Archbishop Vigneron recently refurbished the chalice for his childhood parish, Immaculate Conception in Ira Township, where he remembers seeing it used “every day” during his formative years.Detroit — The word “memento” is defined as an object or item that serves to remind one of a person or past event. Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron recently restored a chalice used at Mass during his formative years at Immaculate Conception Parish in Ira Township that is more than just a memento.
“I go to the altar and I offer the Mass (with this chalice) very much recapitulating my own journey of faith, recapitulating my own discerning my call to the priesthood,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “It’s a way to, you might say, hold onto my past, to make it in the moment of offering the Eucharist. It is very powerful to me.”
The chalice, made in Utrecht, Holland, likely just after World War I, is a beautiful vessel in the traditional style. It is gold plated and features intricate engraving of liturgical symbols from the base to about one-third of the way up the cup. In the base is embedded a beautiful diamond engagement or wedding ring. Its only markings reflect its city and country of origin.
The chalice is a silent but active witness to many pivotal events in the archbishop’s early life. “It’s the chalice that would have been used for the funerals of my grandmother and some aunts and uncles and certainly for my First Communion,” he said. “It was used every day.”
Archbishop Vigneron was an altar server when the chalice was being used at Immaculate Conception. “I loved serving Mass and being a server was very much a part of my feeling the call to the priesthood, and this chalice is just woven into those experiences,” he said.
Archbishop Vigneron’s chalice.While the vessel was used every day for Mass during the archbishop’s youth, its original owner is a bit of a mystery.
“I always assumed that it belonged to my boyhood pastor, Fr. Harry Paul, but I learned at his death that it was not the case,” Archbishop Vigneron recalled. “I think it must have belonged to one of the priests (rather than the parish) because the ring embedded in it is a pretty good sign that it was a personal chalice.”
Throughout his life as a priest and bishop, the archbishop would return home from time to time to offer Mass at his childhood church. Each time, he’d peek into the sacristy safe and see this chalice, eventually finding its way to the back of the safe and into disuse.
“Over time they started using other sacred vessels and from my visits I began to see that it wasn’t being used as it had been when I was a kid,” he explained. “Recently I was there and it got into my head that I would like to refurbish it as part of my gift back to the parish, and I also asked Father (Joseph Esper) if I could use it for a while.”
Permission was granted and the archbishop expects to use it for daily Mass in the Archbishop’s Residence chapel for the foreseeable future.
“The story of this chalice is very much about how the things that are concrete and material become instruments of grace and carry that grace with them,” he said.
Have a treasure?
If you, your parish or your organization is the keeper of a “Treasure of the Archdiocese,” and would like us to consider it for a profile, email [email protected] with “Treasures of the Archdiocese” in the subject line.
