Historically what did Catholics do if they had no priest nearby

[victrolatim]

I was thinking about this today as I was reading some things about the history of the Church in my area. Up until the first quarter of the 19th century give or take, Catholics in my region here in upstate New York would have to wait weeks or even months for a travelling missionary to come around to offer Mass and the sacraments. Got me thinking. What would these people do on Sundays or in the case that someone needed Last Rites and the priest wasn’t around? Obviously, they couldn’t be held at fault for Sunday obligation if it was not possible to go to mass. Makes me realize how fortunate I am to have many churches within a 20 minute drive and the option to go to daily mass. That had to be one heck of a line for the confessional when dear Father came into town.

 

[TheLittleLady]

The same thing happens to day in many parts of the world. Heck, in parts of the US - Alaska - Catholics wait months between the visit of a priest.

 

[Augustinian]

That had to be one heck of a line for the confessional when dear Father came into town.

These weren’t very large communities, so the lines weren’t very long.

People kept the Lord’s Day the best they could, of course, there is no Sunday Mass Obligation if there is no mass available.

There were any number of traveling clergy back in the frontier days- our Methodist friends called them “circuit riders”.

Although there were also a lot of Catholics who came over during the beginning of industrialization after the Civil War- into coal communities where they were the first Catholics