by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
After Catholic Mass, blessings abounded the morning of April 24 in St. Stephen when the Rev. Robert Harren, followed by his congregation, crossed the street from the church and blessed a long line of tractors with his handheld holy water sprinkler.
The ceremony was performed in honor of St. Isidore the Laborer, a Spaniard renowned for his love of farm workers and animals during his life (107—1130 A.D.) He is considered by Catholics the patron saint of farming.
The blessing also included farm seeds that farmers will use in spring planting – for fields and gardens.
“The blessing enables us to realize our work forms a bond and a channel of mutual service and charity between members of our human family,” Harren said. “By their labor, farmers and gardeners share in the work of caring for and using God’s good earth to produce food for all to enjoy.”
A wide variety of makes and models of tractors were lined up in the parking lot across from St. Stephen Catholic Church. The oldest was a heavy, steam-belching behemoth – a Case-brand steam engine at least 100 years old and owned by Nancy Vouk of St. Stephen. The runt of the bunch was the parish’s X-590 John Deere lawn-mowing rider.
Although John Deere green predominated, there was also a variety of very old fire-orange Case tractors, bright red Farmall tractors and a couple of very old gray Ford tractors. One of the stand-outs was an upstart John Deere “pretender,” a once-red Farmall tractor that had been gussied up by its owner, painted in John Deere green (see related story).
Some of the machines are driven just now and then as collector items, but others are still used for farm work, and several took part in a couple of St. Stephen-area plowing shows after Harren’s blessing.
Jeff Palm’s 1952 8-N Ford tractor, for example, he uses to do his garden and food plots in rural St. Stephen. He bought the old machine in Nebraska and just two weeks ago, students at St. Cloud Technical and Community College repainted the machine – its original colors (gray top, red-orange underbelly). That kind of tractor is often dubbed a “Red Belly,” Palm noted.
“It rides like a champ,” Palm said.
Jerry Mehr, also of St. Stephen, came with his 1932 Fordson, a tractor that had once been used in the fields of faraway Ireland.
Rural St. Stephen resident Frank Vouk drove up to the parking lot on a 1955 Super C. Farmall; his brother Jake was driving a 1941 Case. Their neighbor, Paul Schumer, pulled up in a 1949 Farmall, and Rich Hansen of St. Stephen, a collector, brought one of his machines – a John Deer 520, circa 1957, which he intended to use in the plowing contest a bit later in the day.
The tractor-and-seed blessing event was organized by the Church of St. Stephen’s Vibrancy Committee, whose members are Harren, Liz Legatt, Lori Pogatchnik, Larry Rudolph and Chuck Spychala.
Fr. Robert Harren walks past a row of tractors, blessing each one by sprinkling holy water on them.
A giant Case steam engine and the St. Stephen Catholic Church are visuals that define the St. Stephen area’s illustrious past – one of hard work, agricultural tradition and a strong foundation of faith. The steam engine and many other tractors were blessed April 24 in a ceremony across from the church in honor of St. Isidore, the Catholic patron saint of farming.
Jerry Mehr of St. Stephen is proud of his 1932 Fordson tractor, which was used in Ireland at one time.
Many of the oldest tractors brought to the blessing ceremony in St. Stephen are still highly functional and practical. Jeff Palm of St. Stephen sits astride his 1952 8-N Ford, which he uses for his garden plots.
Jake Vouk drove his 1941 Case tractor to downtown St. Stephen to join in on the tractor-and-seed blessing ceremony April 24.
Frank Vouk arrives at the blessing ceremony with his faded-red 1955 Super C International Harvester McCormick Farmall tractor.
