Communion Class Outside Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Hardieville

Scope and Content: Communion class outside Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church in Hardieville, Alberta.

History Biographical: "Hardieville - Our Lady of Lourdes This mining town, four miles north of Lethbridge, was populated by immigrant miners of mixed origin, Polish, Italian, Hungarian, Slovak, some of whom were excellent Catholics while others were often nominal Catholics, anticlerical or communist and hostile to the Catholic Church. It was served, of course, by the Oblates from Lethbridge, and in 1926 Rev. Emile Fabre O.M.I. reported to Bishop Kidd that there about fifty Roman Catholic families of which fifteen were practicing, and about fifty Ukrainian (Greek Catholic) families. In June 1927, Bishop Kidd bought a former Presbyterian church in Hardieville. It was renovated, and blessed by Bishop Kidd on Sunday, June 19, 1927. Father Fabre had been living in a rented house. This was bought to serve as a rectory. Like so many others, this mine was closed in the early 1930s, the people moved away, and the church moved to Coaldale, ten miles east of Lethbridge in 1935. The rectory was sold by Father Duplanil O.M.I. and the proceeds used for the building of a church at Magrath." [Source: Byrne, M.B. From the Buffalo to the Cross: A History of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary. Calgary Archives and Historical Publishers, 1973, page 261]

Scope and Content: Communion class outside Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Church in Hardieville, Alberta.