Reverend Francis Xavier Pierz

Reverend Francis Xavier Pierz, known as the Father of the Diocese of St. Cloud, came to the Upper Mississippi and its tributaries in 1852 by assignment of Bishop Joseph Crétin of St. Paul to convert the Indians and minister to Catholic immigrants. From a station at Crow Wing, he labored among various tribes and founded parishes at Belle Prairie, Sauk Rapids, St. Cloud, St. Augusta, Jacob’s Prairie, and St. Joseph. He enlisted the help of the Benedictine Fathers from Pennsylvania and introduced pioneer diocesan priests such as Joseph Buh, Ignatius Tomazin, and James Trobec, who with him founded the parishes and institutions that later, in 1889, became the Dioceses of St. Cloud and Duluth. His last charge was St. Joseph’s Parish at Rich Prairie, and he returned to his native Carniola in 1873.

Pierz, Minnesota · United States