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Picture

St. Clement's Roman Catholic Church

3619 Lobsinger Line, St. Clements, ON, N0B 2M0

Begun: c.1840

The first Roman Catholic missionary in the area was Rev. John Louis Wiriath who established a mission at St. Agatha c.1834; however, he made very few visits to the area of St. Clements. Father Peter Schneider was the next missionary, also from St. Agatha, from 1838-1844.

A first log church was built in 1840, and was located not far from the present red brick church. Father Simon Sanderl (1844-1847) gave the church the name of St. Alphonsus which was the name of his own Order, but in 1852 Bishop Michael Power of Toronto directed that the church be called St. Clement's. At the same time, St. Clement's became a parish and received its first resident pastor, Rev. Columban Messner - on November 1, 1852. From 1847-1852 the congregation had been ministered to by the Jesuits, Fathers Lucas Caveng and Bernard Fritsch from St. Agatha, as was New Germany and other missions.

The present church building was completed in 1858; at that time it served St. Clements, Elmira, Macton and Hesson.

Records:
Baptism dates: 1844-             Location of records: at church
Marriage dates: 1845-            Location of records: at church
Burial dates: 1847-                 Location of records: at church

See
Waterloo County Marriages1858-1869 for marriages, 1858-1861, 1863, 1866-1868 [St. Clements N0B  2M0.]

References: Maple Leaf 1983:79-81; Oudejans, WHS 1984(72):74-76; Spetz 1916:74-89; R. Taylor 1986.

Church History: White, Patty, and Janet Lienhardt.125 Years. St. Clement's Church, St. Clement's, Ontario 1858-1983, 1983.

Information excerpted from: Waterloo County Churches, A Research Guide to Churches
established before 1900, by Rosemary Willard Ambrose © Waterloo-Wellington Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, 1993. It is reproduced by permission.

For a complete list of resources mentioned above, please click
here.

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