About St. Meinrad · Prairie View, Arkansas
St. Meinrad Catholic Church is a small mission parish located in the unincorporated community of Prairie View, Logan County, Arkansas. It is one of three Catholic communities served from St. Ignatius Church in nearby Scranton, which also attends the Mission Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Morrison Bluff. The mission sits in the River Valley Deanery of the Diocese of Little Rock and takes its name from St. Meinrad Abbey in Indiana, whose Benedictine monks came to Logan County in the late 1870s to found Subiaco Abbey and planted German-Catholic settlements across the Arkansas River Valley. Today the small congregation is cared for by an administrator priest and a tight team of lay staff and choir and youth leaders.
- Established
- 1878
- Patron
- St. Meinrad of Einsiedeln (the Benedictine monk-martyr of Switzerland, after whom St. Meinrad Abbey in Indiana was named)
- Rector
- Fr. Nathan Ashburn (Administrator)
- Diocese
- Diocese of Little Rock (River Valley Deanery)
Why belong here
St. Meinrad is a small, close-knit rural Catholic mission that still gathers regularly for weekend Mass in the rolling Arkansas River Valley. As part of the St. Ignatius, Scranton parish cluster, it is served by a steady priest-administrator and a committed lay team — including an organist/choir director and Christian Youth Movement leaders — so families know the people in the pews with them. It is a quiet, prayerful home for Catholics in Prairie View and the surrounding Logan County countryside who want a traditional, low-key parish life rooted in more than a century of Benedictine missionary heritage.
Mass times at St. Meinrad
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Saturday 3:30 p.m. – 3:50 p.m. (before Vigil Mass)
- Sunday 7:35 a.m. – 7:50 a.m. (before 8:00 a.m. Mass)
About St. Meinrad Catholic Church
St. Meinrad Catholic Church is a small Catholic mission in the unincorporated community of Prairie View, Logan County, Arkansas. It is listed by the Diocese of Little Rock as a mission church within the River Valley Deanery, attended from St. Ignatius Church in Scranton. The parish takes its name from St. Meinrad Abbey in Indiana, whose Benedictine monks established Subiaco Abbey and surrounding German settlements in Logan County beginning in the late 1870s. Although modest in size today, St. Meinrad remains an active weekend Mass site with its own choir, youth leaders, and parish office staff.
- Type: Mission church
- Deanery: River Valley Deanery
- County: Logan County, Arkansas
- Attended from: St. Ignatius Church, Scranton, AR
History and Heritage
The history of St. Meinrad is inseparable from the Benedictine missionary movement that gave Catholic Arkansas its German heartland. In 1876 Bishop Edward Fitzgerald of Little Rock welcomed a group of Benedictine monks from St. Meinrad Abbey in Spencer County, Indiana, to Logan County. The Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad donated 640 acres, and the monks built St. Benedict's Priory — later known as Subiaco Abbey — just south of the Arkansas River. Around this abbey grew a string of German Catholic farming settlements, and St. Meinrad in Prairie View became one of the small mission churches serving those scattered Catholic families. The mission sits today next to the historic St. Meinrad Cemetery, surveyed in 1998 and described as being in excellent condition with only six unmarked graves.
- 1876 — Benedictine monks from St. Meinrad Abbey, Indiana, arrive in Logan County at Bishop Fitzgerald's invitation.
- 1878 — Subiaco Abbey (originally St. Benedict's Priory) is established on railroad-donated land south of the Arkansas River.
- German Catholic farming settlements grow around the abbey, giving rise to mission churches including St. Meinrad, Prairie View.
- St. Meinrad Cemetery is located 1/4 mile off Route 109 on Route 288 East and was documented in excellent condition in the 1998 Logan County survey.
Clergy and Staff
St. Meinrad is currently served by an administrator priest assigned through St. Ignatius, Scranton. A small lay team supports the day-to-day life of the mission: a parish office shared with the other two mission churches, a choir director/organist, and Christian Youth Movement leaders.
- Administrator: Fr. Nathan Ashburn
- Parish Office: Shannon Walker and Paula Frederick ([email protected])
- Choir Director / Organist: Ella Rita Nicko — (479) 938-7277
- CYM (Christian Youth Movement) Leaders: Ashley Fritsche and Julie Sory
Holy Week at St. Meinrad
The Arkansas Catholic publishes annual Holy Week schedules for parishes across the Diocese of Little Rock. For Prairie View, the most recently published Holy Week services have been Good Friday at 6:30 p.m. and Easter Sunday at 9:30 a.m.; parishioners are encouraged to confirm the current year with the parish office.
- Good Friday: 6:30 p.m.
- Easter Sunday: 9:30 a.m. (check bulletin/website for current year)
Ministries and Parish Life
Although St. Meinrad is a small mission, it sustains a clear set of lay ministries that keep its liturgical and community life running. Music is provided by a designated choir director/organist, and a Christian Youth Movement (CYM) program is led by two named coordinators. Parish administration is shared with St. Ignatius, Scranton, and Sts. Peter and Paul, Morrison Bluff, through a joint parish office and email address.
- Choir / Music Ministry — Ella Rita Nicko
- Christian Youth Movement (CYM) — Ashley Fritsche and Julie Sory
- Shared parish office ([email protected]) for St. Meinrad, St. Ignatius (Scranton), and Sts. Peter and Paul (Morrison Bluff)
Contact and Location
St. Meinrad is reached by a rural road off Arkansas Highway 109 in Prairie View, in the western part of Logan County between Scranton and the Arkansas River. The mailing address uses the Scranton post office since the mission is attended from St. Ignatius, Scranton. The two phone numbers reflect this: a Scranton parish line for general business and a local Prairie View line for the church itself.
- Address: 35 Saint Meinrad Loop, off Hwy. 109, Prairie View, AR 72863
- Mailing Address: P.O. Box 87, Scranton, AR 72863
- Phone (Prairie View): (479) 938-2821
- Phone (Scranton parish office): (479) 473-2010
- Email: [email protected]
- From I-40: take Exit 55 to State Road 109 and continue about 10 miles.
Diocese of Little Rock
St. Meinrad belongs to the Diocese of Little Rock, the original Catholic diocese of Arkansas, established by Pope Gregory XVI on November 28, 1843. The diocese covers the entire state of Arkansas and organizes its parishes into regional deaneries; St. Meinrad is part of the River Valley Deanery. St. Meinrad is among the parishes whose roots trace back to Bishop Edward Fitzgerald's late-19th-century effort to recruit European Catholic immigrants — especially German-speaking Benedictines from St. Meinrad Abbey, Indiana — into the Arkansas River Valley.
- Diocese: Little Rock
- Deanery: River Valley
- Diocese established: November 28, 1843
- First bishop: Andrew J. Byrne (consecrated March 10, 1844)
- Founder of the German River Valley missions: Bishop Edward Fitzgerald (1867–1907)
Cemetery
The historic St. Meinrad Catholic Cemetery stands beside the mission in Prairie View and is the resting place for generations of the original German Catholic settlers who came up from the Subiaco Abbey mission. It is recorded in the USGenWeb Logan County cemetery archives as being in excellent condition, with only six unmarked graves noted at the time of survey.
- Location: 1/4 mile off Route 109 on Route 288 East, Prairie View, Logan County, AR
- Status (1998 survey): excellent condition, 6 unmarked graves
- GPS (approx.): 35.3345° N, 93.5119° W