NEW WEBSITE COMING SOON!
Parish Office: 303 Division St.
Utica, IL 61373-0159
Phone: (815) 667-4677 / Fax: (815)
667-4097
Reverend Monsignor James J. Swaner, Pastor
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Confessions Baptisms Marriage Anointing Of The Sick |
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Mass Schedule Holydays |
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Parish Pastoral
Council | ||
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Trustees Chairperson Building & Maintenance Catholic Education |
Fund Raising Parish Life Pastoral Care Worship Commission | ||
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n Holy Thursday, April 11, 1675, Francis Jacques Marquette offered the first parochial Mass in the Illinois Country at Utica in the presence of 5,000 Native Americans. Father Marquette and his companion Louis Joliet, took possession of this land in the name of Jesus Christ and founded the | |
| Mission of the Immaculate Conception. A monument in his honor stands in the northeast corner of the property. That mission eventually became the Church of Saint Mary. In 1858 a small frame church was built which was destroyed by fire seventeen years later and a brick and stone church was built on the site of the former Saint Mary School. In 1883 the Reverend Charles Xavier O'Neill was appointed the first pastor of Saint Mary's but never took up residence there. The Reverend Canon Jeremiah Moynihan was appointed the first resident pastor in 1884. The Reverend |  | |
| Francis J. O'Reilly succeeded Canon Moynihan in 1888 and in the same year erected the present church. In September 1986 Saint Mary's Church was completely redecorated. | ||