FORT SMITH — The Munich-style stained glass windows adorning St. Boniface Church depict stories of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the lives of the saints and the martyrdom of St. Boniface. And yet, the real-life stories of the windows themselves are a dramatic testament to God’s providence as well.
Recently, the windows were repaired and the organ’s pipes were refurbished.
When the parishioners of St. Boniface built a new church in the spring of 1939, they ordered stained-glass windows from Emil Frei Inc. of St. Louis, Mo., and Munich, Germany. Munich-style stained glass is characterized by “sugar-glazing” the glass with several layers of paint, strong contrasts between light and shade and rich artistic detail.
The windows, bought for $11,500 by parishioners anxious to bring a bit of their heritage to Fort Smith, were built as Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, violating the 1938 Munich Agreement and pushing France and Germany toward a declaration of war. St. Boniface’s windows were among the last shipped by the Emil Frei studios before the onset of World War II. Shortly after, Munich was hit by 71 air strikes in six years.
In the mid-1980s, former organist Nancy Lensing was leading a choir practice when a small tornado moved up North “B” Street, shattering the rear choir-loft window depicting the martyrdom of St. Boniface.
“We had just finished practice, luckily, when we heard wind and a storm. It sounded machine gun riddled. Glass flew into the church as far as the altar,” Lensing said.
To protect the windows from future storms, the parish installed Plexiglas shields on the outside of each window, but this created a new problem.
“The heat had softened the lead and loosened some of the panes of glass,” Deacon John Burns said. “We just had some work done on the windows and fixed the Plexiglas to allow air to flow through to the stained glass.”
St. Boniface’s 112 year-old pipe organ also received a recent facelift after water leaked through the choir loft ceiling earlier this year. Parishioners and others painted the choir loft walls and cleaned and repaired the pipes. The organ, purchased for $2,000 in 1895 from German manufacturer Kilgen and Son, is the oldest in the Fort Smith region.
A Dec. 6, 1895, newspaper advertisement congratulated the church for buying what “will not only be the first modern pipe organ in western Arkansas, but the finest in the state.”
But the organ proved to be a wise investment, keeping its warm, resonant tones as its hundreds of metal and wooden pipes, wood console and basement generator were moved to their new location in 1939.
Of all the organists who played at St. Boniface, Lensing has had the longest tenure.
“My mother, Rita Gisler, was a member of Immaculate Conception Church. She met my father playing at dances and moved to St. Boniface after her marriage,” Lensing said. “I started playing the organ when I was 12, pre-Vatican II. I played for novenas and Benedictions, weddings and funerals. I studied piano and organ at the University of Arkansas and played when I came back from college. For the last 30 years, until I retired in 2005, I was strictly at St. Boniface.”
Although St. Boniface has a new organist and choir director, Greg Zyjewski, a recent Ohio transplant, Lensing still plays at church occasionally and still loves to see the nine decorative pipes and hear the organ “sing.”
“They don’t make organs like this anymore,” Lensing said, predicting that the Kilgen and Son organ, made by a company that has been out of business for more than 100 years, will continue to provide beautiful worship music for many years to come.