ST. CECILIA RECENT HISTORY
The town of Meta was incorporated in the early months of 1902 and soon became a small, but thriving valley town. The inhabitants came from the neighboring towns of St. Thomas, Westphalia, Koeltztown, and other. Needless to say, the population was largely Catholic and the demand soon arose to establish a parish.
Fr. Wagener was sent to Meta in September 1904, barely two and a half years after the town was established.
In the first two year, there were many firsts in the parish, for twenty-five Catholic families. Nearly all of those firsts were in the Old Catholic Schoolhouse, because there was no church at that time.
In March 1906, a parish meeting was called to decide the arrangements for the building of the church. Since the parish has little money (only $1000 that they had netted from collections and two previous parish picnics) they had to “swing a few deals” from the very beginning. Fr. Wagener and the parishioners did all the building. The costs of things were kept very low, because the priest and the people donated all of the labor, clearing the woods for the parish buildings, and sawing their own lumber. By putting their shoulder in an immense job, and by the sweat of their brows, the people erected a church. The new church cost about $1000, only because Fr. Wagener’s (otherwise known as the “Carpenter Priest”) constant labor on the building of the church. The labor cost was barely $100 and the furnishing less than $500. Another curbing of the cost was the great amount of free wood acquired from the lumberyard. When Fr. Wagener expressed the wish to carry wood up the hill to the church, the manager offer to donate as mush wood as the strong-will pastor could carry. After a year, the manager had to call the deal off, for the good Father’s strength was more than the wood available. Without assistance, Fr. Wagener built the altars as well as all the others interior furnishings: the Communion rail, the first pews, the vestment cases, in fact everything. His workshop was the basement of the church.
The new church was completed in September of 1906, and the first mass in the church was said on the 16th of that same month. The parish was names St. Cecilia, after Fr. Wagener’s sister. The school was established in September 1904, in the old schoolhouse. The staff was made up of lay people with the exception of Fr. Wagener until 1903, when the sisters came to teach. In 1921, Fr. Wagener started on a new rectory after living in the schoolhouse for seventeen years.
In 1925, Meta was hit by its worst tornado, which was devastating for the little church. The steeple was damaged, and from that time until 1929, the church swayed precariously trying to support the wounded steeple. Finally, the people decided that if they did not remove the steeple, the church would come down with it in a good wind. It was removed that year and replaced with a belfry.
For twenty-four years, Fr. Wagener worked with the people of Meta, not only as a priest and builder, but also as a teacher in the Parochial School.
In July 1928, Fr. Schmalle came to Meta and continued where Fr. Wagener left off. Modernizing the rectory building which Fr. Wagener had erected just a few years previously, Fr. Schmalle installed plumbing and electric power. He built cisterns and a belfry to take the place of church steeple that had been removed after being struck by the tornado. The crown of his short years was the building of the Sisters’ Home (convent) and engaging Sisters (nuns) to teach in St. Cecilia School. Fr. Schmalle left Meta in June 1932, and was replace by Fr. Hoegen, who was to be Pastor of St. Cecilia for an unprecedented twenty-six years. In 1933, the old church was renovated with new paint, a new vestibule and sidewalks with steps around the church grounds. Still, it was not enough. The church’s heat system was inadequate, and the structure was weak. In fact, when the wind blew hard, the church was said to sway a good eighteen inches.
In 1943, the parish was given permission by Archbishop Glennon to build a new church. Fred Bronk and John Nilges, with parish help, got off to a good start on a contemplated rock church. The excavating was nearly completed, and about one-third of the foundation finished, when Mr. Bronk died. Mr. Nilges became sick, and the local men had to engage in defense work or enter the Armed Services. The building project was stopped. Again, the parishioners of St. Cecilia Parish felt convinced they would never see a new church in Meta. Cost of material and labor skyrocketed; farmers were paying off mortgages and recovering from bank failures, droughts, and flood experiences. The church had no debts, nor did they have any money.
Finally in January 1950, with $25,000 on hand, the Archbishop permitted the construction of the new church to proceed. Mike Antweiler was employed as the builder. The Pastor, Mr. Antweiler, and the people of the parish worked hand in hand. Many hours donated or low priced labor accounted for the savings of $65,000 on the final cost of the church and furnishings. The new church was dedicated on April 29, 1951.
In April 1958, Fr. Hoegen ended his stay in Meta, after having led the parish through good and bad times since 1932. The next pastor was Fr. Wilberding. He took over a beautiful parish with a marvelously built church. But a new rectory and school was needed, and the parish was $30,000 in debt. It just so happened that Fr. Wilberding was the right man for the job. During his tenure, he pulled the parish out of debt and built a new rectory and school. When he left in July 1966, his good money management had the parish firmly on its feet in every possible way. Well almost. The final graduating class of St. Cecilia School was in May 1966. The following year, the students transferred to the public school downtown.
Fr. DeAngelis was the next pastor, staying about four years. Fr. Sullivan succeeded Fr. DeAngelis as pastor until his sudden death in August 1977. After Fr. Sullivan’s death, the parish soon realized they were without a pastor. The diocese, because of the shortage of priests, wasn’t able to get a pastor until November. Up to that time, several priests came to help out, most notably Fr. Kaiser and Fr. Long. For two months this revolving-priest set-up was in practice. Finally, Fr. Groner was assigned as temporary pastor at St. Cecilia. Fr. Groner left in January of 1978 and Fr. Mersinger became the eighth pastor of St. Cecilia. Succeeding Fr. Mersinger was Fr. Lammers, who was pastor until July 1988.
Fr. John Schutty was pastor of St. Cecilia from July 1988 to 2006. Several different time, Fr. Schutty was in charge of two parishes. His decorating ability was an asset to the parish when renovation of the church’s interior took place.
The interior walls were repainted; the new altar of sacrifice, the ambo, the baptistery, the stand for the altar of repose, and the chairs were constructed reusing the marble and metal that was in the church. The sanctuary gates [were used] as part of the ambo. The angel statues from the original church built in 1904 [were] completely redone and are now in their rightful place on either side of the tabernacle. Members of the parish provided much of the labor for the renovations. This required numerous trips to St. Louis, hauling the marble and metal for redesigning. Rededication of St. Cecilia took place on July 31, 1994.
Between 1994 and 2002, only a few minor alterations to the church and grounds [had taken place]. In 1999, a new organ was bought and dedicated in memory of Marie Schanzmeyer, who supported the church financially over the years. This new organ replaced the original organ, which had been purchased with generous donations by many of the founding families. A small group gathered to help hoist the new organ up and the old organ down over the balcony using a forklift.
The parish cemetery has also seen some nice landscaping additions. A shay meditation area with several trees and benches give visitors a place to sit and reflect while stopping by the cemetery. Celestine Stegeman, in loving memory of her husband, Louis Stegeman Jr., dedicated the bench on the West side. The bench on the East side was dedicated in memory of Kevin Holterman, by his wife.
As history has again and again shown, the parishioners of St. Cecilia Parish are a determined and resilient lot. The more recent decades have not been without challenges, but also new opportunities in the life of the parish. In 2006, Fr. John Schutty was retired and Fr. Mark Porterfield was assigned as the parish’s pastor.
Thus began a new chapter in St. Cecilia’s history as a sister parish to St. Thomas the Apostle in St. Thomas. Having had a resident pastor for 102 years, it was not an easy transition for some parishioners to make. Nevertheless, because Christian hope always springs eternal, a number of noteworthy things occurred during the pastorate of Fr. Porterfield: the flooring of the sanctuary was replaced with an attractive and very durable ceramic tile, the nave of the church was re-carpeted and the tabernacle was restored to the center of the sanctuary. A prominent brick marquee sign was installed at the corner of Locust and Sixth Streets, allowing for Mass times and other important messages to be displayed for the whole local community. The coordination of Mass times and Holy Day schedules, as well as the combining of the weekly bulletin, Confirmation preparation classes and the CYO program for St. Cecilia and St. Thomas the Apostle Parishes, were all brought about during Fr. Porterfield’s pastorate.
In July 2012, Fr. Porterfield was named pastor of St. Brendan’s Parish in Mexico, Missouri and Fr. Jeremy Secrist succeeded him. Shortly after Fr. Secrist arrived, it was determined that both the original 1962 boiler in the Parish Center and the heating system in church building needed to be replaced. A new high-efficiency propane boiler was installed in the Parish Center and a geo-thermal heating and cooling system with 13 wells drilled on the west side of the church was installed before the cold winter of 2012 arrived.
Although imbued with many memories of the steady discipline and invaluable Catholic education provided by the nuns who once inhabited it, nature was aggressively reclaiming the convent building built in 1931. Rather than add to the vacant buildings in the City of Meta, in 2013 it was decided to raze the long-unused red-brick convent that stood between the church and former school, now known as the Parish Center.
In response to a survey offered to all parishioners by Fr. Secrist in 2013, further improvements were made to the church building with the installation of a new handicapped-accessible restroom, new steps and ramp at the front of church and a new sound system to aid in the intelligibility of the spoken word. Electrical and lighting upgrades were also made in the church building. LED lighting was added to fully illumine the church and parking lot at night. The statues of Sts. Mary and Joseph, original to the church, were brought back into the sanctuary. Deteriorated metal and wooden doors were replaced, with new locks and hardware added to improve the appearance and security of the church.
In order to eliminate the penetration of water through the rock foundation first laid in the 1940’s and the subsequent growth of mold and mildew in the church basement, new guttering and downspouts were installed on the church. In 2017, the foundation was sealed and a “French drain” system was installed on the east and west sides of the church. The remaining portion of the original rock wall along Locust street was restored and the outdoor statue of the Blessed Mother was repainted and relocated to a more visible location.
Parish Center building improvements continued during Fr. Secrist’s pastorate with the installation of new lighting in all of the classrooms used for PSR classes, as well as new guttering and drainage around the building. In the summer of 2016, a strong thunderstorm blew down several trees onto the propane tanks and electrical service of the Parish Center. Fortunately disaster was averted through the action of the local volunteer fire department, but two new propane tanks were purchased and installed for the Parish Center and many dead trees were removed.
Although the dynamics of the City of Meta continue to change and shift, the continuing challenge of St. Cecilia parishioners is to remain firmly placed upon the rock foundation of our Catholic faith, so that our lives may be marked by rejuvenated hope and ever deepened faith.
The town of Meta was incorporated in the early months of 1902 and soon became a small, but thriving valley town. The inhabitants came from the neighboring towns of St. Thomas, Westphalia, Koeltztown, and other. Needless to say, the population was largely Catholic and the demand soon arose to establish a parish.
Fr. Wagener was sent to Meta in September 1904, barely two and a half years after the town was established.
In the first two year, there were many firsts in the parish, for twenty-five Catholic families. Nearly all of those firsts were in the Old Catholic Schoolhouse, because there was no church at that time.
In March 1906, a parish meeting was called to decide the arrangements for the building of the church. Since the parish has little money (only $1000 that they had netted from collections and two previous parish picnics) they had to “swing a few deals” from the very beginning. Fr. Wagener and the parishioners did all the building. The costs of things were kept very low, because the priest and the people donated all of the labor, clearing the woods for the parish buildings, and sawing their own lumber. By putting their shoulder in an immense job, and by the sweat of their brows, the people erected a church. The new church cost about $1000, only because Fr. Wagener’s (otherwise known as the “Carpenter Priest”) constant labor on the building of the church. The labor cost was barely $100 and the furnishing less than $500. Another curbing of the cost was the great amount of free wood acquired from the lumberyard. When Fr. Wagener expressed the wish to carry wood up the hill to the church, the manager offer to donate as mush wood as the strong-will pastor could carry. After a year, the manager had to call the deal off, for the good Father’s strength was more than the wood available. Without assistance, Fr. Wagener built the altars as well as all the others interior furnishings: the Communion rail, the first pews, the vestment cases, in fact everything. His workshop was the basement of the church.
The new church was completed in September of 1906, and the first mass in the church was said on the 16th of that same month. The parish was names St. Cecilia, after Fr. Wagener’s sister. The school was established in September 1904, in the old schoolhouse. The staff was made up of lay people with the exception of Fr. Wagener until 1903, when the sisters came to teach. In 1921, Fr. Wagener started on a new rectory after living in the schoolhouse for seventeen years.
In 1925, Meta was hit by its worst tornado, which was devastating for the little church. The steeple was damaged, and from that time until 1929, the church swayed precariously trying to support the wounded steeple. Finally, the people decided that if they did not remove the steeple, the church would come down with it in a good wind. It was removed that year and replaced with a belfry.
For twenty-four years, Fr. Wagener worked with the people of Meta, not only as a priest and builder, but also as a teacher in the Parochial School.
In July 1928, Fr. Schmalle came to Meta and continued where Fr. Wagener left off. Modernizing the rectory building which Fr. Wagener had erected just a few years previously, Fr. Schmalle installed plumbing and electric power. He built cisterns and a belfry to take the place of church steeple that had been removed after being struck by the tornado. The crown of his short years was the building of the Sisters’ Home (convent) and engaging Sisters (nuns) to teach in St. Cecilia School. Fr. Schmalle left Meta in June 1932, and was replace by Fr. Hoegen, who was to be Pastor of St. Cecilia for an unprecedented twenty-six years. In 1933, the old church was renovated with new paint, a new vestibule and sidewalks with steps around the church grounds. Still, it was not enough. The church’s heat system was inadequate, and the structure was weak. In fact, when the wind blew hard, the church was said to sway a good eighteen inches.
In 1943, the parish was given permission by Archbishop Glennon to build a new church. Fred Bronk and John Nilges, with parish help, got off to a good start on a contemplated rock church. The excavating was nearly completed, and about one-third of the foundation finished, when Mr. Bronk died. Mr. Nilges became sick, and the local men had to engage in defense work or enter the Armed Services. The building project was stopped. Again, the parishioners of St. Cecilia Parish felt convinced they would never see a new church in Meta. Cost of material and labor skyrocketed; farmers were paying off mortgages and recovering from bank failures, droughts, and flood experiences. The church had no debts, nor did they have any money.
Finally in January 1950, with $25,000 on hand, the Archbishop permitted the construction of the new church to proceed. Mike Antweiler was employed as the builder. The Pastor, Mr. Antweiler, and the people of the parish worked hand in hand. Many hours donated or low priced labor accounted for the savings of $65,000 on the final cost of the church and furnishings. The new church was dedicated on April 29, 1951.
In April 1958, Fr. Hoegen ended his stay in Meta, after having led the parish through good and bad times since 1932. The next pastor was Fr. Wilberding. He took over a beautiful parish with a marvelously built church. But a new rectory and school was needed, and the parish was $30,000 in debt. It just so happened that Fr. Wilberding was the right man for the job. During his tenure, he pulled the parish out of debt and built a new rectory and school. When he left in July 1966, his good money management had the parish firmly on its feet in every possible way. Well almost. The final graduating class of St. Cecilia School was in May 1966. The following year, the students transferred to the public school downtown.
Fr. DeAngelis was the next pastor, staying about four years. Fr. Sullivan succeeded Fr. DeAngelis as pastor until his sudden death in August 1977. After Fr. Sullivan’s death, the parish soon realized they were without a pastor. The diocese, because of the shortage of priests, wasn’t able to get a pastor until November. Up to that time, several priests came to help out, most notably Fr. Kaiser and Fr. Long. For two months this revolving-priest set-up was in practice. Finally, Fr. Groner was assigned as temporary pastor at St. Cecilia. Fr. Groner left in January of 1978 and Fr. Mersinger became the eighth pastor of St. Cecilia. Succeeding Fr. Mersinger was Fr. Lammers, who was pastor until July 1988.
Fr. John Schutty was pastor of St. Cecilia from July 1988 to 2006. Several different time, Fr. Schutty was in charge of two parishes. His decorating ability was an asset to the parish when renovation of the church’s interior took place.
The interior walls were repainted; the new altar of sacrifice, the ambo, the baptistery, the stand for the altar of repose, and the chairs were constructed reusing the marble and metal that was in the church. The sanctuary gates [were used] as part of the ambo. The angel statues from the original church built in 1904 [were] completely redone and are now in their rightful place on either side of the tabernacle. Members of the parish provided much of the labor for the renovations. This required numerous trips to St. Louis, hauling the marble and metal for redesigning. Rededication of St. Cecilia took place on July 31, 1994.
Between 1994 and 2002, only a few minor alterations to the church and grounds [had taken place]. In 1999, a new organ was bought and dedicated in memory of Marie Schanzmeyer, who supported the church financially over the years. This new organ replaced the original organ, which had been purchased with generous donations by many of the founding families. A small group gathered to help hoist the new organ up and the old organ down over the balcony using a forklift.
The parish cemetery has also seen some nice landscaping additions. A shay meditation area with several trees and benches give visitors a place to sit and reflect while stopping by the cemetery. Celestine Stegeman, in loving memory of her husband, Louis Stegeman Jr., dedicated the bench on the West side. The bench on the East side was dedicated in memory of Kevin Holterman, by his wife.
As history has again and again shown, the parishioners of St. Cecilia Parish are a determined and resilient lot. The more recent decades have not been without challenges, but also new opportunities in the life of the parish. In 2006, Fr. John Schutty was retired and Fr. Mark Porterfield was assigned as the parish’s pastor.
Thus began a new chapter in St. Cecilia’s history as a sister parish to St. Thomas the Apostle in St. Thomas. Having had a resident pastor for 102 years, it was not an easy transition for some parishioners to make. Nevertheless, because Christian hope always springs eternal, a number of noteworthy things occurred during the pastorate of Fr. Porterfield: the flooring of the sanctuary was replaced with an attractive and very durable ceramic tile, the nave of the church was re-carpeted and the tabernacle was restored to the center of the sanctuary. A prominent brick marquee sign was installed at the corner of Locust and Sixth Streets, allowing for Mass times and other important messages to be displayed for the whole local community. The coordination of Mass times and Holy Day schedules, as well as the combining of the weekly bulletin, Confirmation preparation classes and the CYO program for St. Cecilia and St. Thomas the Apostle Parishes, were all brought about during Fr. Porterfield’s pastorate.
In July 2012, Fr. Porterfield was named pastor of St. Brendan’s Parish in Mexico, Missouri and Fr. Jeremy Secrist succeeded him. Shortly after Fr. Secrist arrived, it was determined that both the original 1962 boiler in the Parish Center and the heating system in church building needed to be replaced. A new high-efficiency propane boiler was installed in the Parish Center and a geo-thermal heating and cooling system with 13 wells drilled on the west side of the church was installed before the cold winter of 2012 arrived.
Although imbued with many memories of the steady discipline and invaluable Catholic education provided by the nuns who once inhabited it, nature was aggressively reclaiming the convent building built in 1931. Rather than add to the vacant buildings in the City of Meta, in 2013 it was decided to raze the long-unused red-brick convent that stood between the church and former school, now known as the Parish Center.
In response to a survey offered to all parishioners by Fr. Secrist in 2013, further improvements were made to the church building with the installation of a new handicapped-accessible restroom, new steps and ramp at the front of church and a new sound system to aid in the intelligibility of the spoken word. Electrical and lighting upgrades were also made in the church building. LED lighting was added to fully illumine the church and parking lot at night. The statues of Sts. Mary and Joseph, original to the church, were brought back into the sanctuary. Deteriorated metal and wooden doors were replaced, with new locks and hardware added to improve the appearance and security of the church.
In order to eliminate the penetration of water through the rock foundation first laid in the 1940’s and the subsequent growth of mold and mildew in the church basement, new guttering and downspouts were installed on the church. In 2017, the foundation was sealed and a “French drain” system was installed on the east and west sides of the church. The remaining portion of the original rock wall along Locust street was restored and the outdoor statue of the Blessed Mother was repainted and relocated to a more visible location.
Parish Center building improvements continued during Fr. Secrist’s pastorate with the installation of new lighting in all of the classrooms used for PSR classes, as well as new guttering and drainage around the building. In the summer of 2016, a strong thunderstorm blew down several trees onto the propane tanks and electrical service of the Parish Center. Fortunately disaster was averted through the action of the local volunteer fire department, but two new propane tanks were purchased and installed for the Parish Center and many dead trees were removed.
Although the dynamics of the City of Meta continue to change and shift, the continuing challenge of St. Cecilia parishioners is to remain firmly placed upon the rock foundation of our Catholic faith, so that our lives may be marked by rejuvenated hope and ever deepened faith.