About Our Lady of Sorrows Mission · Nucla, Colorado
Our Lady of Sorrows Mission is a Roman Catholic mission church in the small high-desert town of Nucla, Colorado, in the West End of Montrose County. It is staffed as a mission of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Telluride and falls under the Diocese of Pueblo. The parish serves the Catholics of Nucla, Naturita, and the surrounding San Miguel River valley with Sunday Mass and sacramental ministry, including a long connection to the Benedictine Sisters who taught at the parish school and to the priests who have ridden out from Telluride, Ouray and Montrose to keep the faith alive in this remote corner of the Rockies.
- Established
- 1954
- Patron
- Our Lady of Sorrows (the Blessed Virgin Mary in her title of the Seven Sorrows)
- Rector
- Rev. Mariusz Wirkowski
- Diocese
- Diocese of Pueblo
Why belong here
Our Lady of Sorrows is a small, faithful Catholic mission in the heart of the West End, where Sunday noon Mass keeps the Eucharist present in Nucla, Naturita and the surrounding ranch and canyon country. It is cared for by the pastor and staff of St. Patrick's in Telluride, with opportunities for confession before Mass, sacramental preparation, and the warm community life of a country Catholic church that has worshipped in the same (relocated) walls for more than 70 years.
Mass times at Our Lady of Sorrows Mission
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- 30 minutes before each Mass, or by appointment
A Mission of St. Patrick's, Telluride
Our Lady of Sorrows is administered as a mission church of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Telluride, about 65 miles east over Dallas Divide and the San Miguel Canyon. The two share a pastor — currently Rev. Mariusz Wirkowski — and a single parish office, phone line (970-728-3387) and email ([email protected]). The Telluride parish's website, stpatrickstelluride.com, is the official online home of the Nucla mission and is where Mass times, bulletins, and announcements are posted.
- Pastor: Rev. Mariusz Wirkowski
- Bookkeeper: Cindy Wyszynski
- Director of Religious Education: Katrina Aumiller
- Website: stpatrickstelluride.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/StPatricksTelluride
History of the Building — A Church That Moved 80 Miles
The little church in Nucla is a piece of 19th-century mining-country Catholic history. Its boards were first raised in Ouray in the 1870s as St. Patrick's Church, serving the Catholic families who had followed silver and gold into the San Juans. When that Ouray parish outgrew its 90-seat church in the 1950s, the pastor — Fr. Joseph Halloran, who also looked after the Nucla mission — came up with a remarkable solution. In June 1954 he had the old Ouray church sawed in two lengthwise, loaded on trucks, and hauled up Dallas Divide, down the San Miguel Canyon, up Norwood Hill, and on to Nucla. There it was set up again, this time on a full basement instead of one side on stilts, and given a new name: Our Lady of Sorrows.
- Original Ouray parish: 110 families in the early 1950s
- Sponsoring agency: Catholic Church Extension Society
- Major donor: Mrs. Daniel Flaherty of Chicago
- New Nucla church dedicated: 1954–55
The Centennial and Continuing Mission
On September 18, 1977, Fr. Sylvester Schoening, then pastor of Telluride and Nucla, hosted a Centennial Celebration of the former St. Patrick Church at its Nucla home. In his bulletin announcement he marveled that the building had "moved some 80 miles during its 100-year life," and noted that "ordinarily, pastors are moved, not the church, but this time it was the other way around." The little church has continued to serve the Catholics of the West End ever since, with Sunday Mass offered every week in the same walls that have now sheltered Catholic worship for more than 145 years.
- Centennial held at Nucla, September 18, 1977
- Pastoral care today shared with St. Patrick's, Telluride
Visiting and Contact
Our Lady of Sorrows Mission sits at 325 Fox Street in Nucla, Colorado, in the West End of Montrose County. The mission is reached most easily via Highway 97 and Highway 145, the road that climbs Dallas Divide from Ridgway and drops down the San Miguel Canyon toward the uranium country towns of Nucla and Naturita. The parish office is staffed Tuesday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 2:00 PM, at St. Patrick's in Telluride; messages can be left at (970) 728-3387 or by email at [email protected].
- Address: 325 Fox Street, Nucla, CO 81424
- Phone: (970) 728-3387
- Email: [email protected]
- Parish office hours: Tuesday–Friday, 8:30 AM – 2:00 PM (at St. Patrick's, Telluride)
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Fr. D.A. Barry1931
Reported 15 families and 58 adults attending Mass at the Nucla mission from St. Mary's, Montrose.
- Fr. Firko1946
Reported 8 families at Nucla in his pastoral report.
- Fr. Joseph Halloran1954
Pastor of St. Patrick's Ouray who oversaw the move of the old Ouray church to Nucla and its renaming as Our Lady of Sorrows.
- Fr. Sylvester Schoening1977
Pastor of Telluride and Nucla who organized the Centennial Celebration of the church on September 18, 1977.