About St. Hubert · Newald, Wisconsin
St. Hubert is a small Roman Catholic mission church serving the tiny unincorporated community of Newald in Forest County, in the far northeast corner of Wisconsin. Located in the deep northwoods country historically shaped by logging and railroad expansion, the mission is administered from St. Leonard Parish in nearby Laona under the Diocese of Green Bay. The church sits at 10044 Cypress Street and is best known locally as a 'garage-style' or hunters' chapel that hosts a Saturday Vigil Mass for the few dozen Catholic families in the surrounding forest — a ministry kept alive for well over a century by loggers, trappers, and seasonal deer hunters.
- Established
- 1908
- Patron
- Saint Hubert of Liège (Hubertus)
- Diocese
- Diocese of Green Bay
Why belong here
St. Hubert offers a rare and historic form of Catholic life — a tiny northwoods mission where Mass is celebrated on Saturday afternoon in the forest country of Forest County. It is a perfect fit for the small, devoted Catholic families still living in the Newald/Ross area, for seasonal deer hunters and trappers who appreciate that the patron (St. Hubert) is the patron saint of hunters, and for anyone who values the quiet, hard-scrabble Catholic heritage of Wisconsin's old logging communities. Joining means becoming part of a multi-generational effort — supported from St. Leonard in Laona — to keep this little wooden mission alive for future generations.
Mass times at St. Hubert
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Saturdays 3:30 PM (prior to 4:00 PM Mass) — per Diocese of Green Bay 'Find a Confessor' listing
Parish Overview
St. Hubert Mission in Newald, Wisconsin, is one of the smallest and most historic Catholic stations in the Diocese of Green Bay. Tucked into the far northeast corner of the state in Forest County, it has served the families of the old Newald/Ross logging community since 1908. The mission is administered from St. Leonard Parish in Laona, the French-Canadian logging-town parish founded in 1905. Mass is celebrated Saturday afternoons at 4:00 PM, with confessions beforehand.
- Status: Mission (not a parish)
- Diocese: Diocese of Green Bay
- Parent parish: St. Leonard, Laona, WI
- Established: 1908 (per diocesan archives)
History
The village of Newald was platted in 1905 as 'Ross' (for pioneer Charles Ross) along the new Chicago & North Western Railway extension north of Carver, and was renamed in 1906 in honor of Leopold J. Newald, a Gillett-area landowner promoting the town. Catholic families in the logging camps and sawmill settlement were gathered into mission status in 1908 as St. Hubert, served by priests traveling from St. Leonard in Laona. Through the twentieth century the mission kept a small but steady Catholic presence in the community, including during the boom of the early-timber era and the gradual depopulation that followed the decline of the pine forests.
- 1905: Newald platted as 'Ross' on the C&NW line
- 1906: Renamed Newald in honor of Leopold J. Newald
- 1908: St. Hubert Mission established (Diocese of Green Bay records)
- 1905: Parent parish St. Leonard founded in Laona (French-Canadian logging community)
- 2010: WPA Branch 705 Join Hands Day project rebuilds parish restroom
Patron Saint — St. Hubert of Liège
The mission is named for St. Hubert (Hubertus), an 8th-century Frankish bishop of Liège and renowned missionary to the Ardennes. His conversion legend — a vision of a crucifix between the antlers of a stag while hunting — and his patronage of hunters, archers, dogs, forest workers, trappers, opticians, mathematicians, and metalworkers make him a particularly apt patron for a Catholic mission deep in Wisconsin's deer-hunting, logging northwoods. His feast day is November 3, which falls inside Wisconsin's traditional nine-day gun-deer season.
- Feast day: November 3
- Patron of: hunters, archers, dogs, forest workers, trappers, opticians, mathematicians, metalworkers
- Died: 30 May 727 A.D., near Fura (modern Voeren/Fourons, Belgium)
Worship & Sacraments
Because St. Hubert is administered from St. Leonard in Laona, its sacramental life is intentionally simple and seasonal. The Saturday Vigil Mass at 4:00 PM is the heart of parish life, with confessions heard at 3:30 PM beforehand. The Diocese of Green Bay's 'Find a Confessor' listing continues to identify St. Hubert by those times.
- Saturday Vigil Mass: 4:00 PM (English)
- Confessions: Saturdays 3:30 PM (prior to Mass)
- Other sacraments by arrangement through St. Leonard Parish, Laona
Community & Ministries
St. Hubert's 'ministries' are as practical as the community itself: keeping an old frame chapel alive in a remote forest town. The 2010 WPA project — funded jointly by the fraternal order, local schoolchildren, and parents — illustrates how outside volunteers and seasonal visitors are part of the mission's lifeblood. Many of the seasonal worshippers at the 4 PM Saturday Mass are deer hunters, a fact the parish's patron makes especially fitting.
- Hunters' ministry: 4 PM Saturday Mass during deer season
- Facility-stewardship volunteer days
- Coordination with St. Leonard Parish, Laona
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Unknown priests from St. Leonard, Laona1908–present
St. Hubert has had no resident pastor since its founding. According to Diocese of Green Bay archive records, the mission has always been administered from St. Leonard Parish in Laona, founded in 1905 as a French-Canadian logging-community parish. Successive St. Leonard pastors have traveled to Newald to celebrate Mass and minister to the mission.
- Rev. John Cerkasc. 2008–at least 2010
Serving as administrator from St. Leonard, Laona, around the time of the 2010 Join Hands Day restroom project organized by WPA Branch 705.