About St. Ludger · Creighton, Nebraska
St. Ludger Catholic Church is a parish in Creighton, Nebraska, in the Archdiocese of Omaha. It is one of the parishes in 'Our Catholic Family,' a multi-parish family serving Knox County and surrounding rural northeast Nebraska communities. The parish operates St. Ludger Catholic School (PreK-6) on Bryant Avenue and shares pastoral leadership with neighboring parishes in the cluster. The parish is rooted in the wave of German Catholic settlers who came to Knox County in the late 1800s and is named after St. Ludger, the 8th-century Apostle of Saxony.
- Established
- 1883
- Patron
- St. Ludger (St. Ludgerus of Münster, Apostle of Saxony)
- Rector
- Fr. Keiter (Pastor of Our Catholic Family of Parishes)
- Diocese
- Archdiocese of Omaha
Why belong here
St. Ludger offers a warm rural-Nebraska Catholic community anchored by a parish school (PreK-6) and an active lay involvement through the Pastoral Council and Ladies Guild/ministry groups. As part of 'Our Catholic Family,' it shares priests with sister parishes, but the Creighton parish retains its own weekly Sunday Mass, weekday Masses on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and its own Catholic elementary school that is part of daily parish life. Visitors are welcomed at weekly Sunday Mass and at the long-running traditions of faith formation, school community, and Catholic cemetery care that have continued since the parish was founded in 1883.
Mass times at St. Ludger
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Saturday 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM (St. Ludger, Creighton)
Adoration times
- Thursday 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM (St. Ludger, Creighton)
About St. Ludger Parish
St. Ludger is a Catholic parish in Creighton, Nebraska, in Knox County in northeast Nebraska. It is part of the Archdiocese of Omaha and is one of the member parishes of 'Our Catholic Family of Parishes,' a collaborative cluster serving rural Catholic communities across Knox and Cedar counties. The parish's mailing address is 410 Bryant Ave., Creighton, NE 68729, with phone (402) 358-3501.
- Location: Creighton, Nebraska
- Diocese: Archdiocese of Omaha
- Cluster: Our Catholic Family of Parishes
History of St. Ludger
St. Ludger has its roots in the early 1880s when Catholic families, many of German descent migrating to Knox County, decided to build a church. Construction began in Creighton in the fall of 1882 and was completed in 1883; the parish was named St. Ludgerus, honoring St. Ludger, the 8th-century missionary to the Saxons. Even before the church was finished, Mrs. R. Y. Bruce of the original Bruce Colony donated land for Rose Hill Cemetery as a burial place for Catholic families.
- 1882 — Construction of St. Ludgerus Catholic Church began in Creighton
- 1883 — Church completed; parish named St. Ludgerus
- Pre-1883 — Rose Hill Cemetery donated by Mrs. R.Y. Bruce of the Bruce Colony
- 1892 — Msgr. Vranek of St. Ludger organized a Catholic mission at Osmond
- 1902 — Plainview mission declared; first Mass offered May 11, 1902 by Fr. William Windolph of Creighton
St. Ludger Catholic School (PreK-6)
St. Ludger operates its own parish elementary school, St. Ludger Catholic School, serving preschool through sixth grade on the Bryant Avenue campus. The school is administered as part of the Our Catholic Family cluster's parish-school network, with a Principal (Sonya Schroeder) and a Teacher Facilitator (Miranda Hornback) listed on the parish contacts page.
- School: St. Ludger Catholic School, PreK-6
- Address: 410 Bryant Ave., Creighton, NE 68729
- Principal: Sonya Schroeder
- Teacher Facilitator: Miranda Hornback
- School website: www.ludgercatholic.org
Parish Ministries and Pastoral Council
Lay involvement at St. Ludger is organized through the cluster-wide Pastoral Council and through parish ministry groups such as the Ladies Guild. The parish has its own representative on the joint Pastoral Council and is part of cluster-wide ministries including funeral luncheons, church cleaning teams, liturgical ministries, and youth ministry.
- Pastoral Council representative for St. Ludger/Holy Angels cluster: Cody Thoene
- Joint Pastoral Council meetings: monthly on the third Monday at 7:30 p.m. at St. Andrew
- Ladies Guild / parish ministry committees
- Liturgical ministries (lectors, servers, Eucharistic ministers)
- Funeral luncheon and church cleaning teams
- Youth Ministry (cluster-wide)
Our Catholic Family of Parishes
St. Ludger is one of the parishes in 'Our Catholic Family of Parishes,' a collaborative cluster of Catholic parishes in northeast Nebraska administered from Fordyce and led by a single pastor. The cluster allows priests to be shared across multiple small rural parishes while each parish retains its own weekend Mass, school, and lay leadership.
- Cluster website: ourcatholicfamily.org
- Pastor: Fr. Keiter (Pastor of Our Catholic Family of Parishes)
- Cluster includes parishes such as St. Rose of Lima (Crofton), St. Andrew (Bloomfield), St. Boniface (Menominee), St. Wenceslaus (Verdigre), Ss. Peter and Paul (Bow Valley), St. John the Baptist (Fordyce), Sacred Heart (Wynot), Immaculate Conception (St. Helena), St. William (Niobrara), St. Ignatius (Brunswick), St. Joseph (Constance), and St. Ludger (Creighton)
Cemeteries
St. Ludger parish historically established and continues to be associated with Catholic burial grounds in and around Creighton. Rose Hill Cemetery was donated before the church was completed, and when it filled, the parish added a Catholic cemetery onto the north side of Greenwood Cemetery — known as St. Ludger's Cemetery on the north edge of Creighton.
- Rose Hill Cemetery — donated by Mrs. R. Y. Bruce before the 1883 church was completed; contains roughly 60 burials, many pre-1900
- St. Ludger's Cemetery — added on the north side of Greenwood Cemetery on the north edge of Creighton
Contact and Location
Parishioners and visitors can reach St. Ludger at the parish office on Bryant Avenue in Creighton. The parish is administered as part of the Our Catholic Family cluster, whose main office line is also (402) 358-3501.
- Address: 410 Bryant Ave., Creighton, NE 68729
- Phone: (402) 358-3501
- Website: www.ourcatholicfamily.org
- School website: www.ludgercatholic.org
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Fr. William Windolph1902
Celebrated the first Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in Plainview from Creighton; served the area before St. Ludger had a resident priest dedicated to mission work.
- Msgr. Vranekcirca 1892
Stationed at St. Ludger, organized a Catholic mission at Osmond in 1892.