New history book commemorates Remsen St. Mary's centennial

September 2, 2004

The Centennial of St. Mary's Church building is to be commemorated with the release of a new parish history book by Rick Roder.

The book is named We Are Called: A History of St. Mary's Parish, Remsen, Iowa. The very extensive history of St. Mary's parish and schools, set against the backdrop of the history of Remsen and the Diocese of Sioux City, contains 260 pages and 54 historic photographs.

Roder, who authored Frontiers of Faith: A History of the Diocese of Sioux City on the occasion of the Centennial of the diocese, researched the history of his parish for about eight months, mostly perusing old issues of the Remsen Bell-Enterprise, and completed the writing in about 10 weeks.

"Ever since I wrote Frontiers," said Roder, "I have wanted to do a history of my home parish. I could tell right away what the more interesting parishes were, at least to me. And most often they involved deep ethnicity, such as the Irish at St. Patrick's-on-the-Lizard, the Bohemians in Pocahontas, or the Germans all over Carroll County. Plymouth and Sioux County parishes have a tremendously proud and interesting history stemming from Luxembourgish immigration. In fact, there are people all over the country and in Europe who know more about our Catholic history in Remsen than our own parishioners. That is one thing I hoped to change with this book."

Roder said he made many interesting discoveries. "I think most of my discoveries were related to the difficulties our ancestors encountered and sacrifices they made to provide things and events that we now take for granted or that have fallen to the wayside. It can be difficult and eye-opening to look back. I can tell you one thing, you find a lot to be grateful for!"

As one example, Roder said that people glibly say that St. Mary's Church cost "only" $65,000 to build.

"That is a disservice. The price did not include most of the furnishings and it took them over 15 years to pay it off. The average donation was one-third of a yearly wage," he said.

Of particular interest, Roder said, was a discovery that there is one item in St. Mary's current church that was present in the first St. Mary's Church, blown down by a tornado in 1885.

"I'll save that surprise for those who read the book," he said. "But I'll give one hint-every person in Remsen has been affected by it at one time or another." He said he made the discovery from a single line in an 1884 Le Mars newspaper and calls the discovery "a gift from the Holy Spirit."

Roder said the new book ties in well with the new parish tradition of the Octave.

"These things go in a cycle. Our ancestors placed Our Lady of Luxembourg in our church as a reminder to call on her and rely on her for help. I think we've forgotten to an extent how valuable the help of our Patroness can be. To know what she can do for us, we only have to look back. That's mostly what this book does, just like looking at our church building," he noted. "It not only tells us something about our past, but should give us an idea of the things we can accomplish for those who will come after us."

The book will be available at the St. Mary's celebration, at www.smparishinfo.org, and direct from the author.