Visitor stops to pray in Wien each Christmas Eve
A seasoned gentleman in polar attire steps into St. Mary of the Angels Church in Wien at the end of Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.
He walks slowly, reverently, bells slightly jingling as he falls to his knees before the Nativity scene.
He stays there for a little while, absorbed in prayer and wonder.
The man silently departs, leaving behind a sack of simple gifts for the children in the congregation.
Outside, he cries out the names of eight reindeer, then bids everyone a Merry Christmas and a good night.
“This has been happening every year for decades here at St. Mary of the Angels,” lifelong parishioner Joe Bertsch noted.
“It’s one thing the kids around here all remember,” said Parish Secretary Katrina Steffes.
Father Thomas Waickman, who was pastor, and lifelong parishioner Wes Weimer first invited Santa Claus to stop by the 1876-vintage church on his busiest night in 1987.
The man in red came back every year since then, although Mr. Weimer was always busy helping with something else and never got to see him.
Fr. Waickman, now deceased, and his successors have consistently welcomed Santa and his unwavering witness.
Mr. Weimer served for years as an active Catholic Youth Organization leader at St. Mary of the Angels and as the parish’s official contact with Santa until the COVID-19 pandemic.
At that time, Mr. Bertsch, one of Mr. Weimer’s cousins, asked a former student to step into Mr. Weimer’s role and bring Santa back to St. Mary of the Angels.
That friend was Cullen Bruner.
“I don’t think he really wanted to, but he wouldn’t let me down,” Mr. Bertsch recalled in 2021. “He was really nervous but did a good job anyway.”
Yet, like Mr. Weimer, Mr. Bruner never actually got to see Santa.
Mr. Bertsch told him: “The thing that matters is the joy and laughter he brought everyone in a year [the pandemic year] that didn’t have much joy.”
Mr. Weimer died in June of 2021.
Mr. Bruner brought Santa back to town again at Mass the following Christmas, but his responsibilities at college precluded him from doing so a third year.
He helped convince his cousin, Jace Bixenman, to carry on the tradition.
“Cullen and Jace, their grandpa and grandma were very good friends with Wes Weimer, so there was a very good connection there,” Mr. Bertsch noted.
“Big shoes”
Parishioner Donald Meissen had the privilege of bringing Santa to St. Mary of the Angels in 2022.
He’s on stand-by this year, just in case.
“I considered it an honor to be asked to do it,” said Mr. Meissen. “I also felt I had some big shoes to fill.
“It’s a very humbling experience,” he stated. “My first child was born in 1991. All of my children have memories of Santa coming to Midnight Mass.”
Santa told him that “seeing all of the big-eyed kids” watch him walk slowly and reverently up the aisle and spending a few moments in front of the Nativity scene was “moving and humbling.”
Mr. Meissen said Santa’s visit does not take away from the solemnity of the Liturgy, it highlights it.
“We’re allowing God to be part of Santa, not Santa to be part of God,” he stated. “It’s just a wonderful tie-together to help the kids relate to Santa and Church.”
On bended knee
Bringing Santa to Wien can be a healing experience.
Mr. Bertsch thought back to the year when Mr. Weimer’s wife passed away. That Christmas, Mr. Weimer left church after Holy Communion to make sure Santa was coming.
“A while later,” Mr. Bertsch recalled, “I went over to see him, and I saw that he had been crying and was missing his wife and thinking about how she had always helped him with this.
“So, we prayed together and shared tears, and then we’d compose ourselves and he would go and bring Santa again,” he said.
Mr. Bertsch was 5 when Santa made his first pilgrimage to St. Mary of the Angels Church. Every year since then, he has paid close attention to how the visitor acts in church.
“It’s important to see that he kneels before the Christ Child in the manger,” said Mr. Bertsch. “Even Santa comes forth to adore the Christ Child.”
He noted that Mr. Bruner and Mr. Bixenman aren’t just former students of his, they’re also his friends.
Mr. Bruner served as best man at Mr. Bertsch’s wedding last year, and Mr. Bixenman was an usher.
“They are both an important part of my life, and now my wife Kelsey’s and my life,” said Mr. Bertsch. “I hope I have been influential in their lives ... in a good way.”
