HISTORY OF LITTLE FLOWER


INTRODUCTION

An excerpt from the Apostolic Delegation of the United States of America...

"I am pleased to inform you that our Most Holy Father, Pope John XXIII, has graciously deigned to impart his Apostolic Benediction on the occasions of the Dedication of the new Church of the Little Flower and the Tenth Anniversary of the Parish. It is the wish of His Holiness that you, the clergy and religious associated with you, the parishioners and all who join in observing this double celebration should share in this blessing."

CLERGY PAST & PRESENT

Reverend Thomas J. Tracy
An excerpt from an article written about Fr. Tracy upon the Dedication of the Church of the Little Flower in 1963...

"Little Flower's first priest was a kindly man who twice answered the call of his country to serve its soldiers in time of war. He became known as the .padre of the foxholes in Guadalcanal.... he worked tirelessly in numerous Catholic parishes in his adopted state of North Dakota...and he died at the early age of 49. His name was Father Thomas J. Tracy, a native of St. Paul, who was ordained for the Bismarck Diocese in 1936.

Minot was Father Tracy's first stop after release from service in 1953, the priest assumed duties as chaplain at Sacred Heart convent and motherhouse. When Little Flower school started operations in 1953, Father Tracy was named first principal, also serving the chapel. He remained in this position until spring of 1954 when assigned as chaplain of Mercy Hospital in Williston.

From 1956 to 1958, Father Tracy was at Riverdale, being forced to retire from pastoral work in the latter year due to a heart condition. He was to live two more years, dying on October 18, 1960, in his native St. Paul."

Reverend Felix J. Andrews
An excerpt from an article written about Fr. Andrews upon the occasion of the Dedication of the Church of the Little Flower in 1963...

"Like the church and parish he heads, Minot's Father Felix J. Andrews has become an institution in the city that has been his home since 1954. Such an institution, in fact, that April 20, 1960, was designated "Father Felix J. Andrews Day" in Minot by official proclamation of then Mayor Maurice Harrington. It was done to honor a priest who had reached the 25th anniversary of his ordination.

To the young priest being ordained in the Church of the Five Holy Martyrs of Chicago's south side on April 20, 1935, North Dakota was only a name, a remote place mentioned in Wild West tales - a place he knew nothing of, had never visited. He had not, in fact, been further west than St. Paul nor further east than Indiana and Detroit. "I knew nothing at all about North Dakota except it was far away and a frontier", Father Andrews recalled many years later with a smile, but he volunteered for service with the Bismarck Diocese.

With the Bishop's permission, Father Andrews donned an Army uniform in World War II, served as a Catholic chaplain in England and later France, returning to North Dakota in 1946 as pastor of St. Peter and Paul Parish in Amidon, a short time later going to St. Thomas Church in Gladstone.

When the drums of war rumbled in Korea, the parish priest again became a chaplain, this time sent to Japan, serving three years and returning in 1954 to receive assignment as pastor of a new parish, called the Little Flower, in Minot.

For the priest from Chicago who chose a state he had never heard of in which to serve, Minot represented a challenge - the sternest of his career. He met it head-on, plunged into the task at hand, built up his parish and school, played a leading role in construction of Bishop Ryan High School, aided and counseled as other parishes came into being - and always silently prayed for the day when Little Flower would have a separate building for a church."

Father Andrews died at the age of 80 on August 8, 1989."

Reverend Paul L. Cervinski
Father Cervinski was ordained at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck in 1961. He spent several years as pastor of Immaculate Conception Church in Max, North Dakota. In 1974 he was assigned to the Church of the Little Flower.