LAFLECHE - Parishioners in Lafleche celebrated a milestone recently, marking the 100th anniversary of Ste. Radegonde Roman Catholic Church. The church officially opened in November of 1922, while the parish was formed back in 1908.
“This has been a place which has brought life to the community,” said Archbishop Donald Bolen during the special mass which he celebrated with current parish priest Fr. Carlos Jimenez and Lafleche-born Fr. Maurice Minne.
Ste. Radegonde is easily the most-recognized landmark in Lafleche as the tall steeple of this Gothic Revival and Classical Revival church can be seen literally for miles. With a pressed veneer of brick from the Claybank Brick Foundry, the architecture is a wonderful mix of old-world influences with a flair of Saskatchewan. While visiting the small museum inside the church basement, one discovers a panorama of the newly-built church flanked by the nearby rectory and convent. Remarkably, all three buildings still stand proud, albeit with an abundance of trees currently as compared to the bald landscape presented in the original photograph.
The mass was also highlighted with a unique guest in attendance - the first person baptized in the very church celebrating a century.
“I have the privilege of presiding at many 100th anniversary parish celebrations, and I often ask the priest, ‘who’s the oldest person here, or who’s likely to have the deepest memory of this church?’ Fr. Minne gave me great joy when he said, ‘go see Mrs. Kuckartz. Not only is she (almost) 100, but she was the first person to be baptized in this church’,” said Bolen, met with thunderous applause from those in attendance.
Simone Kuckartz - who will be celebrating her 100th birthday shortly - received a plaque of her original baptism certificate from Pastoral Council Chair Gloria McIvor. Kuckartz raised 13 children in Ste. Radegonde parish, and the grandmother of 120 still enjoys participating in her Monday bowling league. Several of her family members were in attendance to watch their matriarch receive the honour.
Prior to the celebratory mass, Bolen and Jimenez met with around 120 people at the cemetery for the unveiling of a special plaque, which was the church’s centennial project.
“This plaque is the result of many years’ work on Marilyn (Lamont) and Richard (Crooks)’s part,” McIvor explained before the unveiling. “It’s to mark all the unmarked graves which are all down in this area.”
McIvor was referring to the northeast section of the graveyard where many markers had been disturbed during a flood in the mid-1970s.
Those gathered cheered their approval as Lamont and Crooks revealed the plaque mounted on a frame created by local community supporter Wood River Ironworks. The plaque contains 71 names of people who are buried in the cemetery; the culmination of some intense detective work.
“Marilyn Lamont and I started this project about four and-a-half years ago, and it was designed to find out who’s buried here and where they’re buried,” Crooks explained. “It was quite the project, but we enjoyed it.”
Putting the pieces together wasn’t a simple task, however.
“There were some surprises,” Crooks continued. “Although the church records have the burials listed, it doesn’t mean that they were buried in this cemetery.”
He explained that priests would travel to multiple communities, and records at the time were misleading in some cases.
“So they would do a service in Limerick and it would be in our books, but it didn’t mean that the person was buried here,” Crooks noted.
Of the approximately 830 graves in the cemetery, the quest continues to identify all remaining unknown people.
