ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, December 26, 1995             TAG: 9512260062
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER

BELL RINGS OUT ITS FIRST 100 YEARS

THE BELL OF ST. ANDREW'S has been calling the faithful to worship since Christmas 1895.

One hundred years ago, the men working in the Roanoke Machine Works threw in their nickels, dimes and quarters as the metal melted for a bell for St. Andrew's Catholic Church. They wanted to share in the making of the bell for the city's young Catholic church.

A few days later - on Christmas morning 1895 - the bell rang out from its hilltop in Northwest Roanoke. It's been calling St. Andrew's parishioners to Mass ever since.

"It used to be, it would call to the people in the neighborhood: Get on up here. Church's about to start," St. Andrew's member Rick Stump says. "Now it's more of a sentimental-type thing."

These days, Roanoke is a much bigger place, and most St. Andrew's members live far enough away that they drive to Mass. But the bell still has special meaning for many parishioners. "It just sounds nice when you're sitting there in church," Stump said.

On Monday - Christmas morning 1995 - the Rev. James Fosnot commemorated the 100th anniversary of the first ringing of the St. Andrew's bell with a simple ceremony.

He walked out back of the church to the bell tower with the morning's altar servers, Billy Maas, 11, and Emily Maas, 9. A cold wind whipped through their thin vestments.

"Go see if it's frozen, Billy," the priest said as they approached the bell tower. "I hope it works."

Then, Fosnot read a prayer of blessing and rededication, speaking of how bells have long called Christians to worship.

Then Billy and Emily went inside the tower to ring the 1,000-pound bell. They tugged the bell ropes as hard as they could. The bell rang, but not as loud as it usually does. Perhaps the bell indeed was frozen, Fosnot said. Billy Maas wondered if a squirrel had crawled into the belfry and died.

With that, the ceremony was over, and Billy, Emily and Fosnot went inside for the 9 a.m. Mass.

The bell, which is 35 inches tall and 38 inches in diameter, was the work of the Rev. John Lynch, who said the first Catholic Mass in Roanoke in 1882 in a railroad car. A year later, Roanoke's Catholics built a small red-brick church overlooking downtown Roanoke.

The metal for the bell was melted the night of Dec. 16, 1895, according to a history of St. Andrew's by Margaret Maier Cochener. Once it was finished, parishioners found it was too heavy for the belfry. So they quickly built a tower out front.

The current church building was completed five years later, and eventually a new bell tower was constructed behind it. 

LENGTH: Medium:   62 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. 1. Above, Billy Maas, 11, 

          rings the bell at Roanoke's St. Andrew's Catholic Church on Monday 

          morning. It was the 100th anniversary of the first ringing of the 

          1,000-pound bell, which is housed in its own tower behind the 

          church.  2. At left, Billy and his sister, Emily Maas, 9, pull the 

          rope to ring the bell. color.
by CNB