St. Frances de Sales

Cote Brilliante 

By 1911, there were about sixty Catholic families in Cote Brilliante, a suburb of Newport, which formed a part of St. Stephen Parish. The Catholics of this section were anxious to have a church and school of their own. Under the direction of Reverend Stephan Schmid, pastor of St. Stephen Parish (1904-1916), the congregation at Cote Brilliante was organized, and in 1911 a combination church and school was begun. On October 13, 1912, Bishop Maes dedicated the new church under the patronage of St. Francis de Sales. Reverend Edward Klosterman, as assistant at St. Stephen’s was assigned to care for the Cote Brilliante congregation. Father Klosterman offered Mass at St. Francis de Sales Mission on Sundays and twice during the week. In September, 1912, a school was opened with an enrollment of seventy-five children.

In 1915, Reverend Edward Klosterman was appointed the first resident pastor of St. Francis de Sales Parish. Father Klosterman lived for a time in a rented home in the neighborhood until the present brick rectory was completed in July, 1915. With the later purchase of a Sisters’ home, the need for a complete parish plant was an adequate parish school.

 In 1947, Reverend John A. Bankemper, the present pastor, completed the plans for a new modern school, auditorium and gymnasium. The old frame school building was razed in August, 1949, to supply building space for the new school. The new school, a one-story brick building, located at Chesapeake and Grand Avenues, was opened in September, 1950, under the charge of the Sisters of Divine Providence.

 St. Francis de Sales Parish at present has a congregation of about two hundred and twenty-five families. 

excerpted from History of the Diocese of Covington, Kentucky, on the Occasion of the Centenary of the Diocese, 1853-1953, by Rev. Paul E. Ryan