Wien parish still striving after first 150 years
SCROLL THE ARROWS to see more photos.
CLICK HERE to see a gallery of photos from this event.
Kinship with community and Creation has long been a defining trait of St. Mary of the Angels Parish in Wien.
A century and a half after Mass was first offered nearby, the unabashedly agrarian parish retains its youth, vitality and bonds of intergenerational communion.
“Who knew way back then that we would be here together — including some of the fifth and sixth generations to have been baptized here, to have been born into new life in this Baptismal font?” asked Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell in St. Mary of the Angels Church Oct. 4.
“God knew the whole time!” the bishop proclaimed to the capacity congregation during the parish’s 150th anniversary Mass.
It was the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, the 800th anniversary of his death and the 134th anniversary of the church’s dedication.
Infants and nonagenarians shared pews in the sunlit church, its arches and steeple funneling aromatic incense toward heaven.
“This is far better than I imagined,” Bishop O’Donnell proclaimed from the elevated pulpit. “It’s clear that the love and care that you put forth for this sacred space is intentional.”
Pastoral serenity envelopes the imposing gothic church and rectory, which have served as a focal point for generations of family life.
“This might be a small rural parish, but we can accomplish much because everyone, young and old, comes together and works for the good of the community and the glory and praise of God,” said lifelong fourth-generation parishioner Joe Bertsch.
“By ourselves, we are nothing and accomplish nothing, but when we come together in the name of God, we are a powerful force!”
Neighbors
Many families have been part of St. Mary of the Angels Parish for generations. Some work their family farms nearby, while others commute to jobs in neighboring communities.
“The parishioners of Wien are good, hard-working people,” said Father Jeremy Secrist, pastor of St. Mary of the Angels Parish and of neighboring St. Joseph Parish in Salisbury and St. Boniface Parish in Brunswick.
“They are rightfully proud of their parish, its history and Catholic heritage,” he stated.
Lifelong parishioner Ilah (Rodgers) Brehm, 91, said meeting the bishop and seeing the church full for the Jubilee Mass made her heart soar.
“Aren’t we blessed?” she asked.
One way God makes himself known to Mrs. Brehm is through her fellow parishioners, including those who help look after her ailing husband.
One of their children was born with special needs.
“People accepted her and never had an unkind word to say to her,” said Mrs. Brehm.
The family matriarch is grateful that the parish remains spiritually vibrant and financially stable.
“I thank God for all the blessings we’ve had over the years,” she said. “I’m happy that I’m here and that we’ve got the people we’ve got.”
“We’re definitely very blessed to have a parish that flourishes like ours,” echoed her daughter-in-law, Kyra Brehm.
Third-generation, lifelong parishioner Jerry Weimer spoke of a web of close friendships.
“Everybody, no matter how far apart you live, you’re still a neighbor,” he said.
Is Jesus one of the neighbors?
“Oh, yes! You bet!” he said.
Generations
A family tragedy contributed to parishioner Stephen Meissen’s lifelong association with the parish.
His great-uncle fell to his death while working on the chimney of the church.
The priest stopped Mass and went outside to anoint the man who had fallen.
“It was terrible,” said Mr. Meissen. “But if that hadn’t happened, my uncle wouldn’t have gotten the farm and would have moved away.
“My uncle, who was supposed to get the farm, married Lorraine Meissen down at Salisbury,” he said. “Her father offered him a piece of land, so he moved there. That’s how my Dad was able to stay in the community.”
Mr. Meissen noted that carrying out the parish’s mission is a lot of work for everybody, “especially if you don’t have a resident pastor.”
At the same time, having a relatively small congregation gives everyone a chance to take part.
“Everybody gets to pitch in and help with Mass and whatever else is needed,” he said. “Your kids see you doing that, and so do your grandkids.”
Brayden and Quentin Nanneman, whose grandparents live in Wien, came up from Rolla to sing in the choir at the Jubilee Mass.
“It feels great to be able to use my voice to glorify God,” said Quentin. “These are songs we’ve been singing our whole lives.”
“I love it here,” said Brayden. “It’s more home than home for me.”
The brothers came to visit every month while they were growing up in Springfield.
“It’s all kind of one big family,” said Brayden. “Everyone knows everyone, and the conversation is typically, ‘Oh, how are we related to this person?’”
He noted that several Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) missionaries in Rolla previously spent time as Totus Tuus missionaries at St. Mary of the Angels.
“It’s just kind of fun that there’s this little town in the middle of nowhere, and they know where it is,” he said.
Brayden and Quentin have made a pilgrimage to Rome and Vatican City and visited some incredibly beautiful churches.
“But even still, little St. Mary of the Angels in Wien keeps up,” said Quentin. “It really does.”
Welcome
Fr. Secrist noted the faithful of the parish are particularly attentive and responsive to the needs of other people, especially when hardships or tragedies occur.
He cited the Share and Care outreach to people in need, which operates out of the former parish school building, as a beautiful example.
“Many parishioners are long-serving members of the local EMS and fire department,” he added. “I’ve never seen — and occasionally heard — so many EMS radios at Mass!”
People’s lives tend to be tied up in the parish and the community.
Lifelong parishioner J.D. Bertsch and his siblings grew up on a farm three miles from church and walked to St. Mary School every day.
“This parish has always been home to me,” he said. “I used to serve at Mass here as often as I could. And you know, it’s really a gift to be able to do that.”
His wife, Debbie Bertsch, grew up in another faith tradition but joined her husband for Mass every Sunday when they got married.
She never felt like an outsider.
“Everybody’s welcoming, everybody’s friendly,” she said.
Already feeling at home, she asked God for a sign about whether she should become Catholic.
Her daughter was preparing for Confirmation, and the mother of one of her daughter’s friends invited Mrs. Bertsch to enroll in what is now called the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA).
“I took that as the sign I was looking for,” she said.
Mrs. Bertsch later found out that one of her ancestors refused to give up his Catholic faith under the reign of King Henry VIII in 16th-century England.
“Build my Church”
The earliest Catholics in northeastern Chariton County, including a handful of German and Irish immigrants, welcomed priests traveling through the wilderness to offer Mass in their homes.
Volunteers built a log church and platted a cemetery on donated land in 1873. Thereafter, priests from Brunswick administered the Sacraments in the Wien community, then known as Mount Saint Mary’s.
A parishioner from Austria named the nearby post office Wien, the German spelling of Vienna, capital of Austria.
In 1876, Bishop John J. Hogan of the Diocese of St. Joseph — who had traveled through the Wien community as a horseback missionary a year previously — asked Franciscan Father Franciscus Moening to establish a monastery in the area.
St. Mary of the Angels Parish traces its origin to that date.
Fr. Moening and several other Franciscans lived with residents of the community while their monastery, the present-day rectory, was being built.
The cornerstone for the church was laid in 1877.
The stone came from local farms. The bricks were hardened in ovens at the building site. Local volunteers provided much of the labor.
The first section of the church — comprising roughly the present-day sanctuary — was completed in short order.
The tight quarters, with the later addition of balconies on both sides, accommodated worshipers until construction of the stately Gothic nave resumed in 1891.
Parishioners again donated labor and materials.
Bishop Hogan dedicated the church on Oct. 4, 1892, the Memorial of St. Francis.
Three new bells, each named for a saint, were cast in St. Louis and shipped to New Cambria by rail, then by wagon to Wien.
They were lifted into the 125-foot-tall bell tower, topped with a silvery steeple that can still be seen from at least three miles away.
The Franciscans and parishioners gradually filled the church with artwork, mostly statues placed in five intricate wooden reredoses, including the one above the high altar.
The parish opened a school in the old log church in the 1880s. Lay men staffed the school in the beginning, followed by Franciscan sisters, then for 46 years by Benedictine Sisters from Atchison, Kansas.
A stately, two-story brick school building opened in 1911.
Care of the parish transferred in 1914 from the Franciscans to priests of the former Diocese of Kansas City.
“Family and tradition”
St. Mary of the Angels Church has maintained an unwavering presence in Wien through epidemics, the Great Depression, two world wars and their aftermath.
The parish had 90 registered families when Pearl Sims Gehrig wrote A History of Chariton County in 1923.
There are now 136 families. Surnames of early members were passed down to succeeding generations of parishioners.
Chariton County became part of the newly-established Diocese of Jefferson City in 1956.
Father Joseph Starmann, as pastor in the early 1960s, founded the Brotherhood of Christian Unity, an ecumenical group to promote Christian unity through prayer. Leaders of various nearby church groups and their families lived in and near the old monastery.
Upon becoming the diocese’s first director of the Permanent Diaconate, Fr. Starman often invited candidates for Diaconal Orders to Wien for formation and ministry.
The old school, closed in 1969, has long served as the headquarters for Share and Care Ministry, an ecumenical program where volunteers collect, sort, repair and distribute used clothing for people in need.
Sunday Masses were offered for generations at the tiny Mission of the Immaculate Conception in nearby Hamden each summer. Several historical fixtures and decorations from the mission were moved to St. Mary of the Angels Church and rectory when the mission closed.
The entire area remains largely Catholic.
The annual Wien picnic has been a parish tradition since 1892.
St. Mary of the Angels fosters active participation in the Catholic Youth Organization, Altar Sodality and parish pastoral council.
Forty-one students are enrolled in religious education and sacrament preparation programs, including seven in the monthly high school group.
On mission
Bishop O’Donnell pointed out that everyone in the assembly had been baptized into the reality of Jesus Christ’s Incarnation, suffering, death and resurrection.
“That’s what we celebrate in this sacred space!” he said. “The mercy of God that you and your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents came to know through that same Baptismal font.”
The bishop reminded everyone that their beautiful church was built not just for sacred worship but also “for the purpose of sending forth.”
“What we receive at this altar is meant to be shared with the world!” he stated. “All who have sacrificed and given witness to the faith that benefits us to this day have done so trusting that what they hand on to this generation will be carried out for the benefit of the next.”
A reception, historical tractor display, games and music followed the Mass.
Quentin said he has plenty to say to God about the parish of his ancestors.
“My prayer would be, ‘Let me be here for the 200th,” he said. “I’d love to see this parish thrive and continue to serve this community here for many more years to come.”
“My prayer would just be ‘Thank you!’ said his brother, Brayden. “Thank you for the people, the family, the Church, the Mass, everything!”
Much of the historical information in this report came from St. Mary’s of the Angels, Wien, Missouri: 1876-1976, and back issues of The Catholic Missourian.
