Remembering Fr. Helias 150 years later

No better place for God to take him than on his way to ring the bells! Heaven’s bells were ringing instead.”

CLICK HERE to see a gallery of photos from this event.

The fire that engulfed the priestly heart of Jesuit Father Ferdinand Benedict Mary Guislain Helias d’Huddeghem still rages a century-and-a-half after his departure from this life.

“Fr. Helias served here as a priest, and as a priest, he died here,” Monsignor Robert A. Kurwicki, vicar general of the Jefferson City diocese, told the people of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Taos at Mass on Aug. 11.

“He’s still serving you as a priest now, differently, from heaven,” Msgr. Kurwicki added.

Exactly 150 years previously, Fr. Helias, known now to many as the “Apostle of Central Missouri,” collapsed on his way to ring the Angelus bell in St. Francis Xavier Church.

“No better place for God to take him than on his way to ring the bells!” said one who heard the story. “Heaven’s bells were ringing instead.”

Fr. Helias had served as the first resident pastor of what is now St. Joseph Parish in Westphalia, and had founded what are now Sacred Heart Parish in Rich Fountain, St. Francis Xavier Parish in Taos, Immaculate Conception Parish in Loose Creek, St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City, St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in St. Thomas and the former Assumption Parish in Cedron.

He also offered Mass in many other fledgling communities across the heart of the state.

His other missions having been gradually turned over to priestly successors, he ministered in Taos until the end of his earthly life.

Helias Catholic High School and Knights of Columbus Fr. Helias Council 1054, both in Jefferson City, are named in his honor.

“Strange lands”

Born into an aristocratic family in Ghent, Belgium, Fr. Helias entered the Society of Jesus (commonly known as the Jesuit Order) in 1817.

Pope Francis is a member of the same order.

“Fr. Helias was not about Fr. Helias,” Msgr. Kurwicki noted. “Fr. Helias was about Jesus.”

Ordained to the Holy Priesthood in 1825, Fr. Helias served in Rome as priest secretary for the head of the Jesuit order before traveling to the United States in 1833 to become a missionary.

“Because of the manner of his birth, because of his family name, because of the money that was available to him by his inheritance, he was a man of substance, wealth, culture and training,” Msgr. Kurwicki noted.

Nonetheless, “he was first of all a Jesuit,” Msgr. Kurwicki continued. “And the Jesuits were founded to be missionaries.”

“The missions comprise one of the most important works of the Society,” a document titled The Epitome of the Institute of the Society of Jesus states.

“All, therefore, should be ready and willing to go on the missions, be prepared to set out for new and strange lands and to spend their lives in any part of the world where there is hope of the greater glory of God and the good of souls.”

Fr. Helias spent two years in Pennsylvania, then moved to St. Louis to teach at Saint Louis University and minister to a German-speaking congregation that would eventually become St. Joseph Parish north of that city’s downtown.

He was sent to central Missouri in 1838, at age 41, to minister to a growing community of German immigrants in and around Westphalia.

“Fr. Helias left all of that wealth and comfort of the Old World behind,” said Msgr. Kurwicki, “and he came to the wilds of Missouri, a rough and ready part of the world.”

He later moved to Taos and set about serving Catholic immigrants in 11 counties along the Missouri River and its tributaries, offering Mass in people’s homes and baptizing their children.

“He decided to go forth and preach and open these missions,” Msgr. Kurwicki recounted.

For a while, Fr. Helias’s mission field covered an area nearly as large as his native Belgium.

He set up a ministry circuit, scheduling once-a-month visits to each of his regular missions and also occasionally traveling to such communities as Bailey’s Creek, Boonville, Columbia, Cote Sans Dessein, French Village, Hancock Prairie, Hibernia and Portland.

His missions eventually grew into parishes, and out of those and the rest of the territory he visited on horseback were carved an additional 22, most of which remain active today.

He also initiated a Catholic ministry to the incarcerated, offering the first Mass at the old Missouri State Penitentiary around 1838.

Combating the spiritual effects of droughts, floods and deadly plagues, he continued his pastoral work among people who were deathly ill. Twice in less than two years, he collapsed and nearly died from fever and exhaustion.

He believed that his recoveries in both instances were miraculous.

He continued to minister as the area’s population grew and other priests were sent to help care for people’s souls.

“My priestly heart experiences a joy ever-new in seeing our churches crowned on Sundays and Feast Days with throngs of faithful souls who emulate one another in singing the praises of the Lord,” Fr. Helias wrote in his memoir.

Having endured the discomforts of a pioneer existence and been obliged to defend the faith on many occasions, he asked his superiors for permission to remain in Missouri as he got older and his health began to deteriorate.

He reassured parishioners who were concerned about his health that they need not worry so long as they heard him ring the church bell for the “Angelus” at noon and 6 p.m. each day.

That did not happen the afternoon of Aug. 11, 1874.

He had previously written out his own death notice in German, English and Flemish: “Pray for the soul of Ferdinand Helias, S.J., missionary. Born in Ghent, died in America in full submission to the will of God.”

Not forgotten

While the priest’s earthly remains lay in state in old St. Francis Xavier Church, the casket glass covering his face cracked. The railroad therefore refused to transfer the remains to Florissant, where Jesuits in this province traditionally were buried.

Instead, parishioners lay their pastor to rest in the parish cemetery, where they built a monument to his memory.

“It was always the wish of Fr. Helias to be buried among the people he loved,” the author of a 1974 parish history wrote. “It seemed the Good Lord had fulfilled that wish.”

Fr. Helias’s bones rested in the center of the parish cemetery for 91 years before a polished rose granite crypt was constructed for him in the narthex of the current St. Francis Xavier Church.

Bishop Joseph M. Marling C.PP.S., founding bishop of Jefferson City, blessed the new resting place in 1965.

A Marian shrine outside the current, 1883-vintage church marks the place of Fr. Helias’s death.

Nearby, the top of the old stone altar, which had been donated by his mother for the previous St. Francis Xavier Church, was converted in 1974 into a centennial memorial to him.

On it is inscribed a passage from the Book of Genesis: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.”

In 1983, St. Francis Xavier’s pastor and parishioners established a Fr. Helias Museum in part of the church basement.

Temporarily closed now due to a church renovation project, the museum contains artifacts from the founding of Jesuit missions in Central Missouri, as well as several of Fr. Helias’s belongings.

Each year on Dec. 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a Mass in St. Francis Xavier Church is offered for the repose of Fr. Helias’s mother.

Abundant harvest

The altar cloth used for Fr. Helias’s 150th anniversary Mass was originally created for St. Francis Xavier Parish’s 175th anniversary in 2013.

Displayed in the hallway were a large portrait of the priest and the bell he had rung each day until his last.

Fifteen decades hence, the fruit of Fr. Helias’s missionary endeavors has endured remarkably.

“We’re grateful for him and all that he’s done,” said Msgr. Kurwicki.

The area in which he primarily served has remained largely Catholic, with Osage County in particular having among the largest percentages of people identifying themselves as members of Holy Mother Church in the entire state.

For several generations, families in the area often included children named Ferdinand.

Msgr. Kurwicki, previously pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Westphalia and currently of St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City, holds the distinction of having served as Fr. Helias’s successor on two separate occasions.

He pointed out that Father Kelechi Uzuegbu, a missionary priest from Nigeria, is currently pastor in Taos.

“It’s really very fitting that a parish served by a missionary priest for the first 36 years of its life, now has a missionary as its pastor,” said Msgr. Kurwicki. “Nothing would make Fr. Helias prouder.”

With both of them at the altar was Deacon Michael Berendzen, who assists the pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish.

The late Father David Maher, a former pastor of the Taos parish and later of the parish into which the Cedron parish was folded, once told his parishioners:

“You represent the people of God who are still supporting the work of the Church. And just as the Lord sent Fr. Helias into mission, that work continues through us whenever we spread God’s word and reach out to and pray for the people who have given up, who no longer trust in his mercy and love.”

In like fashion, Msgr. Kurwicki urged everyone present to continue carrying out their own role as missionaries in their corner of the Lord’s vineyard.

“The seed was planted here, and now it grows,” he said.