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The St. Peter's Mission Church and Cemetery, also known as St. Peter's Mission and as St. Peter's-By-the-Rock〔Capace, p. 35.〕〔Federal Writers' Project, p. 44.〕 is a historic Roman Catholic mission located on Mission Road west-northwest of the town of Cascade, Montana, United States. The historic site consists of a wooden church and "opera house" and a cemetery. Also on the site are the ruins of a stone parochial school for boys, a stone convent, and several outbuildings. St. Peter's Mission was founded in the 1860s by priests of the Society of Jesus (better known as the Jesuits), a Catholic religious order. It moved to its final location on Birch Creek in 1881. Within a year the Jesuits constructed a small chapel, a chapel expansion, and log cabin residences. The log cabins were subsequently moved, and a one-story wooden dormitory and three-story wooden bell tower were built adjacent to the chapel. Ursuline nuns arrived in October 1884 and opened a girls' school in 1885. A post office opened at the mission the same year, and farming and cattle ranching began at the site. A four-story stone school/dormitory for boys and a three-story wooden priests' residence were constructed in 1887. A four-story convent and girls' school was finished in 1892, and a two-story wooden music building (the "opera house") in 1896. Changes in federal funding for Native American parochial schools led the Jesuits to abandon St. Peter's Mission in 1898, but the Ursulines continued their educational efforts there. The boys' school, priests' residence, one-story chapel addition, and some outbuildings burned to the ground in January 1908. The Ursulines closed the boys' school and refocused their educational efforts at the nearby town of Great Falls, Montana. Education for girls continued at St. Peter's until November 1918, when the girls' school burned to the ground. The mission was abandoned, and the post office closed in 1938. ==Early missions== The first mission established in 1841 by the Jesuits in what would become Montana was St. Mary's Mission. The town of Stevensville grew around this site. In 1845, the Jesuits established St. Ignatius Mission, which would later evolve into the town of St. Ignatius.〔Rockwell, p. 68.〕 In April 1859, Father Adrian Hoecken and Brother Vincent Magri established a mission at Priest Butte on the Teton River, on a site just southeast of the current town of Choteau, Montana. They built three log cabins, and were soon joined by Father Camillus Imoda. The Jesuits abandoned this site in March 1860.〔 The Jesuits moved their mission to the Sun River, about upriver from Fort Shaw,〔 near what is now Simms, Montana. They immediately began to build cabins, but abandoned the site in August when agriculture in the area proved too difficult. Father Imoda returned in 1861, accompanied by Brother Francis DeKock. They spent the year ministering in Fort Benton, and in 1862 were joined by Father Joseph Menetrey and Brother Lucian Agostino.〔Rockwell, p. 69.〕 They moved the mission downstream,〔 naming this mission St. Peter's, after the Apostle Peter. They built seven log cabins and some corrals. Imoda, Menetrey, Agostino, and DeKock settled at the new mission, joined by Father Joseph Giorda. But this location also proved difficult for agriculture,〔 and the local Piegan Blackfeet were hostile. Three men were killed by the Piegans in early 1866.〔Vaughn, p. 75.〕 When a local herder, John Fitzgerald, was killed by the Blackfeet within sight of the mission on April 6, the Jesuits decided to move again. Joined by Father L. B. Palladino, J. H. Vail from the Sun River Agency (an Indian agency located near the present town of Sun River, Montana), and a Blackfeet guide, Fathers Imoda and Giorda began scouting a new site.〔 In April 1866, the Jesuits abandoned the 1862 site and moved to a location south of Bird Tail Rock ( south of the modern town of Simms, Montana). The mission closed almost immediately due to hostility from the Piegan Blackfeet.〔 Two factors caused St. Peter's Mission to reopen in 1874.〔 First, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States established a Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions to coordinate, expand, and make more effective missionary work among the Native American tribes in the west. Second, the U.S. federal government moved the border of the Piegan Blackfeet reservation about northward. Although this deprived St. Peter's Mission of most of its Blackfeet students, it also made the mission much safer. St. Peter's Mission primarily enrolled Métis students for the next several years thereafter.〔West, p. 93.〕 Father Philip Rappagliosi joined St. Peter's Mission in mid-1875.〔Rappagliosi and Bigart, pp. xli–xlii.〕 By 1877, the mission consisted of two one-room log cabins, one of which functioned as a church. The small size of the establishment was not unusual, since St. Peter's Mission served only as a base of operations for the priests, most of whom traveled with nomadic bands of Blackfeet throughout the summer.〔Rappagliosi and Bigart, p. xxxv.〕 Father Joseph Guidi joined the mission in 1875.〔Rappagliosi and Bigart, p. xxxiv.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「St. Peter's Mission Church and Cemetery」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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