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.” †
