The village and St. Mary of the Assumption Parish are preparing to celebrate their 175th anniversary (quartroseptcentennial), June 29-July 1, with a variety of activities, games and entertainment each day. 

Then, on Sunday, July 1, at 2 p.m. a dedication Mass will be celebrated at St. Mary Church, followed by a cake/punch reception.

Nestled on the banks of the Embarras River, Ste. Marie is less than 10 miles from what is now the Belleville diocese, and only about 30 miles from Indiana. 

According to Ste. Marie  history, the village was founded in 1837 by a Frenchman, Joseph Picquet of Alsace, France, who was searching for “the perfect location” for his family and relatives in order to escape religious oppression and unrest in their homeland.

Picquet and other original settlers rode their horses to the highest knoll in the area and fired a salute to formally take possession of the land. They then chanted Salve Regina to place the new town under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Father Stephen Theodore Badin, a Frenchman, and the first priest ordained in the United States, celebrated the first Mass in Ste. Marie. Father Badin, who ministered to many of the far-flung new Catholic communities in the Wabash River Valley, is depicted in a monument on the University of Notre Dame campus and in a mosaic in the National Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Initially priests came over to St. Mary’s from Vincennes, Ind., to celebrate Mass in the small log cabin that Father Badin had blessed. In 1842, a frame chapel was erected on East Main Street, and Father Badin blessed it. But by 1849, a larger structure was needed, and a brick church was built on the site of the current St. Mary’s Church.

Father Peter Joseph Vimich, was named pastor of St. Mary in 1881, and remained its pastor for 53 years. Under his leadership, an even larger church was built in 1891, using locally fired bricks. Its Romanesque architectural design church was acclaimed by many at the time “to be one of the most beautiful pieces of worship for miles around.”

But on March 21, 1933, Sunday worshippers arrived at church only to find what was once a beautiful house of worship was nothing more than a burned, gutted building. Lightening struck the church in the middle of the night during a violent thunderstorm, destroying nearly everything.

In April 1935, the church still in use today was dedicated by Bishop James A. Griffin. Two years later a new school and rectory were built.

Since 2006 Father Allen Kemme has been pastor. 

An annual church picnic or gathering of some kind at St. Mary’s is a parish tradition. Originally advertised as an annual Labor Day picnic, it has evolved into a pre-Labor Day picnic, which will be held this year on Sept. 2.