Page 6 - GC-Sep-Oct-21-w-Guide

German places you should know:
Our Lady Help of Christians Chapel in Cheektowaga

by Martin Ederer ian and Polish settled in the origi-
fierce North Atlantic storm in in the first decades of the 20th cen- nally Alsatian area, making the
ANovember 1836 was responsi- tury, the building was still too small chapel crowded for Masses, a sense
ble for the existence of the Maria- for the parishioners, not to mention intensified by the numerous crutch-
Hilf Kapelle, the Chapel of Our La- the growing numbers of pilgrims es and braces adorning the side
dy Help of Christians in Cheektow- from Buffalo – especially Italians – walls along the narrow side aisles,
aga. The story begins with Joseph flocking to the chapel. Scherer seri- attesting to cures brought about
Batt, born 1789 in Alsace. As a ously considered having the little through the intercession of Maria
child, he ended up in exile with his chapel torn down and replacing it Hilf.
family and lost his father to the with something more grandiose. His By the 1950s the parish was at
French Revolution. As a young man friend Fr. Nelson Baker – the fa- the breaking point as the combina-
he settled in Morschweiler, where mous Father Baker of Lackawanna tion of postwar prosperity and
he married in 1813 and raised a – discouraged him from doing that. scores of young families moving to
family of nine children. In 1835, he Any new church would have to be the suburbs stretched the chapel be-
decided to leave Alsace for Ameri- built in addition to the original cha- yond any reasonable capacity. Rev.
ca, sending his oldest son, Joseph pel. Walter Heck decided to build a new
Jr., to find a suitable home there. In 1922, renovation of the old church, dedicated in 1959, a rather
His son chose an area east of Buffa- chapel commenced, the work of the unusual shape with a gold-leafed
lo, in Cheektowaga. One important D’Arcangelo Company, which add- dome. Meanwhile the old chapel
reason for the choice was the fact ed the existing altars and ornamen- began to fall into disrepair as it fell
prominently displayed over the chapel from the Williamsville quar-
that the area east of Buffalo was present main altar. The Perpetual ry where the 1871 addition’s stones tation, even as large new church prey to vandals and the elements.
heavily settled by his own Alsa- designs were under discussion, By 1974, demolition of the cha-
Help icon over the left side altar also had originally been quarried in the
tians. dates from the earliest years of the 1830s, obviously preparing to fur- some quite bizarre. Finally, in 1924, pel was seriously discussed, but the
The elder Batt set off with the Scherer decided simply to expand chapel got a reprieve after the ad-
chapel’s existence. ther enlarge the chapel.
rest of the family for America on Meanwhile the SS. Peter and Fischer was followed by Rev. the old chapel, once again by knock- ministrator proposing the demoli-
Nov. 11, 1836 from LeHavre on the ing out the rear wall and doubling tion suddenly left. Rev. Paul R.
Paul congregation in Williamsville Francis X. Scherer, who long served
American ship Mary Ann. They en- began building its present church in as pastor of the chapel parish, from the length of the nave to its present Letourneau, who became pastor late
countered a fierce storm on Nov. 29. dimensions. That saved most of the in 1974, realized the significance of
1862 on new land it had purchased. 1893 until his death in 1936. The
Waves crashed over the decks and It was an expensive undertaking that area was growing, in part because of 1922 ornamentation, whose themes the chapel. He renovated it and it
Atlantic gales snapped the masts; were simply carried through the reopened in 1975 for the Holy Year
required the full resources of the the chapel’s growing reputation as a
the ship began to take water. In this parish, which meant that the pastors shrine and as a site of miracle cures. new addition, again the work of celebrations.
desperate strait, Batt made a prom- D’Arcangelo. Six new Frohe It has since been placed on the
of SS. Peter and Paul both during It also stood on a major route to
ise to the Blessed Virgin Mary – and after the construction years Buffalo in the geographical center stained glass windows complement- National Register of Historic Plac-
Our Lady Help of Christians – that ed the existing Frohe windows that es, and still serves as the center
were not kindly disposed to growing of Cheektowaga, which land devel-
if his family were spared, he would aspirations in Cheektowaga to make opers noticed. Scherer built a school had been installed after the 1871 point of the Assumption celebra-
build a chapel in Mary’s honor in enlargement. The outdoor grotto, tions on Aug. 15 each year, a long-
the Maria Hilf chapel an autono- and convent complex before turning
the New World. The storm subsided mous parish. his attention to what had become a designed to accommodate growing standing tradition at the Chapel. An
and the Mary Ann limped to Ireland, throngs of pilgrims, was added in elegant little structure with a fasci-
When SS. Peter and Paul aban- large parish crammed into a small
where the ship was repaired before doned their old church, Joseph chapel. 1927-1928. nating history, the old Alsatian cha-
the voyage continued. The chapel parish continued to pel of Our Lady Help of Christians
Batt’s son-in-law, John Daul, Even with the creation of new
After Batt had arrived in Cheek- bought the land with the old church; parishes out of the chapel’s territory grow as increasing numbers of Ital- has managed to escape three plans
towaga, he, like all the Alsatian to demolish it.
in 1869 Joseph Batt secured Bishop
Catholics settled there, walked to Stephen Ryan’s permission to tear
SS. Peter and Paul in Williamsville
down the old church, and haul its
for Mass until Batt finally could
stones and its timbers to Cheektow-
deliver on his promise to the
aga to expand the original family by Martin Ederer
Blessed Virgin Mary 16 years later.
chapel. After original approval by ne of the joys of German life is
There are several theories as to why
Rev. Joseph Zoegel of Williams- Othe bread culture. My father
so much time passed. One is that
ville, his successor, Rev. George (and most of his family) were grate-
Batt needed first to establish himself
Pax, reversed the permission, fear- ful to be in the United States, but
financially; a second is that he did
ing that expansion at Maria Hilf they always lamented what passed
not want to undertake the venture
would weaken SS. Peter and Paul. for bread in America. The term they
unless he could establish something
Only Daul’s threat that he would used was batzig, which literally
substantial, preferably a parish, but
turn the old church into a brewery if might translate as “lumpy,” but add
at least a chapel with school. A third
Batt could not use the stone to en- soft, soggy limpness for good mea-
theory is that Bishop John Timon large the chapel – and added pres-
was not inclined to make the chapel sure. Think the standard American
sure from Bishop Ryan – forced Pax bread out of a plastic bag that we
a parish, there were more pressing to relent. But Pax did demand that
needs to establish parishes else- use for our PB&J sandwiches or
the addition to the chapel be only 20 those soft square dinner rolls. It also
where with a limited number of feet, rather than the 60 feet the
priests. The Alsatians in Cheektow- bears mentioning that Germans typ-
Cheektowaga Alsatians wanted. ically do not use two slices of bread Image by jhenning_beauty_of_nature from Pixabay
aga already had the luxury of SS. As that conflict heated up, an
Peter and Paul in Williamsville, a for their sandwiches. Open face is Vollkornbrot: A whole grain clude sunflower seeds, barley, spelt,
exasperated Pax proposed burning the rule.
mere 4 or 5 miles away. the chapel to the ground to solve the bread, usually heavy and dark. Ba- oats, caraway, fennel, coriander, on-
Batt nonetheless persisted. In German breads almost always sic type is predominantly (90%) ion, and/or dill.
problem once and for all. A dioce- have a thick crispy crust, are heavy
1851, Timon finally accepted Batt’s san commission investigated, and whole wheat flour. Hörnchen (literally “little
donation of land for a chapel. Batt and dense, and make a decent meal Dreikornbrot – Vierkornbrot horns”): These are similar to the
ruled that the chapel should remain in and of themselves. Many of the
began by building a school so that a private chapel of the Batt family, – Fünfkornbrot (you get the idea): French croissants, but are not neces-
the children of his little settlement recipes start with a sour dough of breads made from a specific number sarily as buttery.
but it should also be enlarged. The one sort or another, and use heavy
could be educated in the faith. In eventual compromise was a 40-foot of grains. Bretzn (pretzels): done proper-
1852, Timon granted Batt permis- rye flour, whole wheat flour, and Roggenbrot (rye bread): Heavy ly, these are serious bread…and
addition, and regular priestly visits any number of combinations there-
sion to build his Maria-Hilf from SS. Peter and Paul. and medium dark. Some rye breads great with beer. The standard Okto-
Kapelle. Trustees for the project of. As a result, many of the breads go as high as 50% or more rye flour. berfest pretzel easily hangs over the
The addition project finally be- are dark…and oh, so good. A slice
were elected, and construction of a gan in 1871. When Batt died in In comparison, typical American edges of a large plate.
small brick chapel began, the bricks or two of bread, a slice of cheese, a supermarket rye bread may have no Rolls: This gets complicated.
1872, the walls had just begun to go slice or two of sausage and a
made from the clay on-site. The up, walls built from the stones more the 25% rye flour. Up north they are Brötchen (literally
original chapel is now the sanctuary beer…and you’ve been fed. Pumpernickel and Schwarz- “little bread”). In Bavaria and Aus-
which had sheltered the Williams- Suffice it to say that a complete
of the now-enlarged church. Ad- ville congregation when St. John brot: not entirely the same, but both tria they are Semmel (pl. Semmeln),
ministratively, the chapel was nei- listing of breads is impossible are black (or black-ish) breads. a name that derives from a Latin
Neumann had celebrated Mass there here… although some German
ther a mission of SS. Peter and Paul in the 1830s. The addition was built They are usually extremely dense word for a type of wheat flour. They
nor a proper parish; it was a private somewhere has probably assembled and made up of the actual grain were also called Kaisersemmeln in
off the rear of the small brick chapel it. The bread varieties vary by re-
wayside chapel – an An- after its back wall was knocked out. kernels, and are malty and some- honor of Kaiser Franz Josef II of
dachtskapelle – and priests occa- gion and by baker. Figures range times slightly sweet. Thinly sliced, Austria after he adjusted bread pric-
The chapel continued to attract from 300 to well over 3000, depend-
sionally came to say Mass. more and more pilgrims, and the they go great with smoked fish and es to make the common folk happi-
By the 1860s Batt’s little chapel ing on how the statistics are assem- anything else with a strong flavor. er. That’s the origin of the Kaiser
settlement around the chapel grew. bled. The best I can offer here is a
had become a favorite pilgrimage In 1890, the Batt chapel became They are nothing like American su- roll that exists in a softer (and usual-
place because of the miraculous cir- number of basic genres. permarket pumpernickel. ly supersized) version in the United
a parish, its English name Our Lady Mischbrot: Any sort of bread
cumstances that prompted its found- Help of Christians. Rev. Joseph C. Katenbrot: a dark northern States. In Alemannic/Swabian/
ing. In 1869, Batt commissioned made from a number of flours, typi- bread with a strong flavor. southwestern Palatinate regions, the
Fischer became its first pastor, and cally rye – whole wheat – white in
Gottfried Frohe to compose a paint- the parish continued to grow. Be- Variations on a theme: Many term Weck is used. Kümmelweck is
ing for the sanctuary depicting the varying combinations. Basis is often of these recipes are altered with ad- a roll with caraway seeds. This
fore leaving the chapel parish in a sour dough as a leavening agent.
storm which led to the promise to 1893, Fischer arranged to have ditional flours/grains in varying per- should give us all an indication of
build the chapel. In a rather cropped Bauernbrot: A heavy, medium centages. Or they are fortified with who the people were in Buffalo (Al-
more stones cut and delivered to the dark bread. Usually it is a Mischbrot
form, that same painting is still other ingredients. These might in- satians?) who gave us beef on weck.
(mixed grain bread).