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In 1848 ,
Indiana was part of the American frontier; villages were being formed
and roads carved from the wilderness. This was the environment in
which the Catholic Church organized its first parish churches in the
hinterlands of Indiana. The beginnings were inauspicious, but in the
year 1848 Father Simon Lalumiere, a tireless frontier missionary, said
the fist Mass in Putnam County in a log schoolhouse about a mile
southwest of the present Greencastle city limits. From that
solitary Mass comes an unbroken line of Catholic tradition in the county
that stretches to the present. In those
early days most parishes in rural areas were considered missions
and were staffed by "circuit riding" priests from parishes in
larger cities. In 1853, Father William Doyle from Crawfordsville
was assigned to regularly serve Catholics of the Greencastle are.
On November 13, 1853, he offered Mass for the first time in a former
factory building in Greencastle purchased for the use of the
congregation. The
Catholic tradition has been alive n Putnam County for over 150 years,
and St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church has played a significant role
in meeting the spiritual needs of parishioners during this time. We continue
to celebrate the involvement of all parishioners in our thriving parish
community through numerous programs, committees, activities, and social
events. These include Religious Education, Bible Study, Ladies
Guild, Festival, parish picnics, Eucharistic Adoration and missions
presented by visiting priests. |