St. Mary of the Knobs Catholic Church exemplifies the enduring strength of Roman Catholicism in southern Indiana. In the 1820s, Catholic priests began visiting several families in Lafayette Township, six miles north of New Albany, to celebrate mass. About 1823 residents of the era erected a small log church for their services. In 1833, Father Louis Neyron became the first resident priest. A Frenchman, Neyron had served in Napoleon Bonaparte’s army as a surgeon. Upon turning to the priesthood he emigrated to the United States and ministered to a parish in Mooresville, near Indianapolis. Tradition holds that Catholic families settled in Floyds Knobs because of anti-Catholic sentiments in New Albany.
Soon after becoming the priest at Lafayette Township, Neyron oversaw construction of the first permanent Catholic church in Floyd County. Erected on a site near the log building, it was built of brick and measured 33 x 73 feet. A bell imported from France called parishioners to mass. The sanctuary featured a large crucifix and a statue of St. Joseph.
In 1906, Father Joseph J. Sermersheim began planning for construction of a new chapel. The foundation was poured in 1908, and within a year parish members and local contractors completed the project. The chapel measures 54 x 100 feet and is designed in the English Gothic style. Built at a cost of $35,000, the building was dedicated on May 16, 1909. A reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal descried it as “one of the handsomest country churches in Indiana.”
Construction of the new chapel took place as part of an expansion of the parish’s programs. During the 1890s, St. Mary of the Knobs built a residence for several Benedictine nuns who came to the parish to start a school. A building for the school was completed about 1900.
Apart from minor repairs, the St. Mary of the Knobs chapel remained unchanged for eighty-seven years. In 1995, the congregation initiated renovations. Workers added a new sound system, refurbished the interior, and removed the eight-foot gold cross from the steeple to be regilded, a project that used 600 3.375” square sheets of gold.
In 2007, St. Mary of the Knobs began a third major building campaign after a parishioner donated thirty-three acres of land adjacent to the church’s existing 59-acre campus. The congregation immediately began raising funds for a new church building and an activity center. The design of the new church pays homage to the 1909 chapel and has a seating capacity of 964. Art and icons in the sanctuary include handcrafted works by parishioners. Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein of Indianapolis dedicated the building at a ceremony held March 25, 2012. The congregation named the activity center for a former pastor, Reverend John Geis.
]]>Dedicated in October 1977, the Holy Trinity Heritage Court commemorates the history of Roman Catholics in southern Indiana. The court marks the site of the former Holy Trinity Church. The court includes portions of the original brick foundation of the church and two bronze bells. Fire destroyed the church on December 29, 1975. Holy Trinity Heritage Court is a a site of remembrance, celebration, and pilgrimage for Catholics in southern Indiana.
Holy Trinity Church served as the first of four Catholic parishes in New Albany. The site of the church has been an anchor of Catholicism in New Albany since 1837, when Father Louis Neyron purchased the lot and had a small one-story structure built on the location to offer mass. As membership grew, parishioners developed plans for the construction of a brick church. Tensions between Irish and German parishioners resulted in a split. When completed in 1852, the Gothic-style church building served the Irish members. In 1865, Father John Mougin blessed two bronze bells in a special ceremony. During the December 29, 1975, fire, the bells fell from the steeple and cracked on the front steps of the building.
Following the fire, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis rejected plans to rebuild on the site. Holy Trinity parishioners joined St. Mary’s of the Annunciation and other Catholic churches in the area. Members of the former parish chose to allocate money from the insurance settlement for the construction of Holy Trinity Heritage Court. In April 1977, former members of the church helped plant 150 trees on the site to commemorate the parish’s history. Many of the former church buildings have been repurposed; the former rectory served as the location of religious agencies for thirty years. Recently, the St. Elizabeth Maternity Center completed a full renovation of the building to serve as its central office.
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