Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Braiding palms is a 65-year family tradition
Braiding palms is a 65-year family tradition
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published June 20, 2008
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Frederick Wenson and his granddaughter, Katie Wenson, then 9, both wear braided palm corsages in this 2005 photo with Cardinal Adam Maida. |
Detroit – Anyone who has ever seen the elaborately braided palm carried by Cardinal Adam Maida during the procession at a Palm Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament has seen the work of Frederick "Fritz" Wenson.
In fact, anyone who has seen the braided palms carried in previous years by Detroit archbishops going all the way back to Cardinal Edward Mooney has seen the work of the Wenson family.
It is a tradition that goes back 65 years, established by his mother, Katherine Marie Wenson.
Frederick Wenson, 78, who now lives in Surprise, Ariz., and belongs to St. Clare of Assisi Parish there, recalls how it all got started.
"In 1943, I was in the eighth grade at Blessed Sacrament Elementary School. My eighth grade teacher was a nun named Sr. Ludmilla. She was in charge of decorating the altar at the cathedral," he remembers.
Just before Palm Sunday that year, Wenson's mother braided a small palm for him to take to his teacher.
"When Sr. Ludmilla saw the braided palm, she phoned my mother and asked mom if she would consider braiding palms for the cardinal for use during the next year's blessing of palms ceremony. My mother was honored and agreed," he recounts.
So, Sr. Ludmilla got together with Wenson's mother to discuss the matter, and St. Ludmilla told her at least a dozen braided palms would be needed – one for each member of the clergy who would be taking part in the procession.
His mother agreed to supply as many as would be needed, but to do so she informed young Fritz and his two brothers and sister that she would teach them the art of palm-braiding, so they could help make all that would be required.
Well, his brothers were not interested, but he and his sister, Shirley, were.
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Antoinette Wenson, Frederick Wenson’s wife, poses outside their Arizona home with the large braided palm Cardinal Adam Maida would carry in the blessing of palms in 2006. |
"We braided the palms, but my mother said she would braid a special palm for the cardinal. After all, he was the main celebrant and deserved the best one," Wenson says.
So, "On Palm Sunday 1944, Cardinal Mooney and his concelebrants carried woven/braided palms from the gym, at Belmont and John R, to the front of the cathedral, and up the aisle to the altar," he continues.
Wenson tells how Cardinal Mooney was so impressed with the braided palms that he had an assistant gather them up after Mass, and he kept them in his private chapel.
And the cardinal told the Wensons he would keep them all until the following year, when he would have them burned for the Ash Wednesday distribution, all except that one Mrs. Wenson had braided especially for him, which he would keep as a memento.
"He said he considered that his braided palm was perhaps better than the one the pope carried during Palm Sunday. He said he was very proud of it, and this made my mother cry," Wenson recalls.
His mother made young Fritz promise he would never braid a special palm for anyone other than Detroit's archbishops. Well, it would also be all right to braid one for the pope, should that opportunity ever arise. And Wenson says he has kept that promise. What started back then with Cardinal Mooney has continued through his successors, Cardinals John Dearden, Edmund C. Szoka and Adam Maida.
Over the years, the braided palms have become more complex in design. "The palms today are much more elaborate than in 1943," Wenson says, adding there have been some other changes to the tradition.
"Of course, they do not have the parade on Belmont anymore," he notes, because of the renovation of the cathedral and reconfiguring of the grounds.
The blessing of the palms used to be done in the gym, at Belmont and John R. "Now, the blessing is done in the back of the cathedral or outside on the plaza, weather permitting," he continues.
But Wenson is still braiding palms, year after year. "My son, Tony, who lives in West Bloomfield Township, sends me the palms, and I do one for the cardinal and bring it back to Michigan and visit with the cardinal," he says.
Tony Wenson, a member of Prince of Peace Parish, has also learned the art of palm-braiding. "We now braid two special palms for the cardinal. One, I do, the other my son Tony does," Frederick Wenson says.
"To perpetuate the 65- year-old tradition, my son has learned to braid a special palm. The cardinal keeps one, and the other is kept at the cathedral, with great care, by the rector, Msgr. Michael LeFevre, for viewing during Holy Week," he continues.
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A braided palm corsage by Frederick Wenson rests in a bottle. |
Wenson recalls feeling it a special honor when, in the early days of Cardinal Szoka's time as archbishop, he and his wife were invited to join then-Archbishop Szoka, Cardinal John Dearden and Msgr. James Robinson, SSE, the cathedral rector then, for lunch at the archbishop's residence. "Wow!" he says.
Another thrill for Wenson comes when, every year, during the Palm Sunday Mass recessional, when Cardinal Maida "stops at my pew, offers me his ring for me to kiss, and thanks me. Again, wow! This brings tears to my eyes and I know that wherever my mom is, she is very proud of me," he adds.
Wenson's special talent has been recognized with a Michigan Heritage Award, and the History Channel even did a piece about him, but he does not seek any recognition.
"I am reluctant to have what I do publicized. I have done it for my mom, my cardinals and, of course, for God. That's all I need."
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