About St. Helena · Grafton, Nebraska
St. Helena is a small rural Catholic mission parish in Grafton, Nebraska, located in Fillmore County within the Diocese of Lincoln. It serves the local farming community of the Nebraska plains, gathering families for Sunday Mass at 11:00 a.m. Because the parish has no resident pastor, it is administered as a mission of St. Mary Parish in nearby Sutton, sharing clergy, staff, and bulletins with its sponsoring parish. Visitors and parishioners are welcomed under the patronage of St. Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine and traditional discoverer of the True Cross.
- Established
- 1880
- Patron
- St. Helena (Empress and mother of Constantine the Great)
- Diocese
- Diocese of Lincoln (Hastings Deanery)
Why belong here
St. Helena offers the prayerful quiet of a small rural mission where nearly every face is known and the Eucharist is the center of community life. Families gather for Sunday Mass at 11:00 a.m. in a historic 1923 Italian Renaissance church whose stained glass, high altar, and barrel-vaulted sanctuary make for an unusually beautiful setting for rural Nebraska worship. The parish is paired with a vibrant youth ministry and sponsoring parish in Sutton, which has carried parishioners on international mission trips to Honduras and supports faith formation for the broader Fillmore County community.
Mass times at St. Helena
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Saturday: by appointment (at the linked St. Mary, Sutton confessions)
- Sunday: by appointment
History of St. Helena Parish
St. Helena's roots go back to the late nineteenth century in rural Fillmore County. The original church was built in 1880 for the Irish and German Catholic farming families who settled the area, and for many decades the parish was large enough to send out missions of its own to Sutton and Harvard. That pattern eventually reversed: St. Helena is today administered as a mission parish of St. Mary in Sutton, while still serving as the local worship home for Grafton-area families. The 1923 church building, the Italian stained glass added in 1927, and the 2000 refurbishment mark the major chapters of its visible history.
- Original church built in 1880
- 1880 building sold and moved in 1922
- Current brick church completed September 10, 1923
- Italian stained-glass windows installed in 1927
- Church refurbished in 2000
- Once mother parish to Sutton and Harvard; now a mission of St. Mary, Sutton
The 1923 Church Building
The present-day church is a tall Italian Renaissance Revival brick structure designed by the prominent Omaha architect Leo A. Daly. Its façade is marked by a towering campanile and rounded portal windows, while the interior features an original high altar, side altars with Daprato statues of the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph, and a blue-trimmed barrel vault. Twelve stained-glass windows — added from Italy in 1927 — filter colored light onto the sanctuary in the Munich style, and the donor names at the base of each window record the Irish and German pioneer families who built the parish.
- Architect: Leo A. Daly (Omaha)
- Style: Italian Renaissance Revival
- Original high altar and Daprato side statues
- 12 Italian stained-glass windows, 1927
- Blue-trimmed barrel vault ceiling
Patron: St. Helena
St. Helena, mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, is venerated as the discoverer of the True Cross around A.D. 320. She is traditionally depicted holding a standing wooden cross, and her feast day in the Western Church is celebrated on August 18. The parish records note that the devotion to St. Helena in Grafton is linked to the wife of Captain Patrick S. Real, a major donor of the original 1880 church and of the land for the current building.
- Patroness of the parish
- Feast day: August 18
- Linked historically to the Real family of Grafton
Parish Life and Ministries
Because St. Helena is a small mission, its day-to-day parish life is closely tied to its sponsoring parish of St. Mary in Sutton. The two communities share bulletins, staff, faith formation, and youth ministry, and together they have carried out international mission trips and an annual parish dinner and bazaar that continues to draw hundreds to Grafton each year. Youth ministry is a particular emphasis, with students forming the core of recent mission efforts.
- Annual Parish Dinner and Bazaar in Grafton
- Shared youth ministry with St. Mary, Sutton
- International mission trips to Roatan, Honduras (2024 and 2025)
- Faith formation class on Saturdays
Youth Ministry & Mission Trips
The youth of St. Mary–St. Helena parishes have participated in back-to-back mission trips to Roatan, Honduras. The 2025 trip included 12 students and four chaperones led by their pastor. Each day of the trip began with daily Mass followed by Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, with the young missionaries serving in schools, on home visits, and in poor communities on an island of more than 100,000 residents served by only two priests.
- 2024 and 2025 youth mission trips to Roatan, Honduras
- 12 students and 4 chaperones in 2025
- Each day begins with Mass and Adoration
- Pastoral leader: Rev. Lee Jirovsky
Administration and Affiliation
St. Helena is classified by the Diocese of Lincoln as a mission parish of St. Mary, Sutton, within the Hastings Deanery. Diocesan records list Rev. Lee Jirovsky as the priest responsible for both parishes; the shared parish website for the cluster is stmaryssutton.org. The mailing address for the Grafton site routes through St. Mary's parish office in Sutton, reflecting the close administrative union between the two communities.
- Diocese: Lincoln
- Deanery: Hastings
- Status: Mission of St. Mary, Sutton
- Clergy: Rev. Lee Jirovsky
Visiting St. Helena
Visitors are warmly welcomed at the Sunday 11:00 a.m. Mass in Grafton. Because the parish office is administered from Sutton, the most reliable way to reach the staff is through the parish email and the listed phone line, which rings into the St. Mary Parish office. Tourists and pilgrims interested in the building's architecture and stained glass can also reference the Fillmore County driving tour for directions and history.
- Sunday Mass at 11:00 a.m.
- Contact via [email protected] or (402) 773-5346
- Listed on the Fillmore County driving tour
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Rev. Lee Jirovsky
Identified by the Diocese of Lincoln as pastor of St. Mary, Sutton, which has St. Helena, Grafton as its mission; led the 2024 and 2025 youth mission trips to Roatan, Honduras.