Father Marquette, S.J. [Society of Jesus/Jesuits] and his companion, Joliet in 1673 left the mission church at St. Ignace at Sault Ste. Marie, near the present site of the great locks of the Soo between Lakes Superior and Michigan, on an exploratory trip to the Illinois country. By the way of the Des Plaines River, they entered our present day diocesan territory.

Seven years later, in 1680, a Father Ribourde, a Recollect Father, with Tonty and Father Membre were paddling up the Illinois River between the present day towns of Utica and Morris. The canoe needed repairing. Father Ribourde being 80 years old, left the repair work to the two younger men and wandered off from the riverbank to recite his Divine Office or breviary. While praying, he was killed by a band of roving Kickapoo Indians.

Thus centuries ago, the history of our church began in the territory now known as the Joliet Diocese. Indeed the early missionaries planted and watered, even with their own blood and God gave the growth. It is with genuine joy that the story of the growth is related below and on the following pages.

By 1948, 85 diocesan priests, 130 priests from religious orders, 61 religious brothers, 929 religious sisters, and 89,424 laity composed the Catholic population of the diocese at the time of its establishment.

By 1955, there were 72 parishes, 12 missions, 43 Catholic elementary schools, 2 orphanages, 13 Catholic high schools and 4 Catholic colleges with a total student enrollment of 12,807.

Rich with the accomplishments and traditions of a 107 year history, Maternity Church, Bourbonnais, today looks back reminiscently to the French missionaries who gave it birth as early as 1837, when Father Lalumiere celebrated the first Mass at the home of Noel LaVasseur, a local fur trader.

In 1846, St. Leo’s was incorporated into the diocese of Chicago. On April 29^th of the following year, Bourbonnais received its first resident pastor, the Reverend Rene Courjault. Father Courjault’s first census, taken that September recorded 77 families, a total of 471 sheep in this new flock.

Father commenced work on a new church in February of 1849, and on June 2, 1850, Bishop Van De Velde, together with the devoted congregation, dedicated the new edifice to the Divine Maternity of the Virgin Mary.

Shortly after the third anniversary of its dedication, tragedy, in the form of a roaring fire, struck Maternity Church and razed it to the ground. In 1858, the present church building was completed.

The ensuing years saw a steady growth in the Bourbonnais Catholic parish. In 1860, the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame came to the parish and in 1865, the Viatorian Fathers arrived to establish a college for young men.

The present church built in 1858 was extensively repaired and redecorated prior to the celebration of its Centenary in 1947. The year 1951 saw the erection of a modern rectory to replace the one of 1870.

One hundred years ago, in 1855, Manteno became a mission station and the Holy Sacrifice was offered here by Father Cartuyels. Of the many scorching summer days of 1855, one will be remembered in particular. On July 2, 1855, the first baptism, that of Marie Labrie, infant daughter of Joseph Labrie and Marie Brosseau Labrie and the first marriage, that of Albert Robidoux and Aurelie Soulugny, took place at the mission.

Fathers’ Lapointe, Gingass and Paradis carried on after Father Cartuyels. Father Paradis resided in the farm community of St. George and visited Manteno every 3^rd Sunday.

During the pastorate of Father Kerston, a beautiful church was constructed, so attractive that it was considered an identifying landmark at the time. All went well for Fathers Goulet, Mevel and Bergeron, but disaster struck Father Chounard in 1898. In minutes, the work of years was reduced to smoldering ruins. The landmark was gone.

Never the less, the parish was still there and a place of worship was imperative, so the task of rebuilding fell upon the shoulders of Father Bourdeau, who under took the building of the present church. He later promoted the construction of the first building of Our Lady Academy and was fortunate in obtaining the Sisters of the Holy Heart of Mary to take charge of the school.

Father J. Lareau, assumed spiritual leadership of St, Joseph’s in 1937. He was assisted by Father Stanislaus Gryga. Other priests who lived or served there included Father A. L. Labrie, Father J.E. Supreneau, CSV, Father A. Harte, Father John Smith and Father Ed Gorman CSV.

In 1856, Mr. Charles Arseneau and Mr. David Saindon cleared a plot of ground on which was to be erected the first St. Mary’s Church of Beaverville, Illinois. The two men cut down trees and joined them together so that they could be used as uprights and sills for the new church. The parish was organized in 1856 and mass was offered in different homes and a country store [owned by Godfrey Caillouette] until 1857.

On October 16, 1857, the Reverend Epiphanies La Pointe arrived from Canada to take over as pastor of the new church. He solemnly blessed the frame church in December of 1857 and than returned to Canada where he spent 15 months collecting money to pay for the church at Beaverville.

The first rectory was erected in 1883 by Rev. L. S. Langlis CSV. The present church completed in 1911 was erected by the Rev. M. J. Marsile CSV. It is of Greek type architecture, Ionic exterior and Corinthian interior. The whole edifice is of well-matched Bedford stone.

In 1955, the Reverend F. X. Hazen CSV and his assistant Rev. J. J. Ryan CSV took over the leadership of the parish.

At the turn of the second half the of nineteenth century, many French Canadian families migrated from the province of Quebec, Canada and settled in the fertile farmland area just northeast of the city of Kankakee, Illinois. All of these people were staunch Catholics. They brought with them a heritage, which was very dear to the hearts of their French ancestors.

When they first settled in this region, which is now called St. George, their spiritual needs were administrated by the pastor of Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Bourbonnais. About the year, 1858, St. George became an established parish with a resident pastor and has continued as such even to this day.

As was the custom in those days in Canada, especially in farm areas, the new settlement was built around the church and named after the patron saint of the church. Thus, around St. George’s Parish, there quite naturally grew the present town of St. George.

The first mission chapel to be built on the present location was completed in 1848. A second wooden chapel was built in 1854 and a combination chapel in 1858. These two edifices were made possible through the efforts of the missionaries, Rev L’Abbe Courgeault and Rev. E. Lapointe.

The first stone church, which was built in January 1869, collapsed on the occasion of a severe storm in the following April. Rev. P. Beaudry was pastor when the present structure was built in 1872 of stone quarried from the Kankakee River bed.

A convent was added in 1889 for the Sisters of St. Joseph from Concordia, Kansas and they have been teaching at the grade school ever since that time. The parish hall was completed in 1892 and the rectory in 1897.

St. Patrick’s Parish began in 1891 when the Catholic Columbian Association assembled formed a building committee and chose a lot on Indiana and Hickory Streets for the new church buildings. Rev J. J. Darcy was appointed the first pastor in 1892. The following two years heralded the erection of the actual church building. By the year 1905, St. Patrick’s flock numbered 105 families. Necessity for a parish school arose from this great increase. Thus, in the years which Followed Rev. John T. Bennett rehabilitated the church property and construction of St. Patrick’s Parochial School was begun.

In September of 1914, the school opened under the tutelage of the Sisters of Loretto. Three years later, Rev. H. M. Shea was appointed Pastor.

Father Shea’s pastorate saw construction of a convent and a high school dedicated in the fall of 1922. The Reverend Edward J. McNalley succeeded Father Shea who was transferred to St Matthew’s Church in Chicago. Father McNalley accrued state recognition and affiliation for St. Patrick’s High School.

In 1931, the clerics of St. Viator were given charge of St. Patrick’s under Reverend William Bergin. Reverend Thomas E. Fitzpatrick became pastor in 1932 and succeeded in liquidating the remainder of the church debt. He also had the permanent main altar installed and added equipment to the industrial courses of the high school. He also extended the school library.

Reverend James Lowney, CSV assumed the strenuous task of renovating the high school. In 1944, the Reverend Angello Rinella instituted a building fund for a new rectory. His successor, Rev. James Meara saw the task accomplished. He also instigated repairs on both grade and high schools and purchased stained glass windows for the church.

In the year 1900, a mission later to be known as St. Joseph’s Parish was established by the priests from St. Patrick’s Church in Kankakee.

Archbishop Quigley elevated the mission to a parish in 1904 and appointed Rev. J. A. Milot as its first pastor. The Divine Services had formally been held in a hall on Broadway Street, but Father Milot looking for a more suitable place found an old Baptist church on Center Street just off Broadway Street. This was rented and used as a church for three years. By this time, Father Milot had completed the present combination church and school building.

In the fall of 1924, when Rev. Harris A. Darche was pastor, St. Jose’s Parochial School was opened for the first time with the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois in charge. Rev. Raymond B. Bernau became pastor in 1937, after the death of Father Darche. The parish grew and in 1938, it received its first assistant, the Reverend Hugh O’Brien.

In 1948, Father Bernau undertook an extensive building program. It consisted of moving the church [which had formally occupied the 2^nd floor] to the first floor and the conversion of the 2^nd floor into classrooms. Also, a convent was built behind the combination building and in the basement of the new structure, a hall was added.

In 1950, Father Bernau was made a Domestic Prelate with the title of Right Reverend Monsignor and Father Martin A. Heneshan was appointed pastor in November of 1950.