging tree and the great flood helped me feel more connected to the town,” Kramer writes in an email.
Kramer says he found little connection to Pueblo for Versavel. He provided this reporter with the priest’s personnel record and obituary from the Jesuit Archives for the Central U.S.
The obituary states that at age 80, Versavel still was bringing together 100 African-American children for a summer school with picnics and parties, probably in Denver.
“Given the dates of his life (1871-1952), this must have been quite counter-cultural,” Kramer writes.
No Pueblo assignments
Versavel’s personnel file doesn’t mention assignments in Pueblo. His principal duties as a Jesuit priest were assistant pastor in Chicago in 1907; missionary in British Honduras from 1908 to 1928; pastor in Cleveland from 1928 to 1931, and at a parish in Kansas from 1931 to 1937; and assistant pastor briefly in Kansas City, Mo., and then at Denver’s Sacred Heart parish from 1937 to 1952.
Kramer says the “Indiana Jones” aspect of Versavel’s life fascinates him.
“Shot at by cowboys, finding some ruins. It’s a life that could only happen in a bygone age,” Kramer writes. “He must have done something amazing for this town to have a grave marker here, right Downtown, and I’m a little sad we don’t have a record of it.”
Sandy Strickland, owner of Stitcher’s Garden at 308 S. Union Ave., says she has no idea why Versavel’s marker — and a second marker in memory of C.R. Hedges — is planted in the small garden next to her store. She says people ask her about the markers “all the time.”
George Williams of Pueblo County Historical Society says he doesn’t know why the markers that resemble tombstones are located on Union Avenue.
Cowboys, Indians
Versavel’s work in Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma) in the late 19th century is mentioned in an article written by Velma Nieberding and published in “The Chronicles of Oklahoma,” the journal of the state historical society.
He was sent to Vinita, Indian Territory, in 1894 and was the first resident pastor of the Holy Ghost Church there. He was based at Vinita until 1903, and for much of the time was the only Catholic priest in a 40,000-square-mile area. He traveled by buggy or on horseback, slept along the trail and cared for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
Vinita was a cow town, and a story repeated in the article had Versavel hiding under a table when cowboys celebrating payday shot up the parish house.
During his two decades as a missionary at Bienque Viejo in Honduras, Versavel spent much of his time alone, traveling a territory inhabited by Mayan Indians. He found ruins, which he showed to archaeologists, according to his obituary.
Versavel spent the last 15 years of his life in Denver, where he was assistant pastor at Sacred Heart Church on Larimer Street.
Fluent in English, French, Spanish and Flemish, and able to read German as well, Versavel had traveled far from his birthplace of Ghent, Belgium.
He died Aug. 13, 1952, and was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Wheat Ridge." (excerpted from the Pueblo Chieftain, (
visit link) )