About St. John · Zenda, Kansas
St. John is a small rural Catholic parish serving the farming community of Zenda, a village of about 72 people in Kingman County, south-central Kansas. It belongs to the Diocese of Wichita and is pastored by Reverend Daryl W. Befort, who also ministers to neighboring parishes such as Sacred Heart, St. Leo–St. Leo, and St. Peter–Willowdale as part of a clustered rural assignment. With roughly 35 families and 65 individual Catholics, St. John is one of the smallest parishes in the diocese but continues to keep a regular weekday Mass schedule and a rotating Sunday Mass that requires parishioners to call ahead.
- Established
- 1908
- Patron
- St. John
- Rector
- Reverend Daryl W. Befort
- Diocese
- Diocese of Wichita
Why belong here
St. John offers rural Kansas Catholics — and visitors passing through Kingman County — a quiet, traditional Latin-rite parish in which to keep holy the Lord's Day. Fr. Befort celebrates a weekly Tuesday morning Mass at 8:00 a.m. and a rotating Sunday Mass, with the sacrament of Confession available 20 minutes before Mass. With only 35 registered families, the parish is small enough that every face is known, yet it is firmly part of the wider Diocese of Wichita family of parishes.
Mass times at St. John
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- 20 minutes prior to Mass
Overview of St. John Parish, Zenda
St. John is a small Catholic parish in the rural village of Zenda, Kingman County, Kansas, within the Diocese of Wichita. It is listed in the diocese's parish directory with about 35 families and 65 individual Catholics — a tiny but enduring community of faith in the south-central Kansas wheat country. The parish address is 109 N. Ada Street in Zenda, with the mailing address going to a Nashville, KS box.
- Diocese: Wichita
- Address: 109 N. Ada St., Zenda, KS 67159
- Mailing: 8035 SW 160th Ave., Nashville, KS 67112
- Families: ~35
- Individual Catholics: ~65
History of St. John
St. John was founded in 1908, twenty-one years after the founding of Zenda itself in 1887 along the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. The diocese was still a young one — established in 1887 — and was actively establishing mission parishes across central and western Kansas for immigrant and second-generation Catholic farming families. As those Catholic settlers broke wheat ground around Zenda, the church they built for themselves remains the parish's spiritual home more than a century later.
- Parish founded: 1908
- Zenda founded: 1887 along the AT&SF Railroad
- Zenda's name derives from the 1894 novel The Prisoner of Zenda
Clergy
St. John is served by Reverend Daryl W. Befort, who pastors this parish as part of a clustered rural assignment that also includes Sacred Heart, St. Leo–St. Leo, and St. Peter–Willowdale. Fr. Befort is the parish's primary point of contact for Mass intentions, sacramental needs, and parish business.
- Pastor: Rev. Daryl W. Befort
- Pastoral cluster: Sacred Heart, St. Leo–St. Leo, St. Peter–Willowdale
Contact & Visiting
The parish can be reached by telephone at 620-246-5370 or by email at [email protected]. The mailing address for parish correspondence is 8035 SW 160th Ave., Nashville, KS 67112. Fr. Befort and parishioners warmly welcome visitors traveling through Kingman County who would like to attend Mass or receive the sacraments while passing through the area.
- Phone: 620-246-5370
- Email: [email protected]
- Mailing: 8035 SW 160th Ave., Nashville, KS 67112
About Zenda, Kansas
Zenda is a small city in Kingman County in south-central Kansas, founded in 1887 along the AT&SF Railroad. Originally platted as 'New Rochester,' it was renamed Zenda by the post office in 1899 — most commonly said to be taken from Anthony Hope's 1894 adventure novel The Prisoner of Zenda. The 2020 census recorded a population of 72. The surrounding area is strong hard-red-winter-wheat country; K-State wheat breeders even released a wheat variety named 'Zenda' in 2016.
- County: Kingman
- Population (2020): 72
- ZIP code: 67159
- Area code: 620
- Named after The Prisoner of Zenda