During the 1920s, the Basilian Fathers and the Sisters Servants relocated from the original homestead to the growing town of Mundare, although the school on the Beaver Lake mission remained open.
Mundare subsequently emerged as the primary Ukrainian Catholic centre in Canada. This status was reflected in the construction of a grand domed church and an infrastructure of devotional buildings: the Basilian Novitiate was opened in August 1923; a Way of the Cross and Grotto devoted to the Virgin Mary was built in 1934; and the Basilian Press started publishing in 1936, expanding on an earlier effort known as the “Library of Good Books.” Additionally, a variety of religious and national organizations was founded for the community, including the Apostleship of Prayer (1905), the Brotherhood of St. Barbara (1908), National Hall Association (1910), Ridna Shkola (1923), Sodality of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1928), and Brotherhood of Ukrainian Catholics (1933). Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the town hosted a variety of meetings, rallies, and celebrations focused on Ukrainian topics.
To complement these institutions, the Sisters built a convent–school (1926), with one classroom reserved for younger children and the orphans in residence and the other for older girls. A new hospital opened in 1928–1929 and employed one of the first Ukrainian-speaking doctors in Canada.
In serving settlers in east-central Alberta — the largest Ukrainian bloc settlement in Canada — the Basilian Fathers and Sisters Servants nurtured the language, culture, historical memory, and Catholic faith of thousands of Ukrainian Canadians and fostered the church’s growth both in Canada and internationally. In 2011, Parks Canada recognized the national historical significance of the Beaver Lake–Mundare Ukrainian Catholic mission: it marked the permanent establishment of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada and paved the way for the appointment of the country’s first Ukrainian Catholic bishop, Nykyta Budka.
