A day for prayers: Shelby County parish remembers founding pastor each Memorial Day

The American flag flies near the crucifix in the cemetery at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Shelby County. During Memorial Day weekend liturgies, Catholics remember deceased loved ones and veterans who died in service to our country. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

SHELBY COUNTY— Each May on the Sunday closest to Memorial Day, St. Vincent de Paul parishioners in Shelby County remember their founding pastor with prayers at his grave in the parish cemetery.

After the Sunday Mass, parishioners process outside to the historic, immaculately kept cemetery behind the brick church to pray for Father Vincent Bacquelin, a French-born priest who was the first resident pastor of this rural parish founded by immigrant farm families in 1837.

Two years after Father Bacquelin arrived in Indiana, the parishioners completed a small, frame church that they dedicated to St. Vincent de Paul.

But tragedy struck the parish a few years later with the death of their pastor.

Just a decade after the French priest emigrated from France to the United States then journeyed from Emmitsburg, Md., to serve God and the Church in Indiana, he was killed in a freak riding accident on his way back to the parish after visiting a sick parishioner.

Father Bacquelin died on Sept. 2, 1846, in Rush County of massive head injuries after a bee stung his horse and he was thrown into a tree.

In the early 1920s, St. Vincent de Paul parishioners had to deal with another unexpected tragedy when an arson fire destroyed their church and everything in it.

Resolutely, they faithfully shouldered the task of rebuilding their beloved church.

Today, the country church with its tall spire serves as a beacon of faith adjacent to Interstate 74 in Shelby County.

St. Vincent de Paul parishioners take pride in their church and work hard to maintain the parish property, Father Paul Landwerlen, the pastor for 12 years, explained in a recent phone interview.

“We have a lot of history here,” Father Landwerlen said. “People in the parish take pride in keeping the place up as volunteers.” †