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St. Fidelis Catholic Church (Cathedral of the Plains)

M

mj

Well-known Member
On I70, just East of Hays is a sign directing motorists to the Kansas town of Victoria and the 'Cathedral of the Plains'. It is well worth the detour and provides some relief for those suffering from 'White Line Fever' which results from hours of doing the 'Interstate Drone'. It is still in use.
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----- Exterior (Internet) -----
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For a history of the building of the cathedral - https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/articles/newspapers/news/hamil4.html

For images of the exquisite German stained glass windows Google 'cathedral plains stained glass kansas' and click on 'More images from cathedral stained glass kansas' :)
 
Its (for me at least) a long boring drive across the beautiful rolling wheat fields of Kansas on our RV trips to Colorado and Utah HOWEVER we visited the Cathedral AND FOUND IT TO BE SO BEAUTIFUL and would recommend it to anyone. Beautiful peaceful and spiritual place.

John T
 
There is a lot of those old churches around. I grew up in Cairo, IL where they had this church. Because of the decline of the town and congregation they stay on the verge of closing the church.
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I went to college in Hays and have seen St. Fidelis Church many times; the area was settled by German-Russians from the Volga region who left Russia after the Czar revoked an edict exempting them from military service. There are several other beautiful Catholic Churches in the area.
 
Went to a wedding there about 20 years ago. First and only time in my life I danced to a live polka band. Mixed drinks lined up 5 deep on the serving table helped me work out the moves....
 
We moved from NW Georgia to Mound City back in the mid-60's when I was in the 8th grade. Cairo was so much different back then than it is now for sure. Got out of school about 2:30 everyday as our principal/5-6-7-8th grade teacher had to be at his real job as a meat cutter at a grocery store there in Future City.
 
Stephen, did you know the fellow Cairoite Comer Phillips? He was a member of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Cairo.

Beautiful pictures!
 
Geeeeee sounds like my Wedding 45 years ago. We married in Jasper, Indiana (lots of German heritage) had a live Polka Band (Dorothy and her Musical Notes), Fried Chicken and Beer wooooooo hoooooooooo now that was a REAL WEDDING and those kind seem to stick. In those days guests brought an envelope with cash ($10 often) as a gift but they expected a Polka Band Fried Chicken and Beer. I think we got something like $700 and in 1970 that was a small FORTUNE to give a young poor couple a start in life. Nowadays its a wedding with a DJ and cake and punch and they expect maybe $50, no wonder those end up in divorce lol

Old Fuddy Duddy John T
 
I got married in 1996. My wife was at first all wrapped up in the decorations and flowers. I finally told her, two years from now not a single person will be able to tell you what color the flowers were at our wedding - but I'll bet they can tell you what we served at the bar.

She agreed and much to her mother's chagrin more money (MY MONEY) was poured into the reception. Her parents contribution to the wedding was her dad had a crippled steer butchered and we served fried chicken and roast beef for a meal. We had an open bar for 10 hours, some college friends serving as bartenders, a couple kegs of beer, two cases of whiskey, a DJ and a photo booth. 18 years later when we talk about the "old times" friends and neighbors still recall what a great time they had - nobody mentions the flowers....
 
(quoted from post at 05:14:14 06/16/15) ....... Because of the decline of the town and congregation they stay on the verge of closing the church.
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Yep- most everywhere in this country the churches are seeing fewer numbers in their congregations; been going on for a number of years. But at St. Ignatius there are more people (1600) in the congregation than in the town of Victoria (1200) according to figures I've seen. :)
 
Yea, I know about Cairo in the mid 1960's. That was the timeframe I lived there. Sad to see the condition of the town today.

Funny I can't remember a grocery store in Future City although Future City looks better now than it did then.
 
I got married in 1970 also. I am now with the same wife. I think we had fried chicken for dinner too. And a bar limit of $800.00.
 
John, your wedding sounds like Marilyn's brother's wedding 41 years ago. He married a gal from Oxford Junction in the Bohemian area of eastern Iowa. I don't remember much about the Catholic Church but I do remember the beer, polka dance in the town dance hall and the old guys playing cards out on the home farm till the wee hours. I can still hear the hearty laughter coming out of the open windows.

The Hays church is beautiful, and is true testament to the dedication and financial sacrifices the parishioners in a small prairie town had to make to be able to build an edifice like that.
 
Trying to stretch my memory from 1964 - seems like it was south of where 37/51 merged on the west side of the highway and there was small truck stop just north of it. Pre I-57 days. It was definitely way north of the levee & flood gate coming into Cairo. Fair size independent mom & pop grocery for it's day.
 
WOW, thinking back about our wedding ! We got married in 1959 in Cleveland Ohio at St. Mary's Catholic church. A "REAL" old 3 day Polish wedding. A great Polish polka band. food was everything "Polish" food all done up by the caterer who must have worked every wedding in Cleveland. I played in the band (not on my wedding day tho.) Every wedding we played at,if that caterer was there we knew it was going to be a "Blast" Sadly tho, My wife past away after our 52nd. anniversary. But I'll always have the good memories of those years!! And miss my gal every day....Jim in N.M.
 
I can't remember what we ate at the reception 50 years ago, can't remember much of what we drank, but there was lots of it. I do remember all of my tee-totaling aunts lined up three deep around the champagne punch.
 
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