Marymount Hermitage 
2150 Hermitage Lane 
Mesa, Idaho 83643-5005
The Hermit Sisters of Mary, are seeking God revealed in Jesus Christ and made known in the Catholic Church. They are a Catholic community of Hermit Sisters living in the desert mountains of rural Idaho, in between Cambridge and Council. Their home is called “Marymount Hermitage.” They are not cloistered religious, but their way of life is strictly contemplative.
The Hermit Sisters of Mary make a lovely addition to the Weiser River Valley Catholic Community and their hemitage provides a wonderful place to make a retreat and find Jesus more deeply in your heart.
http://www.marymount-hermitage.org/

Other then early missionary efforts of traveling priests, the first of church activity in Council was the baptism of Thomas Coski, May 28, 1901 by Fr. L. F. van Nistleroy and the purchase of land by the Bishop Glorieux of Boise in November of the same year. Fr. Lambert C. Godschalx came to from Weiser in the fall of 1902. A ketch of what those days are like is revealed in a one-page “history” of the church in Council, written by mrs. Mary Keckler, who was a resident for 50 years:

“Mr. and Mrs. William Freefhafer was te first Catholic family to make their home in Council, ID. Fr. Godschalx came once a year from Weiser to say Mass. In 1914, Mr. Keckler and I and our three children came from Chicago to the Mesa na then to Council. That meade two Catholic families in Council. Mrs. Feefhafer had the Mass in her home for several years until they moved to Moscow, ID.”
“Then I had the Mass in my home once a month for seven and a half years. We had Catechism once a week on Saturdays. Mass was offered early on Monday morning and the children who attended would have been fasting and some of them had quite a ways to walk. So I would serve them hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls and send them on to school. In May we crowned the Blessed Mother, and the children would bring in wild flowers. Marriages were fixed and babies were baptized.”
“Frather Buote was the priest at this time.” (probably in the 1940’s) “The children received their first Holy Communion in Council, Weiser or Payette. Confirmation was handled the same way. It depended on where the priest ame from that was taking care of the Council mission. The priests as I remember them were Fr. Godschalx, Ryan, Mulvihill, Viet, Dooley, Dulberg, McGlinchey, Buote, and McQuaid. There was a nother priest, an elderly man, but I cannot remember his name.”

The Council Mission was usually under the parish of St. Agnes in Weiser, but there are some times when it was covered by Payette and others by McCall. Fr. Robert J. Waldmann describes his time ministering in Council for a few months in 1947 to the Bishop Kelly in this way: “The people around Council are not quite as friendly as those about Cambridge. When up their I have said Mass in a house and few turn up for it. There still is a lot of work to be done there.” 

In 1965, the church building was constructed during the pastorate of Fr. John Koelsch of McCall. A newspaper item in November of 1965 states that on “Sunday, Oct. 31st, the building was used for Mass for the first time. A temporary altar and folding chairs were set up. Fr. Koelsch will come from McCall on the first and third Sundays of the month at 4:30 p.m.” Shortly later, “Members of the Catholic Church are now able to hold services in their new church. Mass will be celebrated every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. instead of the bi-monthly Mass in the afternoon. The edifice will be completed in the Spring.” Then later about the dedication the newspaper says: “At a 7:30 p.m. Mass, June 19, 1966, Bishop Sylvester Treinen dedicated the evenly completed church of St. Jude the Apostle and administered the sacrament of Confirmation to six parishioners.” The church was built on five acres of donated land north of town by local workers and volunteer help. The building measures 40x40 feet, the main floor seating some 25 faithful and the basement providing a full-sized parish hall below.

From 1960 until 1980, Council was a mission out of the parish of Our Lady of the Lake in McCall. In August of 1980, Fr. Henry J. Steinhoff was assigned pastor in Council and he resided there making Council its own parish and not a mission of another church. The was the first and only time this occurred, until Fr. Steinhoff moved in 1989 and McCall once again covered the mission. In 1998, St. Jude’s in Council was transferred back to Weiser, where it remains as a mission being served by the pastor of St. Agnes, Fr. Gabriel Morales and various assisting ministers, including Fr. Thomas Keller a hermit who lives at Mesa.

(History has been compiled by Deacon Francis Wander)