St. Patrick's Catholic Church is a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in the

Diocese of Des Moines The Diocese of Des Moines () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in southwestern Iowa in the United States. It is a suffragan see in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Dubuque. ...

. The church was built in 1868 and is located southwest of the town of Cumming in rural

Madison County, Iowa Madison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,548. The county seat is Winterset. Madison County is included in the Des Moines– West Des Moines, IA Metropolitan Statistical Ar ...

, United States. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1978.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

visited the church while he was on his first pastoral visit to the United States in 1979.

History

The significance of St. Patrick's Church is its association with the area that became known as Irish Settlement. with This rural farm community was settled in the early 1850s by Irish immigrants. It was established by the Rev. Timothy Mullen, who had been sent by Bishop

Mathias Loras Pierre-Jean-Mathias Loras (August 30, 1792 – February 19, 1858) was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic priest in the United States who served as the first Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dubuque, Bishop of Dubuque, in what would become ...

of the Dubuque diocese to Fort Des Moines to serve the small Catholic community there. He was also to establish an Irish colony in central Iowa, similar to several that had already begun in Eastern Iowa. The first were purchased by Bishop Loras. Many of the early families who settled here came from

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. By 1860, Irish Settlement covered four townships in two counties. Forty of the families resided in Madison County and by 1870 they had increased to 63 families. There was a rivalry between those who settled on the north side of the North River and those who settled on the south side as to who would get the church. The parish was founded in 1852 with the church on the north side. It was the first parish founded in what would become the Diocese of Des Moines. A log structure served as the first church, which was begun by Mullen but finished by Rev. John Kreckel. Itinerant priests served the parish in its early years. The Rev. Francis McCormick was appointed the first resident pastor in 1857, but he did not stay long. The Rev. John Brazill of St. Ambrose Church in Des Moines had the present frame church built to replace the original log structure in 1868. A monument in the parish cemetery commemorates the old church on the site where it stood. St. Patrick's became a parish in the Davenport diocese when it was established in 1881. The parish was divided in 1884 at the North River with the parishioners who lived to the south forming a new parish at Churchville. Other divisions happened soon after that when parishes were begun at St. Mary's and in Winterset. The parish was transferred to the Des Moines diocese when it was created in 1911.

Pope John Paul II visits

The idea for a visit by Pope John Paul II to a rural church was initiated by Archbishop

Paul Marcinkus Paul Casimir Marcinkus (; January 15, 1922 – February 20, 2006) was an American Catholic prelate who served as president of the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank, from 1971 to 1989. He also served as pres ...

, an American who worked at the Vatican. Des Moines Bishop Maurice Dingman brought him to visit St. Patrick's when they were planning the trip. The parish had been without a pastor so Dingman named a recently ordained priest, Rev. John Richter, to the position. The papal visit took place on October 4, 1979. Pope John Paul led a prayer service for 200 parishioners and gave a reflection based on the

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...

"that spoke of the gathering for the breaking of the bread and prayers." He also urged them to maintain unity with the diocese and the wider Church. After his visit to St. Patrick's, the pope celebrated Mass at

Living History Farms Living History Farms is a 500-acre open-air museum located in Urbandale, Iowa, United States. The museum's mission is to educate visitors and demonstrate the past 300 years of Iowa's agricultural history. As its name implies, the museum follo ...

near Des Moines.

Architecture

St. Patrick's Church is a frame structure that measures , and it has a

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christianity, Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is us ...

attached to the back. It is five

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

in length with a round-arch

Stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

window in each bay. A small

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...

is located above the altar. A low-pitched

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

roof with partially-returned

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

s caps the sanctuary. The building has a uniquely tapered

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

in the front. The bell-chamber has a round-arch

louver A louver (American English) or louvre (Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences) is a window blind or window shutter, shutter with horizontal wikt:slat, slats that are angle ...

on each side and it is capped with a

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other vertical sides ...

and a cross. The church is surrounded by of property that includes, timber, grassland, cultivated fields, and the parish cemetery where many of the first parishioners were laid to rest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Patrick's Catholic Church (Cummins, Iowa) Religious organizations established in 1852 1852 establishments in Iowa Roman Catholic churches completed in 1868 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Des Moines Buildings and structures in Madison County, Iowa Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Madison County, Iowa Irish-American culture in Iowa