About St. Michael · Gaylord, Minnesota
Church of St. Michael is a Catholic parish in Gaylord, Minnesota, a small community in Sibley County about 65 miles southwest of Minneapolis–Saint Paul. The parish is one of three churches that make up the Corpus Christi Area Faith Community, alongside St. Mary in Arlington and St. Pius X in Glencoe, and it sits within the Diocese of New Ulm. Mass is celebrated on Saturday evenings and weekday mornings in English, with confession and adoration scheduled before Mass on Thursdays. The parish serves the Catholic faithful of Gaylord and the surrounding rural townships of south-central Minnesota.
- Established
- 1882
- Patron
- St. Michael the Archangel
- Diocese
- Diocese of New Ulm
Why belong here
St. Michael offers a small-town Catholic community where parishioners of all backgrounds worship together in English, in keeping with Archbishop John Ireland's vision for Minnesota's rural parishes. Weekly Saturday evening Mass, plus weekday Mass and adoration on Thursdays, give working families and farmers a manageable schedule, and confession is conveniently offered immediately before Mass. As part of the Corpus Christi Area Faith Community, the parish shares resources and ministry with neighboring Catholic parishes in Arlington and Glencoe, giving parishioners a broader faith family while keeping the close-knit feel of a single Gaylord church.
Mass times at St. Michael
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Saturday 4:15–4:55 PM (St. Michael-Gaylord)
- Thursday 9:00–9:30 AM (St. Michael-Gaylord)
Adoration times
- Thursday 8:30–9:30 AM (St. Michael-Gaylord)
- Friday 8:30 AM (St. Michael-Gaylord, per Corpus Christi AFC calendar)
About St. Michael Parish
Church of St. Michael is the Catholic parish serving Gaylord, Minnesota, and the surrounding rural area of Sibley County. It is one of three parishes in the Corpus Christi Area Faith Community and falls under the Diocese of New Ulm. The parish mailing address is P.O. Box 357, Gaylord, MN 55334, and the physical church sits at 411 Court Avenue.
- Diocese of New Ulm — Deanery 1
- Member of Corpus Christi Area Faith Community
- Mailing: P.O. Box 357, Gaylord, MN 55334
History
Catholic worship in the Gaylord area began with itinerant priests visiting Irish and German Catholic homes in the early 1860s. A small church was built in Mountville in 1872, but when the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway bypassed Mountville and instead founded Gaylord in 1881, the Catholic community migrated with the railroad. St. Michael's first church in Gaylord was built on High Street in 1882, and it served the parish for 75 years until it was razed in 1957 to make way for the present church on Fifth and Court Streets.
- 1860s — Priests from neighboring towns begin visiting Catholic homes in the area
- 1872 — Small church built in the village of Mountville
- 1881 — Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway reaches Gaylord; Mountville fades
- 1882 — First St. Michael's church built in Gaylord on High Street
- 1957 — Current church built on Fifth and Court Streets; 1882 church demolished
- 2012 — Parish documented in City of Gaylord Historic Context Study
Corpus Christi Area Faith Community
St. Michael is part of the Corpus Christi Area Faith Community, a collaborative grouping of three Catholic parishes in Sibley and McLeod counties. The other two parishes are St. Mary in Arlington and St. Pius X in Glencoe, which hosts the AFC's only Spanish-language Mass on Sundays at noon. The AFC shares a common website at corpuschristiafc.org, where a unified Mass, confession, and adoration schedule is published for all three parishes.
- St. Mary — Arlington, MN
- St. Michael — Gaylord, MN
- St. Pius X — Glencoe, MN (includes a 12:00 PM Spanish Sunday Mass)
Diocese of New Ulm
St. Michael is listed by the Diocese of New Ulm as one of the parishes in Deanery 1. The diocese publishes the parish's contact information, mailing address, and AFC affiliation on its website at dnu.org.
- Diocese: New Ulm
- Deanery: 1
- Diocese page: dnu.org/gaylord
Visit & Contact
Parishioners and visitors can reach St. Michael by phone at the parish office line listed by the Diocese of New Ulm, or through the Corpus Christi AFC website, which serves as the online hub for all three parishes in the cluster.
- Address: 411 Court Ave., Gaylord, MN 55334
- Phone: (507) 237-2851
- Website: corpuschristiafc.org