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May 6, 2021The Church of Saint Benedict in Shawnee was founded by the remarkable Father Felix De Grasse, a Benedictine whose exploits have been documented in an earlier “From the Archives.”
Braving the complexities of travel, Father Felix started this community in July of 1895, attempting to gather Catholics in the area meeting first in parishioners’ homes and later at Welch’s Feedstore. In August of 1895, Bishop Meerschaert officially established the church. Purchasing a plot at 9th and Park Street, construction of the first church began. The school was opened in October 1896, under the direction of the Mercy Sisters.
Another significant event that contributed to the growth of the town was the coming of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad (later the Rock Island). In July of 1895. The entire complexion of the town changed as travel to and from became a possibility.
Saint Benedict was populated primarily by poor farmers. From an account of the parish’s history: “A reliable source of information says that on one occasion the priest announced after Mass that there were three nickels in the collection box. He then invited the people who contributed them to come and get them.”
By 1905, a new church was needed to meet the rapid expansion of the city. The present property was purchased, and the new brick structure was completed and dedicated in 1907 and still serves the people of Shawnee.
In 1910, the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce, in its effort to bring higher education to guarantee continued growth, offered land to both the Benedictines and the Baptists. On the outskirts of the young city, the Catholic University of Oklahoma (later Saint Gregory’s University) opened in 1915 and Oklahoma Baptist University came to be. This would precipitate the Benedictine community at Sacred Heart’s move to Shawnee in 1929.
In 1951, the world-famous athlete Jim Thorpe was buried from Saint Benedict as he had briefly attended Sacred Heart Catholic School as a small boy and thus his Benedictine connection.
Until recently, the parish had been supplied by the Benedictines. That has changed as archdiocesan clergy now have pastoral care of Saint Benedict.
In 1955, the Southwest Courier (the forerunner of the Sooner Catholic), said it best: “In reviewing the history of Saint Benedict’s parish to the present time, and the great progress that has been achieved under its many able and saintly pastors, whose lives of sacrifice and dedication have inspired the members of their flock, it is not presumptuous to look to the future in prayerful hope and confidence that Saint Benedict’s parish will ever continue to contribute richly to the growth of the Catholic Church in the diocese.”
Sixty-six years later, that sentiment still holds true.
