Immaculate Conception

Mass Times

massES AT IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

SUNDAY, 10:30 AM
WEDNESDAY AT 9:00 AM

Directions

Where to find immaculate conception

History

history of immaculate conception

In 1877 Immaculate Conception Church of Manito, Illinois became a mission of St. Patrick’s, Havana. In 2014, that building was demolished. A new church, during the tenure of Fr. David Whiteside, was constructed in Manito in 2015.
Fr. Thomas Cashman built the first Catholic church in Manito in 1890. The property had been deeded to the Catholic Bishop of Chicago, Cook Co., IL from James McHarry on July 13,1890.

On July 20, 1880 Frederick and Caroline Knollhoff deeded property in Manito to Rev. John Spalding Bishop of Peoria, IL that became St. Frederick Cemetery.

Priests came to Manito from Springfield every two weeks before Immaculate Conception became a mission of St. Patrick's in Havana.

In 1964 Katherine Hamilton donated property for a new church to be built. Viatorian priests from Spalding Institute in Peoria had been serving as auxiliary priests until Fr. Charles Beebe regularly came to Manito to say mass on the weekends.

In 1970 the Peoria Diocese built the second church at a new location: 505 South Adams Street.

In 2010 Fr. David Whiteside was appointed pastor of St. Patrick's in Havana and Immaculate Conception in Manito. Bishop Jenky asked Fr. David to serve the Manito area with the expressed desire that he build a new church for the community as the current church building was in disrepair.

On September 27, 2015 the new church was dedicated by Bishop Jenky. This building included a fellowship hall and kitchen to serve the community. It was built with the help of prayer and many volunteers sharing their time and talents.

Dedication Video

Bread of Life Bakers

who are the bread of life bakers?

The Bread of Life Bakers is based out of Immaculate Conception Church in Manito and lead by Mary Beth Watson, Theresa Sondag and Kathy Collins, with the help of Joan Mattson and Linda Kalhammer. Together their knowledge and organizational skills are unsurpassed and vital to leading a large group of volunteer bakers.
From sorting the nuts to measuring ingredients, spreading butter, rolling the dough, baking, wrapping and packaging loaves of povitica bread, our volunteers at Bread of Life Bakers are key to the financial success of this fundraising group. In addition to povitica, the volunteer bakers make and sell pizza, cookies, and cheesecake. This amazing group has a long and storied history.
A History of Baking
In 2010, when Father David Whiteside was sent to build the new church, he knew that the first task would be raising the funds needed. He asked parishioners to make a 5-year pledge and set the example by making the first pledge himself. However, he knew that we would also need additional support from the community to reach our goals. He set a kickoff fundraiser call the "Hoedown" in November of 2011. The Hoedown was so successful, it spawned a series of fundraisers ending in "down". We've had Get Downs, Show Downs, Chow Downs, Snow Downs and Dough Downs. The Dough Downs continue to this day as the volunteer baking group, The Bread of Life Bakers.

Mary Beth Watson and Theresa Sondag, along with some of Theresa's family members, had operated the bakery Liz Marie's Recipes in Manito from 2000-2010. Elizabeth Juraco, Theresa's mother, had learned how to make povitica from her Croatian mother-in-law. So Elizabeth had passed this recipe on to her children. This favored recipe was the specialty of Liz Marie's Bakery. They shipped loaves throughout the United States and even to other countries while they were in operation! Liz Marie's closed, but Theresa and Mary Beth had a list of customers. They knew there was a provitica shortage that needed to be filled. So with many volunteers and a strong sense of client loyalty from the bakery, they decided to make provitica for the holidays. That event became the first Dough Down!

This was an entirely volunteer effort, so those volunteers were key to the success of the baking. Some of them had prior experience at the bakery. While many had no large scale baking experience, but were more than willing to help. The running joke is that they are the best workers money can't buy! The Dough Down was so successful that it eventually became part of the financial plan for building the church.

In 2012, our bakers started out by making 400-500 loaves of povitica at Manito Foods, a local grocery. In 2013, they produced 1,400 loaves. In 2014, they baked 1,800 loaves in only 11 days using the kitchen of the Ironstone Room in Manito. Baking started late in 2015, because the new church kitchen was still being completed and the oven had to be moved to the church. But The Bread of Life Bakers were still able to complete 1,800 loaves to sell for the Christmas season. Often on the long days of povitica baking, workers have been treated to a delicious lunch catered by Herb Collins. This monumental group effort has been critical to the financial support of the church.

Here are their various offerings:
Povitica - Traditional Cinnamon Pecan, Cinnamon Raisin or Cream Cheese (Nov, Dec and Jan)
Papa Dave's Pizza - Supreme, Sausage, Pepperoni or Cheese (twice a year)
Cheesecakes - Plain New York Style (occasional)
Cookies - Decorated Sugar Cookies and Monster Cookies (Christmas only)

The Catholic Community of

St. Isidore the Farmer

Immaculate Conception

massES AT IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Where to find immaculate conception

history of immaculate conception

who are the bread of life bakers?