St. Michael Parish celebrates 150 years as parish,100 years in church building
By DIANE SCHLINDWEIN
Managing Editor
STAUNTON — It isn’t often that a parish is able to celebrate two significant events at once, but this year that’s exactly what is happening at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Staunton. In 2025 St. Michael is honoring the 100th anniversary of the beloved St. Michael Church, which sits at 415 E. Main St., and is celebrating 150 years since the parish was founded.
On Saturday, Sept. 20, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki will be joining Father Tom Hagstrom, pastor, in concelebrating Mass at St. Michael Church at 4 p.m. The Knights of Columbus Council 2197 will be providing the honor guard at the Mass. A reception of cakes, cookies, and refreshments coordinated by the St. Michael’s Women Council will follow, featuring historical memorabilia and photo boards, says parish Business Manager and St. Michael parishioner Chrissy Foster. She says the event will honor “the legacy and spirit that have shaped our community across generations.”
Life-long parishioner Carla Moore knows and remembers many members of the St. Michael Parish community. She received all her sacraments at St. Michael and was a teacher and then principal at the parish school. “I have been at St. Michael forever,” she said. “I was baptized there, received my first Communion and confirmation there. To me it just feels like home. I was at the school from 1978 until I retired in 2013 and I served under several pastors. Now I go to Mass on Saturday evenings, and I see my friends, and we sit together and then we visit after Mass. It is just so comfortable for me to be a member of that parish.”
The history of St. Michael Parish dates back to a time when the first Catholics settled in Staunton — which is in Macoupin County in southwestern Illinois — and built the very first St. Michael Church. For years St. Michael remained a mission church that was served by priests from Edwardsville and Raymond. The first resident pastor was Father August Zurbonsen.
Fueled by the expansion of the coal mining industry, the population of Staunton began growing at a rapid pace. Newcomers came from older mining areas of the United States as well as from many countries in Europe. Because of the large number of immigrant parishioners, St. Michael became a bilingual parish. For many years prayers and homilies were spoken in German at one Mass, while English was used at another.
Parishioners, naturally, wanted their children to get a good education. Hence, the original St. Michael School, a two-room frame schoolhouse (with living quarters above it for the Franciscan Sisters from Milwaukee) was built in 1890 and was located three blocks east of the church.
By 1904 the younger population at St. Michael had grown enough that the parish erected a new school under the pastorate of Father Joseph A. Postner. About 20 years later the Ursulines from Alton began their decades-long years of service to St. Michael School. (It was in the late 1950s that parish completed a new convent for the sisters, which was dedicated by Bishop William A. O’Connor.) Repairs and additions were made over the years before the school was closed in 2016.
By 1917 or 1918, the old St. Michael Church building was no longer safe, and the building was torn down. The school hall was converted for church services, but that created a lack of space for school and church events. Father Patrick Masterson — who served the parish from 1924 to 1952 — was assigned to the parish with his bishop’s directive to build a new church.
Father Masterson was able to raise $50,000 for the new building and on Nov. 11, 1925, Bishop James A. Griffin dedicated the new church. The St. Michael parishioners were delighted to worship in the beautiful space. Of course, it wasn’t long before the Great Depression took over the country. However, despite the hardships placed on the parishioners, St. Michael retired its parish debt in 1942.
The next year extensive repairs were made to the school and playground, but by 1946 the old parish house located between the church and the school was no longer fit for occupancy. Rather than build with high wartime prices and rationing of supplies, the parish purchased a home across from the church which became the rectory.
During the 1960s and the 1970s, more maintenance took place, including replacing roofs on church buildings and repainting the interior of the church. Air conditioning was added and in 1978 a parish gym was completed. The parish Legion of Mary and a parish board were also instituted in the mid-1970s.
Over the years, more than 10 pastors have served at St. Michael the Archangel Parish. In February of this year, Father George Radosevich, who served the parish for 36 years before moving to senior priest status, passed away at age 90. Father Radosevich was a beloved and dedicated pastor who oversaw many changes to parish, including adding a side vestibule to the church (which included a wheel chair lift) in 1989, and restoring a statue of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and constructing a new grotto to house the statue in 2001. In his later years he oversaw a church restoration in 2017, a stained-glass restoration in 2020, and completion of a bell tower and masonry work, also in 2020.
“Father George was here for so long,” Moore said. “He married my husband and me, he married our daughter and son-in-law, he was there when we buried my husband. He always made everything personal and just felt like a close friend.”
For the last four years, Father Hagstrom has done a fine job of “filling Father Radosevich’s big shoes” Moore added. “Father Hagstrom is very comfortable to be around. As a person who observes from the pew, I can tell that he’s very good with the servers, he’s just a very kind man. We are thankful to have him at St. Michael. We are also fortunate to have Deacon Sean Caveny serving at the parish.”
Today, of course, Staunton is no longer a mining town and many of its residents’ commute to St. Louis and other larger cities for employment. Still, St. Michael the Archangel Parish remains available to all who attend Mass and receive the sacraments there. Moreover, St. Michael parishioners like Moore, Foster, and hundreds of others are grateful they continue to enjoy the benefits from the contributions of their forebearers, the pastoral leadership of Father Hagstrom, Father Radosevich and so many others, and the prayers and faithful support of so many over the long history of the small-town parish.
