St. Rupert 150th Anniversary
28-30 August 2015
HomeAbout St Rupert as a Faith Community
From Article printed in Warrick County Standard in 1996.
In the year1854 missionary monks arrived from the Abbey of Einsiedeln, Switzerland and began a foundation at St. Meinrad. The Fathers came whenever possible to the homes of Anthony Kaiser or Anthony Fischer to offer mass and Baptize the Children.
By 1865, after the first episcopal visit to the territory by the Most Reverend Maurice de St. Palais, Bishop of Vincennes , it was decided there was sufficient Catholic population in the Newburgh and Yankeetown area to warrant the erection of a church.
The first church of St. Rupert was of frame construction completed in 1865 but dedicated on January 2, 1866.
Father Martin Marty of St. Meinrad was serving the Yankeetown community. In a letter to Father Rupert, Dean of Einsiedeln Abbey, Father Martin wrote in 1866 th1t last year he had a neat little church built at Yankeetown (later Red Brush), Warrick County, araound which a new flourishing parish has already gathered and is visited by us once a month. At Father Rupert's earlier request, the new church had been named for his Patron.
Later Father Martin asked Father Rupert to procure a statue of St. Rupert for the altar of the church. This beautiful statue arrived only after the death of Father Rupert in 1867 and is still a cherished heirloom of the church, taking its place on the Gospel side of the High Altar along with the statue of St. Boniface on the Epistle side.
