Saint Marys - Church of the Nativity Catholic Church
In 1972, Saint Marys parish church was officially established as a separate entity from Saint Marys Boarding School to which it had been connected for over 20 years. Many years earlier, Saint Marys Mission had once been located In the village of Akulurak, the place of an early mission founded in 1894 by the Jesuits and Sisters of St. Anne. In 1898, the school was closed and did not reopen until 1905 under the direction of the Ursuline sisters and the Jesuits. The Ursuline sisters served at St. Marys until the school was closed in 1987. Frances Gleeson, S.J., whose tenure as Diocesan Bishop was from 1948 until 1968, found that Akulurak's location was no longer acceptable because the old mission buildings were sinking into the marshy tundra. Consequently, Saint Marys Mission at Akulurak was moved to higher ground and to another place.
That new site was found in 1951 at the mouth of the Andreafsky River, a short distance away from the Yukon River. A new boarding school, which included the mission church, was built under the direction of Fr. James Spils, S.J., with a construction crew of volunteers and Alaska Natives. One of the volunteers was Richard Spils, Fr. Spils' nephew. The parents of Saint Marys students, who lived in Akulurak, wanted to be nearer to their children so most of the Akulurak villagers relocated to the newly founded Saint Marys village with the new boarding school and church. The villagers' migration to Saint Marys effectively ended Akulurak's old Saint Marys mission which had been an active Catholic parish ever since l894. The Jesuits subsequently operated Saint Mary's boarding school at St. Marys until the late 1980's. The school was renowned for its excellence as a college prep school for the Alaska Native high school students of the lower Yukon region.
The parishioners of the new Saint Marys shared chapel space with the Boarding School for many years and felt the need to establish a separate identity as a parish. In 1970, under the guidance of the parish's first Pastor, Fr. Jules Convert, S.J., a Parish Council was established and plans for the new church began. Parishioners envisioned a more practical parish center versus a solitary church building. The former could be effectively divided as living quarters and small chapel. The Mission construction crew were to begin the parish center project in 1971 when its chief carpenter, Brother John Huck, S.J., and a Jesuit Volunteer, drowned in the Yukon River after their boat capsized during a storm. Construction however continued and the new parish Church of the Nativity was later completed in 1973.
The Church of the Nativity at St. Marys has been served by many Jesuits since it was first established. The most recent Jesuits who served there as visiting priests are Fr. Eugene Delmore, S.J., from 1988-1990, a team of Jesuits from 1990-1997, and Fr. Theodore Kestler from 1997 to the present.