ST. MARY QUEEN OF ANGELS PARISH HISTORY

St. Mary Queen of Angels Parish was established in 1912 as a mission of All Saints Parish in Flint with 100 families, some of whom migrated from Czechoslovakia or were of Moravian, Slovakian, Bohemian or Hungarian descent.  Many had come to Swartz Creek as farm laborers.  Some, later on, purchased the farms on which they had worked.

Until 1962, the parish was served by Czech-speaking priests, who, for most of those years, delivered sermons in Czech at one Mass and English at another and sometimes in both languages at the same Mass.

There have been 11 pastors, including the pastor of All Saints, who have served St. Mary’s:  Fathers John Hewelt, 1911-1914; R. J. Shons, 1914-1920; Joseph Utas, 1920-1923; Michael Tabor, 1923-1933; Alois Horacek, 1932-1933; Joseph Dudek, 1933-1934; Anthony Brakora, 1934-1957; Joseph Robb, 1957-1962; Robert Palmer, 1962-1967; Amos Wischmeyer, 1967-2008; and Steven Mattson, 2008 to present.

The original church, completed in September 1913, was located on the southeast corner of Miller Road and Second Street on a half-acre of land donated by local citizens.  It was a frame building with white sand-brick veneer and it seated 235 people.The construction of a six-classroom school with an adjoining convent was completed in April 1953.  School opened that September with an enrollment of 136 pupils in grades one to seven.  It was staffed by the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph from Hamburg, New York, who continued to staff the school until June 1992.  An addition of four classrooms and the current church was completed in 1959.  The church was renovated in 1984.  The seventy-fifth anniversary of the parish was celebrated in 1987 with many festivities.  

The parish school was closed in 2006 due to low enrollment.  After the death of Father Amos Wischmeyer in January 2008, Bishop Carl F. Mengeling named Father Steven Mattson pastor.  In October 2008, the carpeting and other flooring materials of the church and sanctuary were replaced to foster more prayerful and beautiful Eucharistic liturgies.