St. Mary

About St. Mary Mission

St. Mary is a Roman Catholic mission church in Mansfield, a small wheat town on the Waterville Plateau in Douglas County, Washington. The Diocese of Yakima lists it as a mission — not an independent parish — administered from St. Francis de Sales Parish in Chelan. The mission shares its priest with that parish and with St. Anne Parish in Bridgeport.

History of the Parish

According to HistoryLink.org's thumbnail history of Mansfield, St. Mary's Catholic Church was built in 1909 — the same year the Great Northern Railroad reached town and Mansfield boomed from a homesteading settlement of a few hundred to nearly 2,500 people. It was one of the first permanent churches in the new town. In 1910, before dedicated school buildings existed, the church also served as a classroom for Mansfield's first and second graders. Mansfield suffered major fires in 1914 and 1922, a severe drought in 1917, and the Great Depression; the railroad itself finally left in the 1980s. The Catholic community endured with it.

• 1909 — St. Mary's Catholic Church built in Mansfield
• 1910 — church used as a schoolroom for first and second graders
• Mansfield founded as a railroad town in 1909; incorporated 1911
• Railroad departure in 1980s left Mansfield as 'the town at the end of the rails'

Clergy and Leadership

St. Mary Mission does not have a resident priest. It is pastored by the priest of St. Francis de Sales Parish in Chelan, who also serves St. Anne Parish in Bridgeport. The current pastor, per the Diocese of Yakima directory, is Rev. David Jiménez.

• Rev. David Jiménez — Pastor (St. Francis de Sales, Chelan; St. Anne, Bridgeport; St. Mary Mission, Mansfield)
• Parish office phone: (509) 682-2433

Pastoral Succession

Because St. Mary's is administered from St. Francis de Sales in Chelan, its pastors have always been the pastors of that parish. The Diocese of Yakima's 2020 Official Directory lists Rev. Rogelio Gutierrez (assigned June 1, 2015). The parish has since passed to Rev. David Jiménez. At least one older directory snapshot lists Rev. Ricardo A. Villarreal in this role.

Contact and Visiting

All pastoral correspondence, offerings, and inquiries for St. Mary Mission are handled through the St. Francis de Sales Parish office in Chelan. The mailing address on file with the Diocese of Yakima is P.O. Box 1089, Chelan, WA 98816-1089.

• Street address: Mansfield Blvd. and 2nd, Mansfield, WA 98830
• Mailing address: P.O. Box 1089, Chelan, WA 98816-1089
• Phone: (509) 682-2433
• Email: [email protected]

Mansfield and the Waterville Plateau

Mansfield sits on a plateau in the heart of Central Washington's wheatlands, in a region once called Big Bend Country. Settlers began arriving in earnest in 1909 with the extension of the Great Northern Railroad. Today the town's grain elevators still process roughly 1.7 million bushels of wheat a year, making it one of the largest grain-intake points in North Central Washington. The Catholic mission at Mansfield Blvd. and 2nd has been part of that community since the first year of the town's existence.