ST. JUDE
Fort Wayne, IN
OUR HISTORY
Planning for St. Jude Parish in Fort Wayne began as far back as 1911, when Bishop Herman J. Alerding purchased land for a new parish east of downtown. As it turned out, the land was not feasible for the purpose, and it wasn’t until April of 1929 that the new parish and school was completed and dedicated by Bishop John F. Noll, with the chapel built into the lower southwest wing of the school.
The school began in March with 105 children in first through fourth grade, taught by Sisters of Providence, and that August increased to 293 students in all eight grades. Within a decade, the parish and school had grown to the point that the school chapel no longer served the parish well, and in 1935, ground was broken on a Spanish-architectural style church, built adjoining the school. In 1957, a priest from Illinois, Father Fulton J. Sheen, celebrated Mass at the parish. Continued rapid growth led to the construction of the newest church on the parish grounds in 1965, completed the following year. The old church was then converted into classrooms.
With the opening of nearby St. Charles Borromeo School in the 1960s, St. Jude School’s enrollment shrank. When the Sisters of Providence left the school in 1973 after 44 years of service, the Sisters of Notre Dame came from Toledo to teach St. Jude students. These sisters left the school 49 years later in 2022. Today the school, which educates 400 students, is staffed by lay teachers, and offers various extracurricular activities and spiritual opportunities.
St. Jude is considered a “Stewardship Parish,” an effort began by Father William Schooler in 1988, which eventually raised parish tithing to a point that the school no longer relied on fundraising to meet budgetary needs. The parish also boasts a thriving youth ministry that makes yearly mission trips to locations in Fort Wayne or South Bend, among other parish life ministries.
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