St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Spring Grove Village

St. Bernard Church in Spring Grove Village looks like the cozy, thatch-roofed model for a Christmas card, but has gone through some of the most and frequent changes in the archdiocese

1919
St. Bernard parish established.
1920
Current church, an unusual variation of Mission Revival design by JF Sheblessy, built.
1925
St. Bernard School, a more typical version of Mission Revival, but made of brick, built. Staffed by Franciscan Sisters of Oldenburg.
1932
Marian grotto built on what is now the rectory.
1946
Mother of Christ mission church established in Winton Terrace. By the 1980s, the two parishes were frequent collaborators.
1973
New Jerusalem, a lay community formed under Father Richard Rohr, OFM, moved from the church to a school basement, attracting 400 members, with a portion staying when Father Rohr moved to Arizona in 1986.
1972
St. Bernard School closed.
1984
Father Jim Shappelle became pastor, a position he held for 28 years.
2011
Father Jim Schutte, pastor of St. Leo the Great in North Fairmount, was made pastor of a new, three-parish region, including St. Bernard and Mother of Christ.
2012
The parishes return to their previous configuration with Father Shappelle as St. Bernard’s parochial administrator.
2017-18
St. Bernard, St. Boniface, and Mother of Christ formed a pastoral region with Sr. Margie Niemer, OSF, as a lay Pastoral Administrator.
2019
St. Bernard and Mother of Christ joined in a pastoral region with the Church of the Annunciation in Clifton.