St. Agnes Catholic Church Hosts Open House

BY MELANIE BUCK –

St. Agnes Catholic Church in Mena recently celebrated 120 years of services and performed a vast amount of renovations on its properties. The church was the first of its kind to be placed in Mena and held their first service on All Saints Day, November 1, 1896. That church was moved in the early 1900’s to its present day location and was placed on the National Registry of Historical Places in 1991.

On Saturday, January 21, 2017, the church held their annual Feast of St. Agnes, an event always held on January 21^st and also held our Open House for The St. Thomas Office Complex, named for Father Tom Keller, who built the original building, and George and Sybil Thomas, who donated the money to have the building renovated.

The father’s house, which is called St. John Vianney Rectory, after the patron saint of parish priests, was also renovated, as was The Parish Hall, named Gallagher Hall for Monsignor Gallagher, the founding priest of St. Agnes and Parish Priest for over 50 years.

Pictured are present day parishioners that attend St. Agnes. Wendy Martin said that all renovations were completed through donations that the church has been collecting for the last ten years and no debt is owed for the work performed.

St. Agnes Catholic Church is located at 203 8^th Street in Mena.

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Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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