Photo Caption: Bisho Jenky will rededicate the 100-year-old St. Boniface Church during an 11 a.m. Mass on Sunday, July 8.

SEYMOUR — St. Boniface Parish will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its church building with a Mass and a luncheon on Sunday, July 8.

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, will be principal celebrant of an 11 a.m. Mass and preside at rededication ceremonies at the rural church, which recently received a new roof. The bishop will consecrate the church bell, which has been removed from the church tower and is now with the sign in front of the church. The bell will be given the name “Isidore” after the patron saint of farmers.

All who have history with St. Boniface Parish are invited to attend the celebration and are asked to notify the parish at (217) 637-6947 or by email at stboniface100@yahoo.com. The church is located at 416 County Road 1100 N, southwest of Champaign and a few miles south of Seymour, a Champaign County village of about 200.

St. Boniface Church is a brick, stone, and wood neo-Gothic church designed by George P. Stauduhar of Rock Island. Stauduhar studied architecture at the University of Illinois in the 1880s and designed many church buildings, including Catholic churches in Penfield, Rantoul, Ivesdale, and Philo as well as St. Patrick’s in Urbana.

2,000 AT DEDICATION
In April of 1911, members of St. Boniface Parish — served at the time by Father William Selk — voted to build a new church on land donated by the Klein family. In order to pay for the church, the building committee set a donation level of $2.50 an acre for farm owners and $1 an acre for renters. The new church would replace a wooden structure which then served as the parish hall until its demolition in 2009.

More than 2,000 were in attendance when Bishop Edmund Dunne dedicated St. Boniface Church on Sept. 4, 1912 and hailed it as one of the most attractive small churches in the United States. Stained glass windows above the altar depict St. Boniface, patron saint of the German immigrant farmers of the area, and St. Patrick, the other major ethnic group in Colfax Township.

Over the years, the church has undergone various changes and renovations. A new altar was installed around 1965 in response to Vatican II, and a major renovation was carried out in 1978 for the parish centennial. In 2001, the interior was once again re-painted and carpeted.