The Mount Saint Joseph chapel covered in snow. Photograph is dated between the late 1920s to the early 1930s. COURTESY OF ARCHIVES
O Come Let Us Adore Him: Midnight Mass at Mount Saint Joseph in 1939
BY EDWARD WILSON, ARCHIVES
(Created from the firsthand accounts of the Mount Saint Joseph annals.)
On December 24, 1939, at 11:20 p.m., Mount Saint Joseph’s bell rings out across the freezing cold night in St. Joseph, Kentucky. A faint procession of headlights can be seen in the distance making their way toward the MSJ campus. Some are already near enough to begin making their way up the hill that the Mount sits atop. The first car pulls in and parks. It’s a black Oldsmobile Six.
The driver’s side door swings open. The heavy, cold, steel door lets out a whining creek. A man, resembling Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” steps out. He makes his way around the front of the large car and opens the passenger door for his wife. As soon as she exits the car, her seat flies forward, and five small children pour out of the backseat of the sedan, laughing and full of Christmas excitement. The man laughs as well and turns just in time to see Fr. Andrew Zoeller making his way into the chapel rubbing his hands together with his frozen breath making its way into the night across his cold red cheeks. The man waves. Fr. Zoeller smiles and gives a quick wave back, throwing his bright pink hand into the frigid air, before swiftly drawing it back to avoid the cold. The priest then quickly makes his way into the chapel followed by two more priests and a line of deacons.
By now, more cars are parking and a crowd of people in hats and heavy wool coats begin heading towards the chapel. Some children wipe their eyes sleepily, having been awoken in the middle of the night; others excitedly make their way towards the chapel, having been allowed to stay up late.
Entering the chapel and shaking off the cold, the crowd is greeted with the angelic voices of dozens of sisters singing “O Holy Night.” Some young sisters in white veils giggle and wave at the children as they make their way in. The children laugh and wave back, their eyes full of joy. A doting father with a large mustache picks up his little blonde-haired daughter to let her dip her tiny, raised finger in the holy water.
Soft blue lights adorn the chapel for the occasion and every humble soul in attendance is transported to the first Christmas night. The blue lights become twinkling stars above the altar, where the Savior will soon make his appearance. The High Mass is sung, followed by two Low Masses.
By 1:30, the Masses end. The large doors swing open, and the cold Christmas air begins to file into the chapel as the people begin to file out. During the Masses, snow had begun to fall and now blanketed the world outside. One of the young postulants, too excited to contain her joy, announces, “A beautiful white Christmas! Every tree a Christmas Tree!”
And the children, so excited to stay up late, now leave the chapel asleep in their parents’ arms, dreaming of presents, family and snowy Christmas nights in Saint Joseph, Kentucky.
Edward Wilson is the director of the Diocese of Owensboro’s Archives and the Archives of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph. Comments and questions may be sent to [email protected].
Originally printed in the December 2025 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.
