About St. Rose · Strawn, Illinois
St. Rose was a small Catholic mission church on the west side of Highway 47 on the southern border of the village of Strawn, Illinois (Livingston County), in the Diocese of Peoria. Founded as a mission of the Fairbury Catholic parish in 1882 and serving the rural farming community northwest of Fairbury for more than a century, St. Rose was merged on July 1, 2013 into the newly created St. Andrew Parish in Fairbury (alongside St. James in Forrest and St. John the Baptist in Fairbury; SS. Peter and Paul of Chatsworth was briefly included and removed in 2018). The mission church was permanently closed on September 2, 2024, and the building was donated to the Village of Strawn.
- Established
- 1895
- Patron
- St. Rose of Lima
- Diocese
- Diocese of Peoria
Why belong here
St. Rose no longer functions as an active parish: the church was permanently closed on September 2, 2024 and its physical plant was donated to the Village of Strawn. The Catholic families of the Strawn area are now served by St. Andrew Parish in Fairbury (110 E. Ash St., Fairbury, IL 61739), which celebrates weekend Masses on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. and Sunday at 9:00 a.m., plus a Tridentine Latin Mass on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Visitors interested in the history of the Strawn Catholic community will still find the Moratz-designed 1940 church a recognizable piece of rural Livingston County heritage.
Mass times at St. Rose
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Saturday 3:30 p.m. (at St. Andrew, Fairbury)
- Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 7:30 a.m. (at St. Andrew, Fairbury)
Identity and Location
St. Rose was a mission church of the Diocese of Peoria serving the small village of Strawn in western Livingston County, Illinois, roughly halfway between Fairbury and Chatsworth on State Route 47. The church stood on the west side of Highway 47 on the southern edge of the village.
- Village: Strawn, IL 61775
- County: Livingston
- Diocese: Peoria
- Rite: Roman-Latin
- Site: W side of Highway 47
History
Strawn was established as a mission of the Fairbury Catholic parish in 1882. The first St. Rose Church was built in 1895 to serve the rural Catholic farming families in the area. In 1940 a substantially larger new church, designed by Bloomington architect Arthur F. Moratz, was completed and dedicated on October 15, 1940; the interior was remodeled after a fire in 1942.
- 1882 — Strawn is made a mission of Fairbury
- 1895 — First St. Rose Church built
- October 15, 1940 — New Moratz-designed church dedicated
- 1942 — Interior remodeled following a fire
Merger into St. Andrew Parish and Closure
As part of the Diocese of Peoria's reorganization of rural parishes in the face of fewer priests and shrinking rural populations, four parishes — SS. Peter and Paul in Chatsworth, St. Rose in Strawn, St. James in Forrest, and St. John the Baptist in Fairbury — were merged on July 1, 2013 into a new entity: St. Andrew Parish in Fairbury, with Father Scott Archer as founding pastor. On June 13, 2018 SS. Peter and Paul in Chatsworth was removed from St. Andrew's boundaries. Ultimately, on September 2, 2024, the St. Rose church in Strawn was permanently closed, and the building was subsequently donated to the Village of Strawn.
- July 1, 2013 — St. Andrew Parish formed by merger; Father Scott Archer, founding pastor
- June 13, 2018 — SS. Peter and Paul (Chatsworth) removed from St. Andrew
- September 2, 2024 — St. Rose Church in Strawn closed
- After closure — church building donated to the Village of Strawn
Architecture and Builders
The 1940 church was designed by architect Arthur F. Moratz of Bloomington, Illinois, a prolific designer of mid-century Illinois Catholic churches (he would go on to design St. Rita of Cascia in Chicago, begun 1948 and completed 1950). He was the youngest sibling of Paul O. Moratz, the architect of the Romanesque church in Fairbury. The St. Rose building was remodeled internally after a 1942 fire.
- Architect: Arthur F. Moratz (Bloomington, IL)
- Dedicated: October 15, 1940
- 1942 interior remodel after fire
- Related family architect: Paul O. Moratz (designed the Fairbury church)
Contact
Records and sacramental files for St. Rose, Strawn are maintained through St. Andrew Parish in Fairbury. The parish phone line below historically rang to the Fairbury parish office.
- Address: St. Andrew Parish, 110 E. Ash St., Fairbury, IL 61739
- Parish phone (historical for St. Rose line): (815) 692-2555
- Website: http://www.fairburycatholic.org/mass-times.html
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Father Scott Archer2013–
Founding pastor of St. Andrew Parish in Fairbury, the merged parish formed on July 1, 2013 which absorbed St. Rose in Strawn.