SCRANTON — Two Logan County parishes located on Highway 109 celebrated their 100th anniversaries this year.
St. Meinrad Church in Prairie View was blessed in January 1913. Two and a half miles away, St. Ignatius Church in Scranton was dedicated a few days later. Both communities were growing rapidly because of their main industries — farming and mining.
When the parishes were founded, St. Meinrad and St. Ignatius parishioners took turns meeting a monk at the train depot on Saturday, who would say High Mass at one church early Sunday morning and Low Mass at the other, alternating each week. In 1916, the churches received their first resident pastor, Father Peter Post, OSB. He lived in the Scranton sacristy and spent three days a week in Prairie View.
This close relationship between the two parishes continues today. They share a pastor, Father Josely Kalathil, IMS, with Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Morrison Bluff. The ladies of St. Meinrad Church provided hospitality at St. Ignatius’ centennial celebration May 5, and the ladies of St. Ignatius will be providing hospitality at St. Meinrad’s centennial celebration June 29.
At St. Ignatius’ centennial, Bishop Anthony B. Taylor concelebrated Mass with Father Kalathil and former pastors Fathers Barnabas Susai, IMS, and Bruno Fuhrmann, OSB. Following Mass, Bishop Taylor dedicated a new St. Ignatius monument outside the church.
St. Ignatius was pastored by Benedictine priests from Subiaco Abbey until 2007, and the Benedictine presence is still strong. Three parishioners — Father Michael Lensing, Sister Cecelia Krallman, OSB, and Sister Benedict Borgerding, OSB — entered the Benedictine order. Sisters Maria DeAngeli and Elise Forst, OSB, attended the celebration, representing the Benedictine sisters from St. Scholastica Monastery who taught at St. Ignatius School from 1911 to 1974. Some parishioners work and volunteer at nearby Subiaco Abbey, and many were educated at Subiaco and St. Scholastica academies.
The Subiaco Academy choir entertained parishioners and guests during lunch.
Reminiscences by former Benedictine pastors and sisters shared in the “Centennial Journal” recall the warm hospitality provided by parishioners. In 2007, when parishioners welcomed their first pastor from the Indian Missionary Society, Father Susai, they encountered a new challenge.
“I learned how to drive,” Father Susai recalled. “I had seven coaches teaching me … They taught me a lot, but they didn’t teach me how to defrost my windshield.”
One winter day, after enjoying lunch at a parishioner’s home, he couldn’t see through the frost and his car went into the ditch.
By the time the parish welcomed its second pastor from India, Father Kalathil, in 2010, they had perfected their driving instruction, and he received his license in 58 days. Parishioners also taught him how to make wine, fish and ride a horse.
Both priests loved the home cooking at St. Ignatius, including southern specialties like barbeque chicken and ribs.
One hundred years brought many challenges to the parish, as its residents lived through two World Wars and several smaller ones, the Great Depression, floods, the construction of a lock and dam system, which caused many farmers to lose their farmland, the opening and closing of a school, the closing of the mines and demographic changes that resulted in population shifts from small towns to larger urban centers.
While some descendants of the original founding families — the Bauers, Neumeiers, Eckelhoffs, Krallmans, Lensings, Heims, Kramers, Schmitzes, Konerts, Koenigseders, Busses and others — are still parishioners of St. Ignatius, others have moved across Arkansas, carrying their faith and country values with them.
“The people in our parish all pull together,” Wanda Koenigseder said. “When one family is in need, the parish donates and helps the family out. Not that many young families are able to live here anymore, and lots of people commute to Clarksville, Paris, Fort Smith and further for work, but it’s peaceful and beautiful here.”
Father Kalathil said he loves ministering to all three of his parishes — St. Ignatius, St. Meinrad, and Sts. Peter and Paul.
“I have enjoyed being in this parish with all of you charming, caring and peace-loving faithful,” he wrote. “I have no strangers here; all are, if not my friends, undoubtedly my brothers and sisters.”
