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On the feast of Christ the King, Nov. 20, 2022, St. Mary the Virgin Parish in Carrollton celebrated the 150th anniversary of its church's dedication. Father Kenneth Criqui, pastor since 1995, said the “beautiful” Mass celebrated by Bishop James Johnston and the dinner following were attended by several hundred parishioners, many third- and fourth-generation members.

By Marty Denzer

As the homilist, Father Criqui began with the feast of Christ the King: “after the Christ the King homily, I talked about our priests, our history, and our parish services to the whole community.” He added that the current parish population of around 400, is about one-third children, one-third middle aged and the rest elderly.

Bishop Johnston shared this story from On the Mission to Missouri: in the mid-1800s, circuit riders from Liberty, Lexington or Weston served the area. In January 1861, Father John Hogan — later Bishop Hogan of St. Joseph and later still of Kansas City — was visiting Chillicothe and was asked to witness a marriage in Carrollton. Hiring a two-horse sleigh with a driver, he made the trip, but due to a snowstorm and two accidents, he arrived hours late. The bridal couple had hired a sleigh to take them to Lexington to solemnize their marriage, but as Hogan wrote in the 1913 book, “I did my best.” He did baptize infant Catherine Shine, whose parents brought her to the priest they’d heard was in town.

Major Gen. James Shields, of the Union Army during the Civil War, moved to Carrollton and purchased a home in 1865. He invited circuit riders to offer Masses at his home until a church could be built.

Father Richard Nagle arrived in

Carrollton in 1867, commissioned to organize the scattered local Catholics into a parish. He was the first resident priest. Parish histories describe him as “a man in a hurry,” and so, with funds obtained from both the congregation and the bank, he purchased four acres of land on which to build a church, with rooms for a priest on the second floor.

Father Nagle oversaw construction of a frame church, named St. Mary the Virgin, but left Carrollton in 1869 for Placerville, California, where he’d heard of Irish gold miners perhaps needing a priest.

In 1872, Mary Quinn Tally, a cousin of Gen. Shields, who prospered through some shrewd investing, commenced the construction of St. Mary’s brick church, completed that year. She paid for most of it.

A headstone placed over the door honors her life’s philosophy — “Maria Sine Peccato Concepta Ora Pro Nobis ” (“Mary conceived without sin pray for us”).

It’s been 150 years since then, and the parish has watched Carrollton grow, pastors come and go and storms destroy and rebuilding follow. The parish is “living and loving,” as its history book proclaims.

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