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St. mary parish in trenton marks 150 years of faith

Story and photos by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger editor

Remembering the past and celebrating the present and future, St. Mary Parish in Trenton marked its 150th anniversary Oct. 26 with a special Mass of thanksgiving.
Bishop Edward K. Braxton was celebrant and homilist at the 10:30 a.m. liturgy.

The Belleville diocese’s first deacon, John Dilley, now retired, calls St. Mary’s home. After his ordination, Deacon Dilley assisted with parish leadership.
He recounted some of the history of the area in a homily he gave when still an active deacon.

He reached back into a history that begins before St. Mary’s was built and paints an aural portrait of how local Catholics remained faithful.

In the 1820s and 1830s, Trenton was on the Alton and Carlyle stagecoach line, Deacon Dilley said.
“Before the founding of our parish, local Catholics from surrounding towns used to gather at the railroad station once a year to take the train to St. Louis to fulfill their Easter duty,” Deacon Dilley wrote.
Coal mining, once thriving in the diocese, brought miners to the area, and many moved to Trenton in the 1870s with the opening of two mines.

As early parishes often began, the Catholic people of Trenton gathered in homes to celebrate the Eucharist with a visiting priest. Before St. Mary’s was constructed, people gathered at the home of Thomas McMahon or in the public school to celebrate Eucharist with Father Peter Peters.
The first church was built in 1864, but the first resident pastor, Father Anthony Brefeld, did not begin ministering to the parish until 1868.

A small school was built in 1870, and Father Brefeld also became the teacher until 1876 when Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ came to Trenton to teach in the school.

Over the years, the parish continued to grow, with the church being enlarged in 1883 and a steeple added in 1900. As the number of families grew, a new and larger school was built. In 1914, a parish hall was built.

By 1950, it was clear a larger church was needed, and a new church building was completed in 1953. By 1955, about 1,500 parishioners called St. Mary’s home. School growth followed, and in 1961 enrollment was 341 students but a short six years later, the operation of the school was taken over by the public school district, and religion was taught in the morning before the regular school day began.

Familiar in Clinton County, this Catholic/public school combination worked at St. Mary’s until the religious education classes were moved to Sunday mornings.

With Father Clement Dirler appointed pastor in 1966, St. Mary’s began implementing the changes wrought by Vatican Council II. Lay people became more involved in parish life and engaged in ministry.

Deacon Dilley described parishioners at St. Mary’s as people with a proud history. “The members are always going forward with new things, new ideas,” he said.

“They, like us, honor and respect the memory of our forbearers,” he said.

As part of the anniversary celebration, parishioners placed a “time capsule” into the ground at the parish. It contains material related to the parish celebration, pastoral associate, Sister Angela Schrage, ASC said.
The time capsule will be opened in 2058, 50 years from now.

Deacon Dilley said his hope is “that those in generations after we’ve gone, will find the same pride in us that we find in our forbearers.”