Story and photography by Benjamin Wideman | For On Mission
“Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
Carrying them in his bosom, leading the
ewes with care.”
(Is 40:11)
BRILLION — Few priests understand what it’s like to shepherd their flock literally.
Fr. Matthew Colle is one of them.
The pastor of Holy Family Parish in Brillion was shaped by his agricultural upbringing on the family farm in rural Luxemburg, where he devoted countless hours to raising sheep as a youth.
“I find the parables in the Bible involving sheep as very fitting for me — Jesus calling himself the Good Shepherd and me participating in his ministry as a shepherd,” Fr. Colle said. “In many ways, I feel people are like sheep — myself included. We’re not very good at doing things on our own. We need the flock. We need the body of Christ.”
“Working with my flock here at the parish, there are similarities to working with actual sheep,” he said. “The main way to move sheep is by calling them; they’ll hear your voice, and it moves them. They react to being called.”
In conjunction with Rural Life Day, Fr. Colle will lead a May 15 presentation at Holy Trinity Parish
in Casco, where he attended preschool.
Fr. Colle’s agricultural roots run deep in northeast Wisconsin. He was born and raised in the Kewaunee County countryside outside Luxemburg. His parents, Michael and Susan Colle, still own and operate the family farm, which spans 120 tillage acres and, for many years, they have raised sheep and Simmental beef cattle. Fr. Colle’s older brother, Michael, and younger brother, Nicholas, were also active on the farm, helping to raise beef cattle while Fr. Colle fed the sheep, took care of the lambs and even delivered newborns.
“From a young age, I was tagged as the ‘sheep guy’ amongst my brothers,” said Fr. Colle, who attended St. Mary Catholic School in Luxemburg from kindergarten through sixth grade.
Fr. Colle and his brothers, while attending Luxemburg-Casco Middle School and High School, were involved in FFA and 4-H and showed beef cattle at county and state fairs, as well as regional and national shows.
“Overall, growing up on a farm taught me at a young age the realities of life and death and reproduction — that entire perspective of the life cycle,” Fr. Colle said. “And it taught me a strong work ethic and that life didn’t revolve around me, because there were animals in our care that we had to feed every day. I had to care about something other than just me.”
After high school, Fr. Colle went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in animal science from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. From there, he received a master’s degree in animal science (meats emphasis) from the University of Idaho.
Prior to graduating from the University of Idaho, Fr. Colle experienced a few notable moments that changed the course of his life.
“The summer of 2014 (before his second year of graduate school), I remember spending time helping harvest hay over the summer for our beef cattle,” he said. “The year before that, I had my heart broken by a girl, and that opened me up to search for meaning and the meaning of love and what is my vocation, my true calling. So I spent that summer driving a tractor, listening to Relevant Radio, and being silent and praying the Rosary. I spent a lot of time praying in the tractor.”
Upon returning to Idaho for his final year of classes, Fr. Colle signed up to do a half hour of Eucharistic adoration on Wednesday afternoons at the nearby church after being asked by the campus minister.
Something unforgettable happened during only the second week of his Eucharistic adoration commitment.
“I was the only one in church that day,” he said. “I had this profound experience of God’s love inside me. I would describe it as the in-dwelling of the Trinity — God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit — living in me. I truly experienced God’s love in me. On the heels of that experience, I had the thought of the priesthood.”
Fr. Colle first heard about the priesthood from Fr. Milton Suess (now deceased) while in elementary school, but he never considered it at that time because he didn’t think he was “mature enough or holy enough,” he said.
“During that moment in Idaho, the thought of the priesthood came back, and it didn’t scare me, and it didn’t bring back the feeling of unworthiness,” he said. “I felt this intrigue, this desire, with the thought of priesthood – ‘Maybe I don’t have to be holy enough to be a priest, God will make me holy enough.’ That was the moment I’ll always remember.”
Fr. Colle entered St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee in 2016, and after being ordained a priest six years later, in July 2022, he spent his first three years in Manitowoc serving as associate pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Parish and as chaplain at Roncalli High School.
Fr. Colle began his assignment at Holy Family in Brillion in July 2025.
“It feels like home here, I would say — a small town with farms all around,” he said. “I’ve seen farmers at Mass, and I’ve even met several from the area that are graduates of UW-River Falls or are taking classes there right now.”
In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, Fr. Colle teaches classes at Holy Family Catholic School four days a week: Sacraments (grades four and five), Scripture (grade six) and Church History and Morality (grades seven and eight).
Even with his busy schedule, Fr. Colle still finds time to nourish his rural roots.
“This past fall, I helped a handful of times back home on the farm — scraping the yards with a skid steer and hauling cow manure out to the fields,” Fr. Colle said. “And I’ll be back there doing it again sometime in the future.”