Bishop Folda blesses St. Bernard’s monument as former parish endows cemetery legacy fund

On June 28, 2025, Bishop Folda came to St. Bernard of Clairvaux Catholic Cemetery in Oriska to bless the graves and the new monument. This was the last liturgical action that gathered together the former parishioners of St. Bernard’s as a parish family. The event concluded with a celebratory meal, but the community’s story is far from over. Its legacy includes a fund to financially support other rural cemeteries.

            The parish of St. Bernard of Clairvaux in Oriska closed in summer 2023. The parish decided to bring the building down rather than sell it for non-sacred use. The idea of seeing that splendid structure, designed for sacred worship, fall into neglect or disrepair without control of its future usage did not appeal to the congregation. Although it was painful to watch the building come down, the parishioners made this hard choice to do what they felt was best.

            The large brick building’s remains consisted of a large quantity of debris. The North Dakota State Environmental Office helped grant a variance that allowed the parish to bury the remaining debris within the parish cemetery on a large lot of higher ground. CR Excavating of Valley City carefully completed this work and the four corners of the beloved church building were marked with stone squares. At the head of the “grave” for the parish building, the parish council decided to place a large monument commemorating the life and ministry of the community of St. Bernard.

            The monument incorporated many elements from the church building. Its base, constructed by St. Joseph Masonry of Gardner, used fitted stones from the original church’s foundation. A monument corner included the 1908 church cornerstone. New, polished stone slabs matched the stone used in the existing central cemetery monument. Above the polished stone slabs, there now stand two exterior statues from the St. Bernard property: one of the Good Shepherd and the other of Our Lady. The monument’s top centerpiece is the large 4,000-pound brass bell, carefully retrieved from the church bell-tower. It is placed in such a way that any visitor to the cemetery can still ring it. Lastly, at the center-face of the monument is a grave-marker with a colored porcelain picture of the Church. It marks dates of the dedication Mass, Nov. 11, 1908, and closing Mass, July 23, 2023. It bears the following text: “Here lies, between the four corner markers, the physical remains of St. Bernard Catholic Church of Oriska. She served her family well and now rests here with her faithful sons and daughters.”

            The St. Bernard’s parish council worked diligently to keep the parish together and to complete the closure process with dignity, class and grace. Its final act left a lasting reminder of the parish family and the sacred home in which they worshipped for 115 wonderful years.
 
St. Bernard of Clairvaux Rural Cemetery Endowment Fund
            
            Upon the closure of St. Bernard’s, the parish council decided to use remaining financial resources to establish a Rural Cemetery Endowment Fund to offer annual grants to small, rural, underfunded cemeteries in the Diocese of Fargo. The fund currently holds $400,000. Fund managers hope to be able to provide about $20,000 in grants each year. 

            To qualify for a Rural Cemetery Endowment Grant, a cemetery must be from a closed parish or a small rural community, defined as under 60 households and in a town of under 500 people. Additionally, the applying cemetery must have all of its financial resources structured properly, with a perpetual endowment fund in the Catholic Development Foundation (CDF), a savings account in the Deposit and Loan Fund and a local checking account, with no additional accounts. No grants will be provided to cemeteries in larger parishes or communities or to cemeteries that have their funds in other financial arrangements. The grants may only be used to build up the cemetery’s CDF Perpetual Endowment funds, not for general maintenance or other cemetery expenses.

            The application form for the St. Bernard Rural Cemetery Endowment Fund can be found on the Fargo diocese’s website. It requires the signatures of the pastor with oversight of the cemetery and the cemetery sexton or other cemetery lay leader. The application deadline each year is set for March 1. Grants will be awarded every April.

            Our diocese currently has more closed parishes than open parishes. The parish of St. Bernard of Oriska, upon its closing, hoped to continue to be a blessing for others. The endowment of its own parish cemetery was the highest priority for its remaining members, who realized that many other small parish communities may not have had the same resources when they closed. They hope the fund’s establishment means that eventually all of our rural cemeteries will have the proper care.