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Historical tidbits and family pride from the mind of Father
Joachim
Father Joachim Schieber can still picture the old man in the
wheelchair.
A pleasant afternoon was drifting toward evening as local farmers and
townspeople were chatting on the front steps of Conception Abbey's
Church of the Immaculate Conception. They had just finished their weekly
observance of Sunday vespers with the monks and were now catching up on
local news. In the crowd, speaking only when spoken to, was 4-year-old
Andrew Schieber, finally old enough to join his parents and 10 siblings
for the family's
Sunday afternoon ritual.
Soon, with assistance from a younger monk, the elderly man emerged from
the monastery and began offering his blessing to the gathering. Despite
the afternoon heat, his legs were covered with a quilt.
There was a reverence in the air, and Andrew understood instantly when
his mother leaned down and whispered the man's name. The old monk had a
reputation for sternness, and Andrew was fearful as his mother guided
him forward to receive a blessing.
Little did Andrew know that 81 years later he would be celebrating his
65th year as a monk of the abbey founded by the man in the wheelchair,
and that he would also be the only living monk in the 21st century who
actually met Abbot Frowin Conrad.
Each community has a 'living history' that carries traditions, stories,
and knowledge from generation to generation. One of the most
encyclopedic fonts for Conception Abbey and the "Tri-C" communities of
Conception, Conception Junction and Clyde, is Father Joachim.
Young Andrew (Father Joachim) Schieber at his First Communion.
His paternal and maternal grandparents were among the first German
settlers to arrive in Northwest Missouri following the Civil War. They
were preceded by Irish immigrants and their horseback priest Father
James Powers, whose perseverance was instrumental in bringing the first
Benedictine monks to Northwest Missouri from Switzerland. Father Joachim
says the priest sought the monks because the language barrier prevented
him from hearing the
confessions of the Germans.
Father Joachim's paternal grandparents met Abbot Frowin at the
railroad depot in Maryville in 1873, and his maternal grandparents, the
Kerns, gave the monks a large plot of high ground overlooking the
Wildcat Creek basin, east of the abbey's
present location. Frowin considered building his new monastery there,
but later chose a farm donated by Father Powers that overlooked the
Platte River Valley six miles to the west, because it had a more
dependable water supply.
Frowin's decision also had diplomatic benefits. Building on the Kern
land would have placed the community of German-speaking monks deep in
the midst of the German immigrants who had settled the countryside east
of the Platte, a move that could potentially alienate the Irish
congregated west of the river.
"The division between the two groups obviously had become a
problem for Frowin," Father Joachim notes. "When he built his church, he
put an altar and statue of St. Boniface, wearing red vestments, in the
south transept, and an altar and statue of St. Patrick, wearing green
vestments, in the north transept."
Marriages between the Irish and
Germans soon solved the problem
for good.
Today, the altars and statues are gone, but there are remnants of the
long-ago divisions. On the north wall of the Basilica's nave, there is a
small painting of St. Patrick situated directly across from a similar
painting of St. Boniface on the south wall.
At a basket dinner just before he entered the monastery, Andrew Schieber
sat down with all 26 of his nieces and nephews. Today the total has
grown to 70.
As for remnants, Father Joachim's parents have their fair share in
the area, as was evident during a gathering at Conception Abbey in July.
Dubbed "The First Modern Day Gathering of the descendants of the Frances
Kern and John Schieber Family," the large reunion was arranged to
coincide with Father Joachim's monastic milestones, 65 years as a monk
and 60 as a priest. A program printed for the occasion featured on its
cover a photograph of John and Frances on their wedding day in 1899, and
an inscription declaring that the couple's descendants have combined for
more than 2,000 years of married life and more than 400 years under
religious vows. On the back cover is an impressive list of those
descendants: 11 children, 67 grandchildren, 245 great grandchildren, 367
great-great grand-children, and 18 great-great-great grandchildren.
Father Joachim alone has 70 nieces and nephews.
Those numbers would be far higher if not for the deeply Catholic
family's commitment to celibate priestly and religious service.
Put it this way, when it came time to baptize, marry or bury, the
Schiebers have never had to look far for a priest.
At the July reunion, Father Brian Schieber, vocation director for the
Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, celebrated Mass, and Father
Joachim concelebrated and delivered the homily. Their relative and
fellow monk, Father Joel Derks also concelebrated, and they were joined
at the altar by Deacon Martin Schieber.
John and Frances Schieber prayed the rosary each day with their
children, and never allowed them to leave for school without first
gathering for family prayer.
"I think the monks had a lot of influence on that," Father Joachim
says. "Our families were always very close to the monks. I remember when
Bishop Cody closed the abbey as a parish church, and established the
parish in Conception Junction, it was quite a problem for some of my
people. Abbot Frowin had promised they would never be put out of his
Church."
Upon entering the monastery, Brother Joachim posed with his two sisters
who preceded him into Benedictine life, Sisters Adella and Marcita, and
his mother Frances.
In 1944, when Father Joachim was ordained, there were 60 women
religious from the Tri-C parishes, and his sisters, Sister Adella and
Sister Mauricita, preceded him into the Benedictine life. Years earlier
their Uncle Odilo was one of the first American-born men to join the
abbey's monastic community.
Following Father Joachim's ordination, Abbot Stephen Schappler
surprised his newest monk by showing up at his first Mass and asking to
speak. During his address, he told the family members in attendance that
in his travels around the Midwest, he had been impressed by the number
of Schieber or Kern descendants in religious life. "There is probably a
descendent of this family in almost every religious community in the
four-state region," he said.
Father Joachim Schieber poses with the nieces and nephews who
participated in his first Mass. From left, Margaret Mattson, Bob
Protzman, Rose Marie Protzman, Andrew Schieber, and Lucille Schieber.
Before entering the monastery, Father Joachim stood as godfather for Bob
and Andrew.
With such influences, it was no surprise that Father Joachim dreamed
of being a monk from early in his childhood. "I had to decide to enter
the monastery in my second year of high school," he said, "or I would
have had to take over my father's farm."
Father Joachim says faith took on special importance to local
Catholics who lived an isolated existence, segregated from surrounding
Protestant communities.
"The farm I was raised on is five miles northeast of the Abbey," he
says. "Two miles east of that was the last Catholic family." Over a few
more hills was the largely Protestant community of Atlanthus Grove,
which Father Joachim admits he never saw until after he'd entered the
monastery.
"You just didn't cross that line," he explains.
The influence of Abbot Frowin went far beyond the spiritual. In fact,
the existence of three small communities, Conception, Conception
Junction and Clyde, instead of a single larger town, is the direct
result of Abbot Frowin's Old World monastic sensibilities.
"He was very much concerned that a monastery should be apart from the
world," Father Joachim explains. "And as the place developed, he would
not let the railroads cross his land." So, when the Chicago Great
Western and Wabash railroads entered the area, the results were Clyde,
one of the early stops on the Wabash line, and Conception Junction,
which sprouted later at the junction of the two railroads.
"That kept this place from developing into a city," Father Joachim
contends, adding that Conception, if it had become the junction of two
major railroads, could have competed with Maryville, the county seat, as
the largest town in Nodaway County.
Today, his eyesight failing, Father Joachim lives in St. Stephen
Infirmary, where his days are spent in quiet prayer. He can often be
found walking in the cemetery where so many of his family members and
confreres are buried or strolling the abbey grounds, listening to sacred
words on a walkman. Usually a very private man, he has recently begun
distributing photographs, documents and stories to family members.
He says he's proud of his family - those who have gone before and
those who will carry the name for another generation.
"Why shouldn't I be," he says. "Just look at the facts."
We welcome your comments:
communications@conception.edu
www.conceptionabbey.org
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