From their seeds sprang a community of faith that has grown to become the present St. Francis Borgia Parish.

Sunday, Oct. 4, almost 1,000 people gathered to celebrate Mass and our celebration with 33 members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame and 13 priests formerly assigned to SFB. Archbishop Robert Carlson officiated at this celebration.

This commemoration would not have been possible without the hard work of many, many people. We would like to thank B&B BBQ and Catering, Williams Brothers Meat Market & Catering, Droege's Supermarket and Catering and Schulte's Bakery for the wonderful food; our amazing children's, teen and adult choirs whose voices sounded like angels; Hillermann Nursery & Florist for donating the beautiful mums; members of Life Teen for helping with cleanup; Marc Houseman for the historical presentation; the tent committee, Joe Holtmeier and his fantastic crew of volunteers for setup and takedown; the delicious German chocolate cakes baked by parishioners; members of the Ladies Sodality who cut and handed out the cakes; the SFB Home and School Association for the children's activities; The Missourian and St. Louis Review for their coverage of our event; and all those who helped with filming, ushering, name tags, entertainment and décor.

I'm sure those 12 original families would be very proud of what has grown from the seed they planted so long ago.