The “Diaconal” church at Adyeville

The diaconal church at Adyeville resulted from the one attempt on the part of the monks to win converts among the Protestants in Perry County. Isidor Hobi, then rector, and several students, established a rapport with some of the Protestants at Adyeville in the 1880s.1⁸⁶ This led Hobi in 1886 to seek and gain permission from Bishop Chatard for deacons from the theology school at St. Meinrad to go to Adyeville and lecture on the Catholic faith to the Protestants. A series of lectures then began in the fall of 1887. Shortly after this, during a lecture in February of 1888, the Protestant pastor whose church was being used became offended when it was implied that the Protestant Bible was erroneous. Not unexpectedly, the preacher closed the church to them. Undiscouraged, the lectures resumed in March of 1888 at the local school, and Bishop Chatard even came on Trinity Sunday of that year to give a talk. Things continued smoothly until October of 1889, when the good people of Adyeville became infuriated at the suggestion that all their deceased relatives were suffering the torments of Hell. After a door to door apology and explanation on the part of the seminarians, programs were again taken up, which by this time included plays and presentations.

In 1890 Hobi corresponded with Bishop Chatard and requested permission to build a small church, to which the bishop gave his assent, but pointed out that the church was to be known as an Ecclesia diaconalis. Apparently invented by the bishop, perhaps only half seriously because it was attended by the school’s deacons, the term nonetheless emphasized that the church would enjoy no privileges or obligations associated with a parish. On Trinity Sunday in 1890 a cornerstone was laid, and in June of 1891 the church was blessed by Abbot Fintan, with Hobi having decided to dedicate the building to St. Jude Tbaddeus.!” After this, no more lectures were given, but the deacons still attended with a priest once a month to celebrate a Mass and to give the deacons a chance to practice their preaching. In 1892 Hobi again wrote the bishop requesting that the St. Meinrad parish collection for the Indians and Negroes be given to support the small church; the bishop, responding that he was unable to do this, did send the St. Meinrad parish Cathedraticum which amounted to $30.¹⁸⁸ A year later, Hobi was making another financial report to the bishop about the small debt the Church incurred. 189 As time went on, and especially after Hobi’s death, the Masses at the chapel stopped. Over the years in which the chapel was functioning, two people converted to Catholicism. In 1914, the property was deeded back to the original owners, and the chapel was tom down in 1915.

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8S Schwarz, “Uniontown.”
186 Fr. Francis Roell, the priest who wrote an account of the chapel at Adyeville for the abbey, was one of the first students to go to Adyeville as a deacon. He was born on Nov. 27, 1864 in Morris, Indiana, and ordained at St. Meinrad on May 26, 1888. He died on Mar. 20, 1945 in Richmond, Indiana. Francis Roell, Sketch of St. Jude Diaconal Church, SMAA St. Meinrad Abbey Parishes/Missioos/Chaplaincies, 1888-1898, box 2:
Adyeville-St. Jude Diaconal Church, 1887-1930. Hobi to Chatard, Jan. 22, 1888, St. Meinrad, AAl Chatard Papers, A-11, St. Meinrad Arcbabbey, file 13.