Strasburg's Millennium Cross symbolizes heritage and faith of German-Russians

By Allan Burke, Editor

Emmons County Record, Linton, North Dakota, September 14, 1999, page 9.

Bishop Paul A. Zipfel of the Bismarck Diocese blessed the Millennium Cross on the grounds of Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Strasburg on Saturday during a dedication ceremony for the 18-foot, black and gold iron cross.

The bishop thanked everyone who made the Millennium Cross possible and said the cross represents faith in God as the world approaches the new millennium.

Bishop Zipfel offered the "Third Millennium Prayer," for the occasion:

"Good and gracious God, Creator of all that is, we are your people embraced by your love."

"You opened the doors of your Kingdom through the birth of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, through his preaching and teaching, suffering and dying, Jesus taught us how to live as people pleasing to you."

"As we stand on the threshold of the third millennium, fill us with your love and the gift of your Holy Spirit. Free us from that which keeps us from you. Awaken us to the sacred. Inspire us to promote human dignity and restore justice. Heal us from every form of sin and violence. Reconcile us so enemies become friends. Enliven our parishes and unite our families."

"May we see your face in every human being and respond to each other as sisters and brothers in Christ. Help us to open wide the doors of Western North Dakota to your Kingdom and to your very heart."

"We ask this in the name of Jesus your Son, our Lord, who lives with you and the Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen."

Following the dedication program, the bishop celebrated Mass, with the assistance of Father Leonard Eckroth of Sts. Peter & Paul and Father Richard Eckroth of St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota.

The Millennium Cross was designed by Brother Placid Stuckenschneider, O.S.B., of St. John's Abbey. Gary Just of Artistic Iron Works in Bismarck made the cross, and donors included Knights of Columbus Council No. 3971 and the Strasburg State Bank.

Iron Cross Program

The dedication opened with a presentation by Dr. Timothy J. Kloberdanz of Fargo, a folklorist and scholar from NDSU's Department of Sociology/Anthropology.

Kloberdanz said the iron crosses erected as grave markers by German-Russian immigrants are symbols of faith and heritage.

He said iron crosses are found in Ukrainian, Bohemian, Polish and sometimes Irish cemeteries, but he said North Dakota has more iron crosses than any other state. Most of North Dakota's iron crosses are found in the "German-Russian Triangle," of which Emmons County is part.

Kloberdanz said iron crosses go back at least to the 1500s, and some of the early crosses are still standing. He said early crosses, like Strasburg's Millennium Cross, were Black with gold designs.

It is believed that the first iron cross marker was actually a sword. He said the legend is that a German warrior wielded a sword in battle, and when he died, his sword was thrust into the ground as a marker at the foot of his grave.

He noted that many iron crosses, including the early ones, have a small container for Holy Water so that a grave can be blessed when people visit.

Kloberdanz said Germans took their iron cross tradition with them when they started going to Russia in the 1700s.

"Most of the German-Russian villages are gone today, and the few that remain look very different," Kloberdanz said. "When the Communists took over, they destroyed many of the German buildings and desecrated cemeteries. Churches were either destroyed or converted to other uses."

Kloberdanz said when he visited his ancestral Catholic village in Russia in 1991 he found the church cemetery which appeared to no longer have iron crosses. However, he met an elderly woman at the cemetery and she smiled when he asked about the disappearance of the iron crosses. She took him to a large lilac bush that covered the grave of a priest, and hidden by the bush was a beautiful iron cross, which the Communists never found.

He said the iron cross tradition continued when German-Russians started immigrating to the United States in the 1870s and 1880s. He said iron was preferred over wood because of the metal's permanence and because wood markers would have been destroyed by the prairie fires that plagued the pioneers.

Kloberdanz noted that some of the iron cross craftsmen, such as Paul Keller and Jake Schneider, came from Emmons County. Three generations of Schneiders--Jake, his son Debert and his grandsons Louie and Jake--were outstanding iron cross makers. They originated in the Hauge area and later moved to Fort Yates.

"Iron crosses speak to us today in very real ways that connect us to the living," Kloberdanz said.

He told of visiting the St. John's Catholic Cemetery north of Zeeland where six children and a nephew of Michael and Louisa Feist are buried under a row of seven matching iron crosses. The children died during a diphtheria epidemic in 1898. He read a tribute to the children entitled, "When Human Eyes Run Dry of Tears," which was written as if it had come from a pioneer mother's diary. The tribute recounted the tragic deaths, one by one, of the children.

Kloberdanz said iron crosses are still being made by Herman Kraft and Ervin Keller of Timber Lake, S.D., and others.

"The iron cross endures as a symbol of heritage and deep and abiding faith," Kloberdanz concluded.

The program was made possible by a grant from the North Dakota Humanities Council and sponsored by the Strasburg Chapter of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society.

After the dedication and Mass, a traditional German-Russian dinner was served in the church basement by the Strasburg Chapter. Bishop Zipfel offered the blessing and dined with the crowd.

Reprinted with permission of the Emmons County Record.