St. Borromeo Catholic Chruch - 125th Anniversary - St. Charles, MO - Commercial Commemorations on Waymarking.com

County of statue: St. Charles County
Location of statue: Decatur St. & N 5th St., front steps of church, St. Charles

Capsule Text:

"St. Charles, an area fertile in the quality of its land, also has produced over two centuries rich in faith. On the banks of the Missouri in 1769, Louis Blanchette and his band of French Canadians built a settlement which soon included a rough log cabin used for Mass and church gatherings by visiting order and secular priests.

"On October 13, 1789, the Spanish Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana, Don Manuel Perezs, gave permission to build a permanent church in an area that was titled Les Petites Cotes (village of the Little Hills). A typical French log church with vertical post was built at Jackson and South Main Streets and was dedicated together with the town on November 7, 1791, under the patronage of the saintly Cardinal of Milan, Charles Borromeo, the patron of the Spanish King, Charles.

"The first acting pastor, Benedictine friar Dom Pierre Didier, entered the first recorded baptism on July 21, 1792, at the original St. Charles Borromeo church. To the east of this structure on Jackson Street still survives a building originally used as a rectory by resident priests. One 19th century priest gave us insight into the casual frontier Sunday practice of the day, as he write, “the women were practical and pious. The men possessed the faith, although with a few honorable exceptions, the practices of it consisted largely in congregating on Sundays outside the church during Mass to “swap” ponies or river tales, sell their pelts, hear the news and shake hands all around.” ~ St Borromeo Church