Family donates priest’s Nativity scene to Starkenburg shrine
Bob Simon did not know that his pastor’s beautiful Nativity set was a priceless gift from the priest’s parents in Heppenheim, Germany.
He only knew that it was beautiful and that he liked it.
So much so that as a young altar server, Bob asked Father (later Monsignor) Martin Hellriegel during Confession if he could have the little set.
Young Bob and his brothers lived a few doors away from Holy Cross Church in the Baden neighborhood of St. Louis.
That soaring gothic edifice looked even more breathtaking in those days when fully dressed in its Christmas finery.
A definitive answer to Bob’s request came years later when he was getting ready to settle down and have a family, and Msgr. Hellriegel was looking toward retirement.
The young man mentioned to the priest that he was shopping for a Nativity scene like the one he had grown up seeing in church.
“Hold off on that,” the priest advised.
From the old country
Msgr. Hellriegel came to the United States as a seminarian in the early 1900s.
He often regaled his parishioners with stories of assisting the pastor of the bustling rural community of Starkenburg, which at that time was part of the St. Louis archdiocese, while preparing for priestly ordination.
The pastor, Father George Hoehn, mentored him and many other future priests from Germany while ministering to the people of what was then St. Martin Parish and cultivating devotion to the Blessed Mother under her title Our Lady of Sorrows.
Many of the seminarians stayed in the massive former Franciscan monastery that served as the parish rectory.
That’s where the future Fr. Hellriegel first displayed the hand-painted Nativity set his parents gave him when he left home on mission to the United States.
He offered his First Solemn Mass in 1914 in the stone chapel of the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows on the Starkenburg parish grounds.
Msgr. Hellriegel left part of his heart in Montgomery County when he moved on to his own priestly assignments throughout the archdiocese.
Along the way, he also became a nationally influential liturgist, encouraging the people to participate actively in the Mass in the decades leading up to the Second Vatican Council.
As his beloved German homeland descended into turmoil and Hitler’s reich was held up as a state religion, Msgr. Hellriegel wrote the strident lyrics to “To Jesus Christ, Our Sovereign King.”
“Christ Jesus Victor! Christ Jesus Ruler! Christ Jesus, Lord and Redeemer!”
The hymn remains a Catholic favorite.
Precious gift
The Simon boys grew up in the shadow of the Holy Cross Church steeple in North St. Louis and went to Holy Cross School.
With their parents’ encouragement, they helped out at church whenever they could, cutting grass and serving at Mass.
The caretaker gave them tours of the church, including the catwalks through the attic and the dizzying heights of the bell tower.
“The bells are huge,” said John Simon, Bob’s older brother.
Msgr. Hellriegel was known as a good priest who expected the best from everyone.
“I really liked him,” said John, “He was strict. You didn’t pull anything over on him.”
Msgr. Hellriegel enjoyed saying his daily prayers while walking along a path near Holy Cross Church.
Bob, having moved with his wife and young children into the family home nearby, would occasionally join the priest, and they’d talk.
Bob once mentioned that he was looking for a Nativity scene like the one Msgr. Hellriegel displayed at church, to share with his family.
The priest advised him to wait.
Bob said “okay,” and they started talking about something else.
“A short time later,” Bob’s daughter, Denise, recounted, “Monsignor said to Dad, ‘You have always loved this crib, and I know you’ll take good care of it. I have no one to give it to. So, you take it from me.”
Bob was shocked.
“No. I can’t take it from you!” he said. “I just want to know where you got it so I can get one to share with my family.”
But those who knew Msgr. Hellriegel knew that once he made up his mind, he seldom changed it.
So, Bob accepted the gift and displayed it with reverence and relish each year on a living-room end table in the old family home.
“It took him days to set it up each year,” Denise recalled. “He put Christmas blue lights behind it, and added fresh greenery.”
The Simon children knew they were allowed to look but never touch the priceless heirloom.
“It was always part of our Christmas,” said Denise. “We always knew where it came from, and the stories of Msgr. Hellriegel. But mostly, we remember it as just a big part of our family Christmas.”
Bob kept the lights around the Nativity on all the time, even when the rest of the house was dark.
“I remember when I was a kid, it was all you could see at night,” said Denise.
Himself an artisan, Bob eventually found another, similar Nativity scene and hand-painted the figures in the same style.
His children and grandchildren still treasure it.
A new home
Msgr. Hellriegel died in 1981.
A wealth of artifacts from his Priesthood are on display in the St. Martin Church Museum in Starkenburg, including the wooden book stand he used as a child while pretending to offer Mass.
Bob began downsizing his possessions after his wife, Frances, died four years ago.
He recently moved to a retirement community.
Everyone in the family agreed when he talked about donating Msgr. Hellriegel’s Nativity set to the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows in Starkenburg.
“He said it’s Monsignor’s, and it needed to go someplace he loved,” said his daughter, Denise.
“I think it’s a wonderful choice,” said his older brother, John.
Lifelong Church of the Risen Savior parishioner Cindi Engemann, whose parents, the late Joseph and Shirley Koenig, were friends with Msgr. Hellriegel, was on the ground pulling weeds one weekend this spring when a car pulled up to the shrine.
It was Bob’s brother, Dave Simon and his wife, Cathy.
Dave explained that Bob was having some health problems and downsizing. Would the people at the Shrine want the Nativity set from Msgr. Hellriegel?
“I immediately affirmed that we did!” said Cindi.
Bob and Denise delivered the lovingly wrapped set to Starkenburg in June.
Parishioners arranged it in a loving display in Valentine Hall near the shrine in time for this year’s Church of the Risen Savior Fall Supper.
It will remain there through Advent and the Christmas Season, then will go on permanent display in the St. Martin Church Museum.
Bob’s daughter, his brother John and several additional family members traveled to Starkenburg on Fall Supper Day to see the Nativity scene in its new home and reminisce.
Bob was recovering from a fall and could not make it, but he sent his highest regards.
“Dad just wants it to be displayed somewhere with people who are going to take good care of it for future generations,” said Denise.
She believes her mother is also happy about the gift.
“Oh, yes, if there are two things they definitely agreed on, it was Catholicism and the Nativity,” she said. “He’ll love having it here, and so will she.”
