dl-st.-sebastian.jpgWAVERLY - St. Sebastian Parish in Waverly will celebrate the 150th anniversary of its founding at a Mass of Thanksgiving there with Bishop George J. Lucas presiding on Sunday, Aug. 24, at 11 a.m. Father Angel Sierra, St. Sebastian pastor, will concelebrate.
A buffet luncheon will follow at the American Legion, 130 East State St., in Waverly. Reservations for the luncheon are due Aug. 17, and may be made by calling (217) 488-3545.
Waverly is one of the older parishes in the diocese, having been organized in 1858. At various times it has been attached to parishes in New Berlin, Franklin, Virginia, Greenfield, Jacksonville, Virden and Auburn. Most of the Catholics in the Franklin district at one time belonged to Waverly. The first recorded visit by a priest to Waverly was in 1857. He came from a Carlinville mission, and cared for a territory that reached into Sangamon, Morgan, Greene, Macoupin and Montgomery counties.
When the first resident pastor was appointed for St. Mary in New Berlin in 1866, Waverly was officially attached to New Berlin. The pastor of New Berlin also cared for Catholics of Ashland, Petersburg and occasionally Athens, as well as in Alexander and Franklin. In 1865, Waverly Catholics bought a parcel of land with the hopes of building a church, but in 1868 the parish purchased the present church building, which was originally a Methodist meeting house, and converted it for use as a Catholic church.
In 1874 the parish report listed 40 families, and 11 years later the parish listed 50 families - 46 English speaking, and four German speaking. In the mid-1880s, when Sacred Heart Church and rectory were built in Franklin, St. Sebastian's numbers dropped some, eventually settling at 30 families by the turn of the century. For most of its first 50 years, Waverly was a mission, attended monthly by a priest. In 1907 the first resident pastor was appointed, and in 1913 a brick veneer was added to the church exterior. In 1937 the floor was raised and a full basement was excavated for the church.
The number of families continued to fluctuate in the 1920s and 1930s until the late 1940s, when it increased to 45. By 2005 the parish listed 60 households.
Four vocations have come from St. Sebastian: Father Francis Bernard Kehoe and Sister Mary Albeus Bunton, OP, both deceased; Father William Michael Hodgson, a priest in the Diocese of Springfield/Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Brother Joseph Charles Ryan, OSB, a Benedictine monk at St. Benedict Abbey in Atchison, Kan.
Editor's Note: Historical information was excerpted from The Diamond Jubilee History of the Springfield Diocese c.1928.