The foundation of the heritage that immigrants brought with them was a strong and practical Catholic faith.  When they arrived in Kansas in 1876, there were no Catholic churches along the railroad west of Salina.  Not having a church or a priest, each of the colonies erected a large wooden cross where the people gathered on Sundays and Holydays to say the rosary, prayers from the Mass, and litanies.  In Munjor, the cross was at the northwest corner of section 25, near the intersection of the Hays City Road and the Munjor Road.

The first priest to visit the colonies and also the first priest to Munjor was father Adolf Wibbert who was stationed at Salina, Kansas at the time.  His first visit to Munjor and the first Mass offered in Munjor were probably in August 1876.  In October 1876, Father Valentine Sommereisen took up residence in Hays with the spiritual charge of the colonies which he visited each month.  In May, 1878, the Capuchin fathers arrived in Herzog, and provided a pastor for each of the communities.  Father Sommereisen is usually considered the first pastor of Munjor since he was the first priest to serve the people on a regular basis.  Fr, Anastasius Mueller was the first of twenty-seven Capuchin pastors who have served the parish.

The first Munjor Church was built in 1877, a frame building 41 feet by 20 feet.  In 1883 it was enlarged to 57 feet by 20 feet.  The bell tower is to the left.  The two young boys in the center are Jacob Gabel and Joseph Engel, Jr.

Next to their family and their home, the object of greatest concern to the settlers was the house of God.  Immediately after completing their own simple and rugged homes, the people began plans for a church.  The church was a frame building, 41 feet x 20 feet, which was begun in the fall of 1877 and completed in February, 1878.  When the new Capuchin pastor arrived, a residence was attached to the church measuring 13 feet x 7 feet high.  This small, flat roofed building included a kitchen and a bedroom which also served as the sacristy for the church.
 

In 1883, Father Andrew, the third Capuchin pastor, enlarged the church by adding sixteen feet so that the building now measured 57 x 20 feet.  This church and residence building was on the site of land provided by the Munjor Town and Grazing Company just south of the present rectory.

During the 1880's immigration from Russia continued, and the congregation at Munjor grew.  There is no record of the population of Munjor during the 1880's but later figures will give some idea.  In 1897, there were 130 families, 794 souls; in 1899, 150 families, 899 souls.  In 1889, the growing parish, with Fr. Matthew Savelsberg as pastor, decided to build a larger church of native stone.  The cornerstone was laid on Passion Sunday, 1889. and by December of the same year it was under roof.  The church was dedicated in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi on the feast day of the Holy Trinity, 1890, by Father Francis Wolf, provincial of the Capuchin Friars.  The church was 105 feet long, 49 feet, wide and 50 high.  The 60 foot tower was designed for a steeple, but due to the lack of funds, the steeple was not complete until the spring of 1906.  Much of the construction work was donated labor of the parishioners.  When the church was dedicated in 1890, the parish debt on the church was $3,600.  The old church was left standing and served as the first parish school

 In the spring of 1906, the church was in need of extensive roof repair, and it was then decided to put the steeple in place.  Recovering the roof and installing the steeple was under contract to Mr. Alex Schueler of Catherine for a fee of $1,850.00.  The steeple width of the cross at the top was 54 feet above the stone tower and was erected on May 15, 1906.  On June 12, the four small steeples at the corners of the tower were set in place.  However, the Kansas winds frequently blew these wooded turrets to the ground, and they were finally discarded.  The beautiful church with the impressive steeple was the pride of the people of Munjor and fitting monument to their faith and spirit of sacrifice.

Even this new large church soon proved to be too small for the growing community which had reached its maximum population of approximately one thousand about 1910.  in 1913m with Fr. Herman Joseph Peters as pastor, the church was enlarged by moving the sanctuary west.  The new addition to the church together with a central heating system amounted to $10,000.  The work was completed August 29, 1913.  This was the final addition to the church and represents the present structural outline of the existing church.
(The above article was taken from the book, "Saint Francis Parish - Munjor, Kansas 1876 - 1976")

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