MOUNT CALVARY — On July 1, the parishes of Holy Cross Parish, Mount Calvary, St. Cloud Parish, St. Cloud, and St. Joseph Parish, St. Joseph will merge to form St. Isidore the Farmer Parish.
Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki will visit St. Isidore, the first parish in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to be named after the patron of farmers, July 24 to celebrate the 4:30 p.m. Mass at Holy Cross Parish, Mount Calvary, install Capuchin Fr. Steven Kropp, who has served the parishes since 2008, as the first pastor and to join parishioners at a reception to celebrate its establishment.
The parish will continue to use the three church buildings, which will keep the names of their patrons. Holy Cross Parish, founded in 1849 as St. Nicholas Parish, was built on Mount Calvary and was renamed in 1870. The present church was built in 1970 and renovated in 2006.
St. Joseph Parish, which celebrated 150 years May 2, was formed in 1860 by Wolf Lake area farmers, but the present church was built in 1870 and was extensively repaired and renovated in 1985.
The present church of St. Cloud Parish, which began serving Catholics in what is now the Village of St. Cloud in 1870, was built in 1905, extensively renovated in the late 1950s and repaired and renovated again in 1995 in preparation to celebrate 125 years.
