Church in Taos restored to timeless beauty
Bishop O’Donnell offers Mass on the parish’s feastday to celebrate completion of two years of renovations
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There are secrets within the walls of St. Francis Xavier Church in Taos.
Names, hopes, prayers and remembrances from this moment in Salvation History are sealed behind the paneling inside the newly-renovated church.
“It’s basically a time capsule,” said sixth-generation St. Francis Xavier parishioner Dan Sanning, project manager for the project. “We left two or three sections open so everyone could come and sign their names and put whatever they wanted behind there.”
Students from St. Francis Xavier School signed their names in the temporarily exposed structural elements before the new paneling was installed.
“Those kids will always remember putting their name behind that panel,” said Mr. Sanning.
They’ll also likely not forget when the murals came back.
Over a decade ago, parishioners found four large, rolled-up circular canvases containing hand-painted scenes from Jesus’s life and ministry.
Removed in 1954 or ’55, probably due to water damage, the vibrant images match the mural that remained over the sanctuary, which depicts Jesus ministering to children.
A professional art restorer in Kansas City cleaned and repaired the faded and somewhat tattered images, which were set back into place while the interior walls and ceiling were being repaired and repainted.
“The murals are obviously a huge attraction,” said Mr. Sanning. “They really stand out right when you walk into the church.”
Parishioner Tina Davis, a professional interior decorator, and her committee used the hues and tints of the murals as a foundation for the new color scheme for the rest of the church.
They chose darker colors for the back wall of the sanctuary to contrast with the lighter colors of the altars and the rest of the church.
“I want people to look straight up and see those beautiful murals and keep returning to them,” said Mrs. Davis.
“And then, I want them to follow their eyes down to the sanctuary and know that is where Christ is offered up each time we have Mass,” she said.
Now and then
The renovation of the 1883-vintage church began with the launching of a $1.8 million capital campaign, called Preserving our Faith, Forging our Future, in November 2023.
Deacon Michael Berendzen, who assists the pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish, composed a prayer for the success of the campaign, which parishioners prayed together at Mass each week.
“Within that prayer is a recognition of the past and thanksgiving for those who started this parish and have kept it going right up to this point,” he said.
He noted that the church was already beautiful before the renovation.
“What we did here was enhance that beauty,” he said.
Sunday Liturgies moved to the school gymnasium on June 1, 2024, as work on the church got under way.
The project included removing asbestos, building a new sacristy and confessional, replacing the carpeting with a hardwood floor, repairing and beautifying the walls and ceiling, updating the heating, cooling and ventilation system, upgrading the sound system, refinishing the pews and kneelers, and other updates.
Work to the adjacent Reker Hall included adding a restroom, installing new flooring, insulating the walls, and other aesthetic improvements.
A multipurpose building was constructed nearby for storage and to accommodate some of the activities that previously took place in Reker Hall.
Parishioners returned to St. Francis Church for Mass on Christmas Eve of 2024.
“We barely made it,” said Parishioner Eric Bernskoetter, chairman of the capital campaign. “We were working on finishing touches right up until 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve, ahead of Mass at 5 p.m.”
The pews were still away getting refinished, but most of the other work had been completed.
Several projects continued through the summer.
Fullness of time
Father Kelechi Uzuegbu, pastor, invited Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell to celebrate Mass in the renovated church on Dec. 3 of this year, the feast of St. Francis Xavier.
It was the bishop’s first visit to the parish.
“Your church is beautiful! Absolutely beautiful!” he said in his homily.
He commended the parishioners for taking such excellent care of the sacred place where many of them and their ancestors had received their Sacraments.
Joining him at the altar were Fr. Uzuegbu and Father Mark Porterfield, who ministers in hospitals in the diocese.
Deacon Berendzen and Deacon Keith Henke, who also assists the pastor, assisted at the altar.
Before Mass, Bishop O’Donnell stopped to pray inside the church at the final resting place of Jesuit Father Ferdinand Helias (1796-1874), known to many as the Apostle of Central Missouri.
Fr. Helias founded the Taos parish and six others. He became resident pastor in Taos and ministered there until his death.
Bishop O’Donnell pointed out that there is no time in eternity. So, even when Fr. Helias was out on his mission circuit so many years ago, “this night was known to God.”
“God meets us here,” the bishop insisted. “We come to this altar, and here at this altar, we receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, our Savior, our King.
“And in so receiving, we are charged with the work to leave this holy place, to exit from where this spire stands, so that what we say and do might bring God’s presence into the world that so desperately needs his presence.”
Many hands
Fr. Uzuegbu, a missionary priest from the Diocese of Okigwe, Nigeria, said it’s always good to have a beautiful place to serve and worship God.
“That’s why we have to beautify it,” he said. “We have to make it a home, we have to make it a house of God.”
He thanked God for making the renovation possible and stirring people’s hearts to support the project.
Mr. Bernskoetter talked about how the church renovation started with a list of maintenance items that needed to be addressed.
As the list grew, the parish finance committee decided to launch the parish’s first capital campaign in a quarter-century, enlisting the Steier Group (steiergroup.com) of Omaha, Nebraska.
Mr. Bernskoetter lauded his fellow capital campaign members, including vice chairman Josh Sandbothe.
He tipped his hat to Mr. Sanning, the construction project manager, and Mrs. Davis, who created the stencil designs and selected the colors.
Mr. Sanning, who recently retired from Verslues Construction, was at the church nearly every day during the construction.
“This has been a team effort in every sense of the word,” said Mr. Bernskoetter. “Without so many involved and willing to do whatever it took to keep moving us forward, we certainly wouldn’t be here today.
“I’m proud to be a member of this parish and can’t wait for all the greatness to come,” he said.
Mr. Sanning said about 80 people — mostly retired — volunteered to help for a month or more during the project.
The pews were shipped back in two batches. Seventh- and eighth-graders at the school helped unwrap them and set them into place.
“There were so many people who wanted to help and did,” he said. “It was truly a community effort.”
Look up!
The first phase of the restoration was to replace the storm-damaged metal roof. Only then could the work commence inside.
Recent interior renovations of the church tended to emphasize horizontal lines in the church.
One of the goals this time was to reemphasize the vertical, drawing people’s gaze upward and into the sanctuary.
Mr. Sanning’s brother, Tom, built curved pilasters between the floor and each vaulted arch at the ceiling level.
An alcove that had been built as a confessional was returned to its original purpose.
A room to the side of the sanctuary that was serving as a confessional was converted to a sacristy, where the priest and deacon vest for Mass.
Bronze railings were installed on the stairs leading to the area near the altar.
Scaffolding covered the interior while the walls and ceiling were painted.
A new sound system makes each word from the microphones clearer and easier to understand.
Every surface that didn’t get painted, including the side altars, high altar, main altar and sanctuary furnishings, got a thorough cleaning.
“Our goal was to not put this parish in long-term debt,” said Mr. Bernskoetter. “We wanted to raise enough money to pay for everything we did and call it done. And we successfully did that.”
Search for clues
Mrs. Davis traveled around to visit other churches in the nine months before the renovation began.
“I took a lot of pictures and got inspired in many ways,” she said.
She also examined miniscule and sometimes hidden decorative elements in the church and found creative ways to duplicate them on a larger scale.
“It was very fun to take pieces of the church that were existing and do research to see what we needed to fill in with,” she said.
Dan Sanning has worked on many projects for the parish, including the 1998 church renovation and substantial addition to the school.
For this project, he scoured photos and searched behind false ceilings for traces of original artwork.
“I’ve done plenty of new stuff through the years,” he said. “But the older stuff — being able to see how it was built with the tools and materials they had back then — that’s always amazing.”
One of the painters said she had helped during the 1998 renovation of the church.
She told Mrs. Davis, “I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to work on the same church twice.”
“Well, now you do!” Mrs. Davis replied.
Most days throughout the process were invigorating, although some were difficult.
“In those situations, you rely on other people of faith on your team,” said Mrs. Davis. “And there are so many moments of prayer and giving it to God and saying, ‘What do you want in this beautiful house of worship? Help me to make that happen. Use me as your earthen vessel.’”
Good wood
Standing on the scaffolding, Dan Sanning beheld up close the decorative iron rods his great-grandfather, who was a blacksmith, fashioned to help hold the building together.
Pieces of the original wooden Communion rail were stored when a newer one was installed in 1947.
During the 1998 renovation, Dan Sanning incorporated spindles from that railing into a priest’s chair for the sanctuary and three kneelers for weddings.
This year, Fr. Uzuegbu asked him to make two similar chairs for the deacons who assist at Mass.
He did so, using the remaining four spindles.
“It’s very good wood,” he noted. “It’s nice, straight, very fine fir.”
Joyful witness
Mr. Bernskoetter noted that nine additional hand-painted circular murals, smaller than the ones that have been reinstalled in the church, have been found. Parishioners hope to have them restored and placed back on the ceiling someday.
He emphasized that this maintenance and renovation project were a necessary investment in the life and future of the parish.
“We have to maintain what we have, or it goes away,” he said.
When Dan Sanning signed his name behind the paneling, he wrote a note thanking Fr. Helias for starting the parish and supplying money and some of the original artwork that adorns the current church.
“My prayer is that our community keeps growing, not only physically, but spiritually,” he said.
Mrs. Davis hopes when people come to worship God in the church many years from now, they’ll still realize that everything in the church was beautified and maintained out of love by generations of people.
“We follow in the steps of the amazing stewards who came before us,” she said. “And we have to pay that forward for future generations to be able to practice their faith here.”
Deacon Berendzen said St. Francis Xavier Church is the undisputed center of the Taos community.
“For so many people here, their ancestors were pillars of this parish, and now they are,” he said. “My hope is that what we’ve done here will help draw other people to come and see and stay.”
Bishop O’Donnell acknowledged that a project as large as this renovation “doesn’t just happen.”
“On behalf of everybody who drives down Highway 50 and sees the spire of this church, and on behalf of the generation that lies before you, may God bless you for your generosity,” he said. “And may he notice the joy of your faith until he comes again.”
