Provincial Heritage Site No. 23
The church was designed by Rev. Philip Ruh who created at least 30 Ukrainian Catholic churches across Canada. Of the 13 surviving in Manitoba, this is his last and largest. Rev. Ruh worked with his Depression-era parishioners to replace the modest church built in 1904. He also supervised construction of the adjoining grotto, a concrete replica of that in Lourdes. He died before its completion, and is buried in the nearby cemetery.
The church’s design carefully combines the traditional Ukrainian forms with Classical and Romanesque details. The exterior painting and elaborate interior decoration, begun in 1938, was mainly by local amateur artists. The church was consecrated in 1952.
This church is included in the Prairie Churches Program funded by the Thomas Sill Foundation and the J. M. Kaplan Fund of New York, which is administered by the Historic Resources Branch.