Holy Trinity Catholic Church

Holy Trinity Parish is located in the city of Rollingstone, Minnesota nestled in a valley about 3 miles west of the Mississippi River in Southeastern Minnesota.  We are a welcoming small rural Catholic community under the leadership of Father Chinnappa Pothireddy. 

Rollingstone was settled in the 1850s by immigrants from Luxembourg. They brought with them a strong Catholic faith that unified and held the immigrants together in an unfamiliar land.  Many of the family names of the immigrants from Luxembourg are still in the area.

The first Mass was offered by Father Matthew Sternberger in 1857 in the log cabin home of Peter Stoos. A need for a permanent church was evident, and the planning process began for Holy Trinity. Peter Stoos donated the land for the church that was built in 1869 by the entire village. On July 22, 1869, Bishop Thomas Grace of Saint Paul Diocese dedicated the church with Father Alois Plut assisting. The church towered over the village and the bells rang out the Angelus three times a day.

In 1877, the first resident priest, Father Nicholas Schmitz, was assigned to the parish. In 1893, the church was enlarged by volunteers from the Rollingstone community. The church was rededicated by Bishop Joseph Cotter on October 24, 1893. Masses at Holy Trinity Parish were offered in Lëtzebuergesh and Latin until well into the 1920s.

Education was an immediate obligation to the settlers of Rollingstone. In 1860 the need for Catholic education was met. A secular school was built with the settlers renting a large portion of the building for the religious education of the youth. In 1891, the Milwaukee Province of Franciscan nuns arrived to run the school. The Holy Trinity School was built in 1920 under the direction of Father Anthony Hennekes. The school remained open for four decades under the leadership of the Sisters of Saint Francis, Rochester. 

Holy Trinity Church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 9, 1984.