St. Boniface Parish – Vincent

Founded 1907

Parishioners of St. Fidelis in Victoria who lived some distance south sought to form their own parish in 1905. Some lived as far as 11 miles from Victoria, and because of the condition of roads and bridges in that day, the trip was difficult.

The problem was that St. Fidelis was in the process of raising money to build a new church. The new Walker parish already had taken a number of contributing families, and the Victoria parish feared the loss of more.

The two groups reached an agreement; families living more than 5 miles from Victoria were released from the assessments levied to build the new church and were free to join the new Vincent parish.

The new parish started with just eight families. They began soliciting donations and constructed a small frame church that was dedicated in 1907. A school operated from 1911 to 1956, taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia.

A rectory was built in 1918, and for nearly all the years that the parish had a resident priest, the pastor was Father Callistus Rectenwald.

Ordained a priest just a year earlier, Father Rectenwald was assigned to Vincent for one year, from 1927 to 1928, then returned in 1929. He would remain until his death in 1980. The elaborate Nativity scene that he first began in 1927 continues to be set up each year by parishioners.