About St. Lawrence · Mentor, Minnesota
St. Lawrence Catholic Church is a small Roman Latin-rite parish located in the rural community of Mentor, Minnesota, in Polk County in the Diocese of Crookston. The parish is one of 69 churches that make up the diocese and serves farm families and neighbors across the Maple Lake / Grove Park Township area of northwestern Minnesota. The congregation gathers for Mass three times a week — Friday morning, Saturday evening, and Sunday morning — and offers Reconciliation before Mass or by appointment. Its companion St. Lawrence Catholic Cemetery lies north of Mentor in Grove Park Township, tying the parish's identity to the surrounding land and to generations of Catholic families in the region.
- Established
- 1920
- Patron
- St. Lawrence (deacon and martyr, traditionally venerated as patron of deacons and the poor)
- Diocese
- Diocese of Crookston
Why belong here
St. Lawrence offers a faithful, rural Catholic community in the heart of the Polk County farm country, with three weekly Masses that fit the rhythms of agricultural life — including a Saturday evening Vigil in the warmer months and a Sunday morning celebration for the whole family. The parish welcomes visitors and new members with a simple, family-centered schedule of Mass, Reconciliation before Mass or by appointment, and a long heritage connected to the surrounding land through its historic St. Lawrence Catholic Cemetery. For Catholics in the Mentor, Maple Lake, and Grove Park Township area, it is a steady, neighborly parish rooted in over a century of worship.
Mass times at St. Lawrence
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- One half hour before Mass
- Any time by appointment
- Saturday 6:15 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. (as listed by third-party parish directories)
History of St. Lawrence Parish
St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Mentor, Minnesota was organized in 1920 by Father Samuel Bushard of Terrebonne, who gathered the local Catholic families into what was then called 'St. Andrews.' The fledgling congregation met in homes and other borrowed spaces until it bought the old Mentor school and turned the building into a chapel. As the Catholic population of the Maple Lake area grew, the parish built a brand-new church in 1954–55 and adopted the name St. Lawrence in 1954. The earlier school-church still stands on the grounds as a reminder of the parish's humble beginnings.
- Founded 1920 by Fr. Samuel Bushard of Terrebonne
- Originally named 'St. Andrews'
- First chapel was the converted old Mentor school
- Current church built 1954–55
- Renamed St. Lawrence in 1954
St. Lawrence Catholic Cemetery
The parish maintains the St. Lawrence Catholic Cemetery in Section 23 of Grove Park Township, Polk County, just north of Mentor along County Road 12. The cemetery has been walked and transcribed by local genealogical volunteers and contains the graves of many of the founding Catholic farm families of the Mentor and Maple Lake area, linking the living parish to more than a century of Catholic life in northwestern Minnesota.
- Located in Grove Park Township, Section 23, Polk County
- North of Mentor on County Road 12
- Holds burials of early Catholic settlers from across the parish's history
Diocese of Crookston
St. Lawrence is one of 69 parishes and missions that together make up the Diocese of Crookston in northwestern Minnesota, suffragan to the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The diocese covers a vast rural area of the Red River Valley and the lakes-and-forests region to the east, where small farming parishes like St. Lawrence have been the backbone of Catholic life since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
- Member parish of the Diocese of Crookston
- Roman Latin Rite
- English-language liturgy
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Rev. Samuel Bushard1920–
Pastor from Terrebonne who organized the original 'St. Andrews' congregation in Mentor.
- Msgr. Stanley C. Bourassa1969–1977
Diocesan priest of the Diocese of Crookston; later served in East Grand Forks, Thief River Falls, Goodridge, Grygla, Barnesville, and Sabin before retiring in 1999.