St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church (Perryville, Missouri)

St. Vincent de Paul Church is a Roman Catholic church in Perryville, Missouri. It was completed in 1965, but has roots in a Catholic community that built its first church in Perryville in 1817.NameSt. Vincent de Paul Church Perryville was named in honor of Vincent de Paul, a Catholic priest dedicated to serving the poor, and founder of the Vincentians.HistoryIn the early 1800s, American Catholics from Kentucky had migrated into southeastern Missouri. These migrants were so-called English Catholics or Maryland Catholics because they had earlier migrated to Kentucky from Maryland, which had been set up originally as a haven for Catholics. They settled around present-day Perryville in a treeless prairie called The Barrens. This name may also harken to Barren County in Kentucky where many of these Catholics had migrated from. In the early days they built a log church, but lacked a resident priest, and depended on the occasional priest traveler, and later depended on the monthly visit of priests from Ste. Genevieve and elsewhere. In 1817, the Catholic settlers learned that the new Bishop of Louisiana intended to establish a diocese in St. Louis. The Catholic settlers sent a committee to St. Louis to petition for a permanent priest. In March 1817, the bishop arrived in The Barrens and, being impressed by the prospects, arranged for the Vincentian priests which he had recruited in Italy to move from Kentucky to Perry County, Missouri.