Copyright 2004 Star Tribune
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
September 17, 2004, Friday, Metro Edition
SECTION: NEWS; Nick Coleman; Pg. 2B

LENGTH: 851 words

HEADLINE: St. Paul is in mourning for its lost Angelus; Yokes of the cathedral's bells are cracked, and many factors complicate repairs

BYLINE: Nick Coleman; Staff Writer

BODY: The "voices of St. Paul" are silent, and they may not speak again for months.

Today I share the unhappy news that the bells of the Cathedral of St. Paul - bells that have become familiar and beloved since they were installed 18 years ago - have fallen silent, and that no one knows how long it will be before they ring again.

I told you how much I love the cathedral bells after a thunderstorm struck St. Paul on July 11 and lightning fried a computer component that regulates the five bronze bells. They were knocked out of commission for 10 days, silencing the tolling of the hours and the ringing of the Angelus at noon and 6 p.m. The ancient ritual calls the faithful to prayer with a stirring pealing of the bells that exceeds 100 chimes, and it used to drive Protestants to conversion or out of the neighborhood. Last time I numbered the chimes, during a noon Angelus in June, I counted 148 separate bongs, and life was good.

But now, in the middle of a political season that makes me alert to any sign or sound of heaven, God is throwing us hurricanes, and the bells of St. Paul have been hushed.

This time they can't be fixed by replacing a $49 computer part. The job will be a lot bigger and a lot more expensive: Cracks have been discovered in the steel yokes from which the bells hang in the southeast tower of the cathedral.

After the lightning stopped them, the bells were back in operation by July 21. But just eight days later, cracks were discovered during a routine inspection. Unfortunately, there will be nothing routine about fixing them.

The eight and a half tons of bells were cast by a French firm and installed by two American companies, and if you think that lawyers may have to help sort out the liabilities before any workers get their hands on repairing the actual problem, then you're familiar with the ways of the world.

The cathedral has contacted the French manufacturer and its American partners, asking whether the yokes shouldn't have lasted longer and whether they might have been designed without enough respect for the extremes of Minnesota weather.

There are no immediate threats of lawsuits, and the initial communications between the cathedral and the companies that installed the bells have been civil. But the earliest that they will be heard again is during the Christmas season. And there is no guarantee that they will ring then.

"It could be next spring," says Alan Spillers, the cathedral's communications director, who delivered the grim news to me Thursday. "And that's if we started today, and the weather was fine, and we were able to work out all the responsibilities."

If you'd like to hear the bells again soon, prayer may be the best hope.

They cost $280,000 when they were installed in time for Christmas in 1986. In today's money, that's about $460,000. Spillers estimates the cost of getting them down from the bell tower, storing them and replacing the five yokes - all of which must be custom made - at between $50,000 and $80,000. That's an early estimate, and it's not clear which companies are responsible for making which repairs and which costs may have to be picked up by the cathedral, a self-supporting parish of about 3,000 members.

"It's terrible," says Spillers. "No one's laughing about it here. The first thing we have to do is discuss the responsibilities and whether it was faulty design or what. That means lawyers are involved, and you might say the letters are in the mail. But we are committed to doing this [repairing the bells], by hook or by crook."

The bells range in size from three-quarters of a ton all the way up to almost three and a half tons, with the largest and loudest one dedicated to the apostle whose name was bestowed on the capital city.

When the yokes holding the two largest bells were found to be cracked, cathedral officials turned off the mechanical system that swings the bells from side to side and switched to an electrical system that rings them by activating clappers. If you went past the cathedral in late July or early August, and the bells sounded strangely hollow, it was because they were motionless, being struck by the clappers.

Further inspections revealed cracks in the smaller yokes as well, and consultants warned that even the electronic clappers might be putting too much stress on the faulty yokes.

In late August the bells went silent for the duration.

It took 71 years from the opening of the cathedral in 1915 until the bells went up. With any luck, it won't take that long to get them ringing again.

St. Paul is not the same without them. Unfortunately, there is no choice but to keep the bells muffled until their yokes can be replaced. Hanging 100 feet above the street, eight and a half tons of bronze bells would make a big dent, not to mention a big noise, if they should fall.

That would be a bell ringing that the people of St. Paul never want to hear.

Nick Coleman is at ncoleman@startribune.com.

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