Holy Trinity Catholic

Churches have always been a favourite here and we search them out like bloodhounds. Be they active and in use or closed up and forgotten, grand in form or humble, city or rural, no matter the religious denomination, they’re on our radar. Today’s target is Holy Trinity Catholic Church and Cemetery, found along a lonely, dusty back road on the rolling plains of Two Hills County Alberta. It’s a modest affair perched atop a rise, giving it nice views of the surrounding countryside.

The church seen today was not the first here. Records are sparse and sketchy (an all too frequent problem), but it appears an earlier church existed on the property from the late 1910s, until 1946 when the current structure was built. What happened to the first is not known although a fire has been suggested. Either way, we’ll keep the research machinery in motion and should be find out more, we’ll post an update here. Of course, we’d love to hear from those in the know.

Holy Trinity Catholic: a lonely little church and cemetery on the rolling plains of East-Central Alberta. Researched, written and photographed by Chris Doering and Connie Biggart. (BIGDoer/Synd)

The structure is fairly plain in design and laid in out in typical county church fashion. It has a small front entryway topped by a steeple and bell tower, with a long rectangular main chapel and a steeply pitched roof. It’s unremarkable in every way, but no less a special than if it were St. Peter’s Basilica. It faces directly west.

Scroll down for photos and to comment.

It’s said services were regularly held here into the 1980s (ish) – we only found a vague reference to that. I question if it might not have lasted a bit longer – just an unsubstantiated hunch. It may still be used from time to time for things like funerals and special services and the like. It does appear to be kept up.

On the grounds is a good sized cemetery. Records show close to eighty interments here. The earliest graves are from the late 1910s while the most recent are from a couple years back. Many common family names are seen. We noticed few graves belonging to children. These seem to be all too common, sadly, in pioneer cemeteries, but no so much here.

A couple memorials are too worn to read. A fair number of the crosses and head stones are quite ornamental.

Holy Trinity is situated in a locality known as New Kiew. It’s suggested this was a variation on the name Keiv (not sure how v became w)…anyway, that place was a major city in the Ukraine and was the general area where most settlers that laid down roots here came in from. New Kiew was not a town in any sense, but rather a reference point for the general area, an X at a crossroad if you will. There was a post office and school somewhere close by, this church and even another down the road, and a good number of farms spread out in the area. But no real community.

Settlers first arrived here in the early 1900s. The area then would have seen the land here partially wooded and partially open grassland. It would have taken a lot of work to clear. Many of those who farm in the area today are direct descendants of those early homesteaders.

The Catholic (or Roman Catholic) Church in Canada needs little introduction. It’s the largest Christian group within the country with some dozen or so million followers. And it’s long established here, going back hundreds and hundreds of years. While Eastern Orthodox churches (recognized by their distinctive “onion domes”) are more common in places where Ukrainians settled, Roman Catholicism was also practiced in the “old country” and brought over too. As such we see two distinct style of churches in these areas, ones like Holy Trinity, and others like the example down the road, which follow Orthodox styling practices.

The “Holy Trinity” is a reference to God as something more than a singular form, instead comprising three separate persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

If you know anything about Holy Trinity Catholic Church, we’d love to hear from you. We don’t feel we’ve covered it as well as we’d like and would love to expand on the piece. There’s numerous links to our contact page seen in this post.

This trip found us exploring a vast area east of Edmonton. We documented an amazing number of old farms, historic and industrial sites and of course, churches. Hosting us this day was large format film photographer Rob Pohl (see the links sidebar to get to his site) who took us to some of his favourite haunts and some new ones we arranged together. If you’d like to be our guide for your area, just like he was, send us an email. We love to hang with like-minded adventurers.

Like I said, we’ve got a thing for churches…
Brush Hill Reformed.
Hillhurst United Church.
St Joseph’s Church Courval SK.

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date: November, 2016.
Location: Two Hills County, AB.
Article references (and thanks): Books: The Ukrainian bloc settlement in East Central Alberta, 1890-1930 a history and Place names of Alberta. Volume III Central Alberta, FindAGrave.com, Robert Pohl.
Please show respect if visiting Holy Trinity.

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Holy Trinity Church

Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church.

Holy Trinity Catholic Church

The location here is the rolling plains east of Edmonton Alberta.

Holy Trinity Church Cemetery

Perched atop a rise, there’s nice views to the south west.

Holy Trinity Catholic Church Cemetery

There’s some eighty interments here.

Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church

The building is relatively modern (circa 1940s).

10 responses

  1. Mykaela Van Soest says:

    Hey Chris!
    BIG update. This landmark and place of peace was burned to the ground on the weekend (July 25, 2020). There is little that remains.
    Miraculously, amidst the rubble, the face of Jesus emerged. That, mixed with the sheep from the creche being almost perfectly untouched gave me a huge reminder that the Good Shepherd does not leave even one of His sheep behind.
    Thank you for always sharing the beauty of the world with others!

    • We love documenting old churches, big and small, country or city. Such a loss. Thanks for letting us know, even if it’s sad news.

  2. Mykaela Van Soest says:

    I just came across your picture of the cemetery of Holy Trinity Catholic Church. I thought perhaps I could add some information to your file. My great great grandfather settled in the area known as New Kiew (the v and w are based on the pronunciation in the Polish/Ukrainian languages)in 1896. Many others had settled by that time, too and they began meeting at people\’s homes for Mass, led by an area Priest. Early on (like 1905), land was donated by the Bachinski family and by 1908, a church was finally constructed. Then a fire took the old building and a new one was built in 1946. Almost all of the artwork and fixtures were either made of donated by those who were a large part of the community (you can tell who they are by their names of the graves). At one point, a gun was fired through the back wall of the church and went through the large mural behind the altar. The bullet hole is still there today. The bell in the tower was placed in there (single handedly)by a man of determination. The story makes me chuckle even to this day. The crew was done working on the church for the day, with plans to get the bell in the tower the following morning. However, this one man stayed to camp out in the graveyard and had a couple of swigs to get the courage or something to get the job done himself. He said the souls rose up from the graveyard and helped him place the bell there. If this was true or not, the bell was found in the tower, n place and ringing the next morning when the crew came back.

    The church closed for regular mass in 1999 due to a shortage of priests. However, there are still weddings and baptisms, funerals and yearly mass at the Church…and the old pump organ is still played, and that old bell still rung!

    Thanks for taking an interest in this Church! It means so much to those to whom it means so much!

    • This is amazing! Thank you so very much for adding to the story. So love the people angle! The church is in such a lovely setting – loved visiting it.

  3. Tina Alba says:

    I’m lost for words..it’s so beautiful,so breathtaking, looks very peaceful.

  4. Mairi Anne says:

    (via Facebook)
    I’ve been there very interesting place, beautiful.

  5. Patricia Westlake says:

    How peaceful.

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