A St. Wenceslaus statue is pictured at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Iowa City.
By Sophia Joseph
For The Catholic Messenger
IOWA CITY — The Church needs art in order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, St. John Paul II wrote in a 1999 letter to artists. “Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God.”
St. Wenceslaus Parish in Iowa City is grateful for the gift of art and its ability to connect people to the Catholic faith. Their statue of St. Wenceslaus, a work of art from the 1800s, has brought people together over the years in a unique way.
In the early 1970s, St. Wenceslaus Church was redecorated. During this process, the church sold many parish artifacts: pews, the altar server chair, and the statues of the saints behind the altar. During the auction, local dancer Joan Munday purchased the St. Wenceslaus statue. She placed the statue in her living room, where its image was reflected in the wall of mirrors behind her ballet barre.
About 10 years later, “Joanie” became friends with St. Wenceslaus parishioner Grace Jochimsen. The women bonded over their shared interest of collecting and selling antiques, Grace reminisced in a recent interview. One day, during a meeting at Joanie’s home, Grace recognized the statue. “Even though he was missing some fingers and was a little bit battered,” Grace wanted to buy the statue and return it to the church. Joanie wasn’t ready to part with the statue. “Well, I like him, my kids like him, and he is not for sale,” Grace recalled her friend saying.
Grace reiterated her interest in the statue over the next 30 years. “One day, I called her and said, ‘Are you ready to sell St. Wenc?’ And, she said, ‘Yes, I think I am.’” Grace and her husband, Peter, bought the statue and picked it up that day so Joanie wouldn’t change her mind.
At the time Peter and Grace got the statue, the St. Wenceslaus Church’s west entrance addition was under construction. Father Michael Philips, the pastor, made space for the statue by eliminating a storage closet in the addition’s design.
The statue needed a touchup, Grace recalled. Thomas Staley, a parishioner at St. Wenceslaus at the time, was working toward an undergraduate degree in art at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He had once fixed a broken baby Jesus statue for the parish manger scene, and the parish knew he would be a good candidate to restore St. Wenceslaus.
Thomas worked on restoring the statue in a house that the parish owned. He would come in with his dad, Robert Staley, and “he really liked doing it because it was at night and was a religious experience,” said Thomas’s mom, Kathie Staley. In addition to remodeling the fingers and crown, the statue did not have all its parts. Thomas and his dad bought a curtain rod “flagpole” for the statue to hold, and purchased a shield that now sits at the statue’s feet.
After Thomas completed the plaster repair of the statue, local Catholic Rita Tomanek did the painting. Rita, who has performed numerous statue repairs for local churches, painted the hand and bottom of the statue. “I didn’t have to paint the face,” said Rita. “I was able to blend the colors and everything worked with the parts that weren’t damaged.”
On June 17, 2007, Bishop Martin Amos came to bless the new church entrance and stained glass windows, and re-bless the restored St. Wenceslaus statue. Grace invited Joanie to come to the Mass for the dedication. Joanie chatted with the bishop and recounted her role in the statue’s journey, Grace recalled. “She told him she was the caretaker saying, ‘I took care of him until he got back home.’ I thought that was very sweet of her.”
The parish is thankful to have the beautiful statue back in the church building. “Statues are an important part of our history and our faith,” Kathie Staley said. “It is important to have something to look at to remind us and educate us. Father can get up and talk to us about St. Wenceslaus, but to actually see a statue, visually it is informative to us. I think that’s important.”
