Two hundred years later, French Canadian settlers working in De Pere's lumber mills decided to establish a parish. Blessed by Green Bay's Bishop Melcher on Christmas Day, 1870, the new church served the community until it was struck by lightning on August 13, 1889, and burned to the ground.

The pastor, Father Durin, urged the parishioners to rebuild at once. A new brick church was erected in 1890. The church, originally named St. Joseph Church, with its rectory and schoolhouse would later become - and still is - the core of St. Norbert College.