A Centennial Celebration: St. Joseph’s 100th Fall Festival set for Sunday in Rowena

Volunteers are putting the finishing touches on the big centennial celebration of the St. Joseph Fall Festival in Rowena, which is set for Sunday, Nov. 13.

Organizer Pat Vancil said all are invited to come out and help celebrate, especially if they’ve never been before.

“We’ll have a lot going on,” she said. “And everybody always has a great time!”

Vancil said the sausage crew have been hard at work, linking about four-and-a-half tons of the tasty treat, noting that sausage sales are always brisk.

Vancil is the third generation of her family to call Rowena home and she spoke briefly about the history of the Fall Festival.

“My dad was here when the held the first festival,” she said. “The community originally held the festival to honor veterans on Armistice Day, and it just continued from there.”

Vancil said Rowena always had a wide patriotic streak, and the members of VFW Post 9196 have played an integral role in every Fall Festival since, opening the day’s festivities with the flag raising ceremony.

“I really feel that it’s so important to acknowledge their contribution,” she said. “They gave whole years of their lives to serve us, and we like to remember that.”

Bishop Michael Sis of the Diocese of San Angelo said while the festivals represent a great opportunity for people from all over to gather and make new friends, their greatest value may lie in the simple act of bringing all of the volunteers together for a good cause.

“These festivals, and the role they play in the life of the community, can’t be overstated. They are intergenerational; and as they bring the older members in to teach the younger ones, they help ensure the continuation of these special traditions,” he said.

“There are several communities like Rowena,” Sis said. “You know, St. Joseph’s once had a full parochial school, including a high school… And while that has long-since closed, there are still many graduates who live in the area and are quite active in the community.

“St. Joseph’s is a beautiful parish, and architecturally is certainly worth the trip to see… From the stained-glass windows and paintings of the interior to the grounds; It really is a beautiful location.”

St. Joseph’s, along with St. Boniface in Olfen and St. Thomas Parish in Miles are served by Fr. Ariel Lagunilla, who Sis praised as a “true shepherd who ministers his flocks with great constancy and compassion."

St. Joseph’s Fall Festival will open at 10 a.m. Sunday with the flag raising ceremony, and meal service will be from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Adult dine-in or to-go orders are priced at $15 for the traditional turkey and sausage meal, and children 10-years-old and younger eat for $7.

Uncooked sausage will be sold while supplies last and the price is $6 per pound.

A Country Store will be open throughout the day offering interesting homespun goods.

A live auction is set to begin at 1:15 p.m. and a cotton auction will commence at 2 p.m.

Attendees who have worked up an appetite by 4:30 p.m. are encouraged to enjoy the sausage-sandwich supper, which costs $5 and includes tea.

According to organizers, handicapped parking and shuttle bus service will be available, in addition to assistance with seating for the meal for attendees with special needs.

Activities will take place in the parish hall and on church grounds.

For more information, call the church office at 325-442-3521 or 325-365-6447.

Reporter’s notebook:

While the Fall Festival, famous for its sausage sales, dates back to 1922, the parish of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church was founded 115-years ago. The first Mass in Rowena was celebrated on Nov. 20, 1907. The current Gothic church was dedicated in 1924, and deeply renovated between 2012 and 2016, with iconographic murals by Crystal Goodman of San Angelo.

Armistice Day, initially inaugurated on Nov. 11 to honor the veterans of World War I, became Veterans Day in 1954 after a bill was passed in Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, creating a holiday to honor all who have served in America’s Armed Forces.

This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: St. Joseph’s 100th Fall Festival set for Sunday in Rowena