Holy Family is a country church and cemetery just seventeen miles north of the Canada/U.S.A. border. I believe it is the southernmost Ukrainian church in all of Saskatchewan.
Settlers arrived to the area in 1905 and lived in dug outs and hillside shelters in those early days. Frequent prairie fires added even more hardship to their meagre existence, and, the original chapel built around 1919 was completely destroyed in a storm only a few years later. They truly had a hard life.
But perseverance prevailed...
Over two decades later the congregation was finally able to build a new church in 1944 after one of the founding parishioners died and left a quarter section of land to the church. The profits from this generous donation enabled the congregation to erect the new church, and only four years later, completely renovate and enlarge it. Now that's a success story if I ever heard one.
The wooden mission cross that stands midway between the church and cemetery commemorates the Holy Missions of 1956 and 1964.
The church was seventy-nine years old at the time of my visit. My thanks to all those at Holy Family who still love and care for this little church out in the country.
Information courtesy of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon.
Photographed near Maxim, Saskatchewan on September 13, 2023.
