About St. Madeleine Sophie Barat · Trona, California
St. Madeleine Sophie Barat is a small Roman Catholic mission parish in the remote desert community of Trona, California, in the Searles Valley of San Bernardino County. Founded in 1936 and raised to parish status in 1937, it is currently administered as a mission of St. Joseph Parish in Barstow within the Diocese of San Bernardino. The parish is renowned for its striking 1958 modernist church, designed by its own pastor, Fr. Rene Peter, whose triangular, windowless form against the Mojave desert landscape has been called a masterpiece of mid-century ecclesiastical architecture. Worship is celebrated only twice a month, with priests driving the roughly 100-mile round trip from Barstow to serve this tight-knit mining-town Catholic community.
- Established
- 1936
- Patron
- St. Madeleine Sophie Barat (19th-century French foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart)
- Rector
- Rev. James F. Oropel (Pastor of St. Joseph, Barstow, which ministers to the Trona mission)
- Diocese
- Diocese of San Bernardino (High Desert Vicariate; administered as a mission of St. Joseph Parish, Barstow)
Why belong here
St. Madeleine Sophie Barat is the spiritual home of a small but devoted Catholic community in one of the most isolated mining towns in the California desert. Members worship in a nationally recognized piece of mid-century sacred architecture, where every Mass is celebrated by priests who travel the 100-mile round trip from Barstow specifically to serve this congregation. For Catholics in Trona, Argus, and the surrounding Searles Valley, belonging to this mission means preserving a century-old tradition of faith on the shores of Searles Lake — a tradition now carried forward even as the original church recovers from severe 2019 earthquake damage.
Mass times at St. Madeleine Sophie Barat
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Before Mass
About St. Madeleine Sophie Barat
St. Madeleine Sophie Barat is a small Roman Catholic mission parish serving the remote desert community of Trona in the Searles Valley of northeastern San Bernardino County. It is administered from St. Joseph Parish in Barstow within the Diocese of San Bernardino's High Desert Vicariate. Because Trona is an unincorporated, geographically isolated mining town, Mass is offered only twice a month, with priests making the long drive from Barstow to celebrate for the local Catholic community.
- Located at 83395 Trona Rd., Trona, California 93562
- Diocese of San Bernardino, High Desert Vicariate
- Mission of St. Joseph Parish, Barstow
- Pastored by Rev. James F. Oropel
History
Catholics first gathered for Mass in the Searles Valley in 1924, before Trona had an organized parish. By 1936 — and as a full parish from 1937 — the Catholic community took the name of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, the 19th-century French foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart. The congregation grew with the borax and potash industry, and in 1958 the parish completed a striking new church on land donated by the American Potash and Chemical Corporation. That church, still the heart of the mission, was designed by its own pastor.
- 1924 — first Catholic Mass celebrated in the Searles Valley
- 1936 — mission founded (per diocesan parish listing)
- 1937 — raised to full parish status
- 1958 — current triangular modernist church completed
- July 2019 — church severely damaged by the 6.4 and 7.1 Ridgecrest earthquakes
The 1958 Church and Its Architect-Pastor
The church that dominates the Trona skyline was designed by its own pastor, Fr. Rene Peter, who was a self-taught architect. He conceived a windowless, whitewashed building in the shape of a triangle to express the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, with twelve interior columns representing the Apostles. The huge entrance doors of natural ash open wide in a gesture of welcome. Soon after the building's completion in the fall of 1958, architecture critics and a Los Angeles design firm praised it as a modernist masterpiece whose stark contours seemed to project eternity against the vast Mojave desert.
- Designer: Fr. Rene Peter (pastor and self-taught architect)
- Triangular plan symbolizing the Holy Trinity
- 12 columns representing the Apostles
- Windowless whitewashed walls
- Natural-ash entrance doors
- Hailed as a modernist masterpiece
2019 Earthquakes and Aftermath
On July 4 and 5, 2019, the Searles Valley was struck by back-to-back earthquakes of magnitude 6.4 and 7.1 centered near Ridgecrest. St. Madeleine Sophie Barat was the Catholic church hardest hit in the Diocese of San Bernardino. Walls split, floors buckled and lifted, statues broke, and rebar was exposed along the roofline. San Bernardino County red-tagged the 300-seat church and the adjoining parish hall as uninhabitable, while the former rectory (now used as an office) survived. Diocesan Director of Construction and Real Estate David Meier noted that the modernist roof-to-wall joints, already stressed by Fr. Peter's daring design, may have been compromised beyond repair. Bishop Gerald R. Barnes asked the faithful to pray for the Trona community, and for a time Mass was celebrated in the surviving former rectory.
- Magnitude 6.4 quake on July 4, 2019
- Magnitude 7.1 quake on July 5, 2019
- Church and parish hall red-tagged
- Bishop Gerald R. Barnes requested prayers for the community
- Mass temporarily relocated to the former rectory
Clergy and Ecclesial Staff
The mission is shepherded by the pastoral team of St. Joseph Parish in Barstow, who travel to Trona to celebrate the sacraments.
- Rev. James F. Oropel — Pastor
- Rev. Charles 'Gino' Galley, III — Parochial Vicar
- Rev. Alfredo Olmos-Marcelo, M.S.P. — Parochial Vicar
Visit and Contact
The parish office can be reached by phone or email, and the community maintains a Facebook page with updates on Masses and the church's recovery from the 2019 earthquakes.
- Address: 83395 Trona Rd., Trona, California 93562
- Phone: (760) 372-4717
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: St. Madeleine Sophie Barat Roman Catholic Church
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Fr. Rene Peter
Designer and pastor of the 1958 triangular modernist church; self-taught architect of the windowless, whitewashed Trinity-shaped building.
- Fr. William J. Kiefer
Pastor at the time of the church's opening era; greeted worshippers at the natural-ash entrance doors.