Sam Allen
Bob White

Address:
6894 Walnut St.
Monterey, IN 46960

Phone: 574-946-4906

Open Church Hours for Prayer, Meditation, and Reflection
 Wednesdays 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Bishop Joseph Dwenger dedicated the brick, Gothic St. Anne Church in May 1884 on lots Precious Blood Father George Fleisch had purchased in 1882 in Monterey, formerly known as Buena Vista. A frame mission church was built near four wetland acres deeded to Bishop Maurice de St. Palais for a Catholic Cemetery in 1852. Priests from Plymouth and Winamac alternately cared for it till Bishop Dwenger entrusted it to the Precious Blood Missionaries from Winamac or Pulaski, Indiana Creek Township. 

In 1888, Bishop Dwenger sent the diocesan priest Father Charles Thiele as its first resident pastor. A brick parsonage was built in 1889 and Holy Family School served the parish from 1895 to 1969. The school reopened as St. Anne's School and ran from 1980 to 2003. In 1889, a new cemetery was purchased west of town. 

Over the years, St. Anne has been remodeled and expanded. The 1930s, Father John Schall had men of the parish hand-dig the present church basement. Father Robert Sorg (1970-1973) purchased and installed a shrine of St. Anne next to the rectory. Father Dominic Young (1992-2001) donated stained-glass windows for the church front doors that Father Sorg had installed in the early 1970s. The cross from St. Anne's steeple that was erected in memory of Robert and Helen (Sutter) Sell had to be taken in 1971 to be refinished in 1997-1998 and set on the churchyard side. 

In 2005, the parish had 124 households of 285 persons. Considering that the 2004 population of Monterey was 228, there are more Catholics in its parish than town residents. The parish's faith-filled history remembers its former missions at Rochester, Culver, and Kouts that have all become flourishing parishes.