Priest’s skull displayed at St. Benedict’s finally laid to rest

Two statements in a newspaper 144 years ago mark the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Catholic Church in the Dakota Territory: “Bishop Marty arrived Saturday night” and “Father Bernier left this morning.” Each statement appears in a separate article published in the daily newspaper of Yankton, Dakota Territory, on Monday, September 27, 1880. The first noted the arrival of the recently ordained bishop of the Dakota Territory, while the second mentioned the departure, two days later, of one of only 12 priests who served the faithful in the vast territory. From this point forward, the Catholic Church was less about missionary activity and more about establishing parishes for the prairie settlers. This is the story of one priest and how he only recently found peace on the prairie.

On modern roads, the trip from Yankton to Wild Rice is about 325 miles. One hundred forty-four years ago, the trip was certainly longer. There were no cars, buses, or planes. The trip took Father Bernier at least a few weeks in October to complete. If he did not have the luxury of traveling by horse, it would have taken him over a month.

Father Bernier knew that his trip in late 1880 was coming to an end when he saw a tall wooden cross in the distance. So that people could recognize them from far away, tall crosses were often erected to mark the location of a Catholic mission church. What Father Bernier found was a wood cabin that served as Holy Cross Mission. Today, a tall wooden cross still marks the site, which is now along a busy highway. It was here that he made his home and began his ministry among the French settlers. 

Within a year, he had relocated the parish from the flood prone area near the Red and Wild Rice Rivers to flat land about six miles away to the southwest, renamed it “St. Benedict,” and established a cemetery. Seven years after that, he built a large church that seated over 200 people. He encouraged people from Trois Rivières, Canada, to come and settle in the area. Among those who came was his own brother, Thomas.

In 1891, three years after the construction of the church, our first resident pastor died from pneumonia. He was 58 years old. We do not know that exact location where he was first buried. Following an old tradition, he may have been buried under the church. Whatever the case, this was not the end of the road for him.

When a new church was constructed in 1913, Father Bernier’s body was exhumed, and buried under the new church. Well, almost all of it. His skull had been put in a box and kept for a time on the new pastor’s desk. It was later put into a niche in the wall of the church, where people could view it. In 1947, when a basement was dug under the church for a parish hall, his body was transferred to the cemetery; it was buried a third time! Many years later, the niche in the church was covered, and the skull was hidden in the wall. But it was not forgotten. As part of renovations of St. Benedict Church in 2007, the wallboard was removed, and the skull was on display once again.

In the May edition of New Earth, you read that St. Benedict Church built a new facility in Horace, six miles from our old church, and this past winter moved into it. Last month, you read that the old church was demolished. What became of the skull?

On June 29, Father Bernier’s 191^st birthday, I had the privilege of burying our first resident pastor, on the land he had chosen for the church, in the cemetery he himself had established. Although it was the end of June, the temperature was only in the 50s and the wind blew at 30 miles per hour. Perhaps it was not unlike what Father Bernier experienced when he had arrived 144 years earlier. Eight of us had gathered around the small hole that would receive his skull. Among them was Larry Boulger, whose family’s funeral business has long ties with St. Benedict parishioner, Patty Bernier, the widow of the late Ken Bernier, the great-grandson of Thomas Bernier (which made him the great-grand-nephew of Father Bernier), and some other parishioners.

Since none of us had ever met him, before the burial Rites I read a brief description of Father Bernier from the 1880 article which told of his departure from Yankton: “Father Bernier, though retiring in his nature, has made many friends in Yankton, both in and out of the church, and he carries with him an abundance of good will.” His “good will” established a lasting legacy for him here, at St. Benedict Church. We are indebted to his work of nurturing the faith among the pioneer families, a faith that continues to flourish on the prairie five generations later.

Requiescat in pace. May Father Athanase Bernier rest in peace (finally!).