March 3, 2010

A Priest’s Chalice: Priest’s chalice was an artist’s gift

By Father Donald Willette

A Communion chalice is a hallowed vessel, held dear by the priest who possesses it.  But even before the vessel’s consecration, it undergoes a mysterious transformation, from concept to clay to bronze, via an artist imbued with God-given talent.

In the case of my chalice, the artist is Loveland resident Herb Mignery, whom I met in the late 1970s during my years as a real estate agent in Estes Park; we were both parishioners at Our Lady of the Mountains Church. 

“I don’t do religious art,” he replied when I approached him, some years later, with the prospect of fashioning a chalice.  After a several-years’ hiatus, I had reentered the seminary.

Indeed, Mignery was known for his Western-themed art:  cowboys, horses, stage coaches.  (He is a member of both the National Sculpture Society and the Cowboy Artists of America, and his work appears in private and public collections throughout the United States).  Soon, though, he relented, asking about my preferences.  I did not offer a specific design but, rather, an idea: a depiction of Christ’s sacred character as he offers his blood in self-sacrifice.  I asked that the chalice be simple, that Christ’s character be non-idealized (in the style of most of Mignery’s other sculptures).  Somewhere, the symbols of the alpha and the omega should appear.  I trusted the rest to the artist.

I did not see the chalice during its design nor its execution—not until the day of my ordination on June 4, 1984, when Mignery presented it to me on the front steps of Denver’s St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary chapel.  I was struck by the chalice’s unique beauty.  Unlike many chalices, which are highly polished and embedded with precious stones, this one reflects a style of handiwork common 2,000 years ago.  With its hammered bronze, its appearance is elemental, featuring a rugged, human Christ and demonstrating the lesson of perfect sacrifice: strength through purity. 

The next day, when I celebrated my first Mass at Our Lady Mother of the Church in Commerce City, I found the chalice to be perfect in size and weight.
Herb Mignery accepted no remuneration for his creation—nor for the 10 smaller replicas he produced for me later.  I’ve given some of these replicas to a youth group retreat pastor, a bishop in the Bahamas, and others, hoping they, too, will cherish this rustic, yet elegant, design.

Father Donald Willette is pastor of Blessed John XXIII University Center in Fort Collins.