Our History
Our Parish has existed since July of 2000. At that time, St. Mary Church and St. Mathias Church were combined to create the Ss. Mary & Mathias Parish. In May of 2003, Bishop Hayes Catholic School was incorporated into the Parish, making it a parish school. In 2005, Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission became part of Ss. Mary & Mathias Parish, thus completing the Muscatine Catholic Community.
St. Mathias Church
Bloomington, as Muscatine was once known (until 1849), was sprinkled with a few Catholic pioneers. A cultured, Italian, Dominican priest named Father Samuel Mazzuchelli visited the area and said Mass in the home of Mrs. Hannah McCrow in 1841. In 1842, this handful of Catholics saw their first church building arrive on a raft floating down the Mississippi River from Prairie de Chien, Wisconsin. The church was placed on the corner of Second and Cedar Streets.
In 1851, Father Phillip Laurent was appointed pastor and served until 1902.
By 1853 the congregation had become too large for the original structure and a lower story was added under the old church, creating a two-story building.
In 1856 the present church block on Eighth Street was purchased from Reece Hoopes. On this site, the second St. Mathias Church was built of brick and dedicated in 1857.
As the parish continued to expand, a larger church was needed. After much consideration, a new church was built to replace the brick church. The first Mass in the current church was celebrated July 23, 1911; Bishop James Davis dedicated the church on October 22nd of that year. The church style is an adaptation of the French Romanesque of the Transitional period, involving details of the early Gothic. In form, the building is that of a Latin cross. St. Mathias Church is graced with the original stations brought from France by Father Laurent and with the main altar from the first brick church.
In 1934, the original Catholic Church was moved to the present St. Mathias grounds to save it from destruction. At that time, the exterior was restored. In 1964, Assistant Pastor Thomas Doyle and his YCS group of young men made a project of restoring the interior of the little Church. In 1974-75, this little Church was moved to its present position, the former site of the old school building and more secure ground.
St. Mary Church
With persistent effort and hard work, the German Catholics of the Muscatine community completed their Church in the fall of 1877. After many requests, great news was finally received that Reverend John Ignatius Grieser, born in Donzdoft, Wurtenburg, Germany, was appointed to be the first pastor. Mass was first celebrated at St. Mary Church on January 17, 1879 in the bitter cold; the formal dedication followed on October 26, 1879, delivered in both German and English.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission
Migrant farm workers from Texas had been coming to the Muscatine area to harvest the tomato crop since the middle 1950's. Reverend Carl Clems, pastor at St. Mary, joined an ecumenical group of lay people and local Protestant ministers to form the Muscatine Migrant Committee.
For many years, St. Mary School was the focal point of the day care and Migrant Head Start program. Many Mexican-American migrant farm workers came to know and love Father Clems and call St. Mary their parish.
In the summer of 1966, three Sisters of the Order of Humility of Ottumwa came to St. Mary Church and brought many added pastoral services to the migrant farm workers. Working with the priests, the Sisters visited migrant labor camps, established Masses and invited the people to participate in the sacraments, arranging for Baptisms, counseling and religious education classes.
Many of the migrant farm workers began to stay in the Muscatine community, seeking employment in the local industries.
Bishop O'Keefe assigned Father Thomas Buechele to St. Mary Parish as an Associate Pastor in 1968 to work as the Spanish Speaking Apostolate of the parish. By 1969, Father Vitolds Valanis of the St. Mathias Parish was also assigned to help service the needs of the growing Mexican-American population.
With the growing population and needs of the people, both migrants and immigrants, Bishop O'Keefe in August of 1975, officially designated the Spanish Speaking Ministry as a Mission Church, serving families in Muscatine, Louisa and Des Moines counties.
In 1984, the Mission of Guadalupe moved out of St. Mary to their first church building, Creek Side. Due to flooding at Creek Side, the Mission decided to buy a church building on Sixth and Mulberry Streets. This building burned in 1997 and the Mission returned to its first home, St. Mary, in 1998.
Our Parish History