St. Gall

About St. Gall's Catholic Church

St. Gall's Catholic Church sits at 110 Minnesota Avenue in the small village of Tintah, Minnesota, and has served the Catholic families of western Wilkin County for over a century. The parish is one of three communities that make up the Red River Valley Area Catholic Community (ACC), sharing a single pastor — Fr. Leo Moenkedick — with St. Mary of the Presentation in Breckenridge and St. Thomas Aquinas in Kent. The parish welcomes roughly 45 farm households and is supported by a parish trustee team and a representative on the ACC Pastoral Council.

History of the Parish

The Red River Area Catholic Community describes all three of its member parishes as having served the Catholics of Wilkin County for more than 100 years, putting St. Gall's founding in the era when the railroad brought German and other Catholic settlers to the Red River Valley. By the early 1980s the parish was already being served as a mission by traveling priests — diocesan records document Fr. Alfred Herman Stangl as pastor of St. Gall's, Tintah (and St. Joseph's, Foxhome) from July 1982 to June 1983. St. Gall's most recently joined the Red River Valley ACC roughly three years before the Diocese of Saint Cloud's 2024 pastoral visit, having previously been clustered with parishes in Herman and Elbow Lake.

• Catholic presence in Wilkin County dates back more than a century.
• Fr. Alfred Stangl served St. Gall's together with St. Joseph's, Foxhome, 1982–1983.
• St. Gall's joined the Red River Valley ACC approximately three years before 2024.
• Today the parish numbers about 45 families.

Parish Staff and Leadership

St. Gall's is pastored by Fr. Leo Moenkedick, who serves all three parishes of the Red River Valley ACC; his office is based in Breckenridge and he can be reached at the parish office (218-643-5173) or on his cell phone (218-955-0570). St. Gall's has two parish trustees, Steve Keller and Curtis Petermann, and is represented on the ACC Pastoral Council by Amanda Heyda.

• Pastor: Fr. Leo Moenkedick
• Parish Office (ACC): 218-643-5173
• Fr. Leo's cell: 218-955-0570
• Parish Trustees: Steve Keller and Curtis Petermann
• ACC Pastoral Council Representative: Amanda Heyda

Red River Valley Area Catholic Community (ACC)

St. Gall's belongs to the Red River Valley ACC, a cluster of three parishes that together span about 35 miles of western Wilkin County: St. Mary of the Presentation in Breckenridge (about 347 families), St. Thomas Aquinas in Kent (about 90 families), and St. Gall's in Tintah (about 45 families). The ACC shares one priest and works to coordinate faith formation, adoration, communication, and pastoral planning across the rural area, even as the distance between parishes and the demands of farm life make unified programming a continual work in progress.

• Three parishes, one shared pastor (Fr. Leo Moenkedick)
• St. Mary of the Presentation — Breckenridge, MN
• St. Thomas Aquinas — Kent, MN
• St. Gall's — Tintah, MN
• Combined area covers roughly 35 miles edge to edge
• Largest farming-region ACC in this part of the diocese

Ministries and Faith Formation

Because St. Gall's is a small parish sharing its priest with two sister parishes, its ministry life is closely tied to the Red River Valley ACC. Faith formation (CCD) for children is offered as a shared program across the cluster, and the parish reports a particularly high number of non-Catholic children participating in that program. Adult faith formation, the Holy Rosary, Eucharistic Adoration, and ACC-wide pastoral council work round out the parish's ministerial life.

• Shared CCD/faith formation program
• Eucharistic Adoration
• Holy Rosary devotion (Wednesday Holy Hour)
• ACC Pastoral Council representation
• Parish trusteeship

Contact and Visiting

Visitors and parishioners can reach St. Gall's at 110 Minnesota Avenue, Tintah, MN 56583, by phone at (218) 369-2188. Because the priest's office is based in Breckenridge, the ACC's main office line (218-643-5173) or Fr. Leo Moenkedick's cell (218-955-0570) are the best ways to reach him directly. The parish is reached via Minnesota Highway 9 — turn one block east into the village — and weekend Mass is celebrated Saturday evening at 6:30 PM, with confessions heard just before Mass.

• Address: 110 Minnesota Avenue, Tintah, MN 56583
• Parish phone: (218) 369-2188
• ACC parish office: 218-643-5173
• Fr. Leo Moenkedick's cell: 218-955-0570
• Directions: From Hwy. 9, go one block east