About Our Parish

Welcome!

The parish family of St. Mary Catholic Church welcomes you. We have been serving the Lamar, Missouri community for more than 150 years by providing a beautiful place to spend time in prayer, worship God, and grow in your own personal faith journey. We are blessed and honored that you are here and we look forward to your registration as one of our parishioners. Please fill out the Contact information below and we will take care of the rest; you may also visit with Father Patrick Teter at the rectory, or send us an e-mail to stmaryslamarnews@gmail.com.

Our History

Prior to the formal establishment of our parish, various priests of the Kansas City Diocese served Catholics in Lamar. Mass was celebrated in a small frame building erected in 1869. Upon the arrival of Monsignor William A. Keuenhof, the first resident pastor, a church was promptly built of wood and stone in 1904.

The present rectory was built in 1946 and a parish hall was completed in 1978. On February 8, 2009 at 6 a.m., our beloved church was set on fire and by 8 a.m., St. Mary's church was gone. The fire that took our beloved church was tragic and while it broke our hearts, it did not break our spirit! Through family, teamwork and planning we built our current church, and while we love our beautiful new place of worship, it is just a building. It is our church family that make St. Mary's special!

Currently, St. Mary's is part of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau.

We would love to have you join our parish family! Please fill out the information below!

Celebrating 150 years!

On December 15, 2019, we celebrated our 150th Anniversary, fittingly enough on Gaudete Sunday (the third Sunday of Advent). We joined together as a parish community and welcomed Bishop Edward Rice as he celebrated Mass which was then followed by a wonderful meal together. Bishop Rice's homily focused on the history of the parish and a message that the parish was founded on a leap of faith and how the parish community has held on to that faith through adversity. During the mass, Bishop Rice also blessed each of the newly installed stained-glass windows.

To the right are some photos from the mass and dinner.

Photos were taken by Elva Weber.

Our Beautiful Church

We are blessed to have a beautiful place to worship. Please take a moment to look at the photos below.