The peals of a beloved bell that calls parishioners to mass can be heard once again in the bucolic neighborhood surrounding St. Matthias in Athens, Texas.

The bell was silenced more than 40 years ago when the church sold its original building and negotiators could not get the new buyers to let them keep it. The bell, which had originally been part of the William Richardson Farm nearby, had been donated to the church in 1950 as a memorial for former parishioner Alice Gaston, recalled parishioner Mary Ann Perryman, who was confirmed at the church in 1947 when she was a junior in High School. But when St. Matthias sold its building to another church in 1971, the new owners would not let them keep the bell.

“I arranged the sale,” recalled parishioner Bob Gould. “We agreed on everything until we got to the bell and they would not let us have it. We told them it was a memorial and we needed to keep it and they said ‘no.’ They remodeled, sealed off the bell tower and never used it. They just didn’t want us to have it.”

About six years ago, someone notified St. Matthias that the bell had been stored in a nearby barn and was for sale, but church leaders declined to buy back their bell. Recently, the person storing the bell offered it to them for free if they would remove it from the barn, and St. Matthias accepted the offer. No one knows how much the bell weighs but it took two or three people to lift and carry it.

Since the bell hadn’t been used much over the last 40 years, it was in mostly good condition, said parishioner Peggy Gould. They repaired the clacker and added a powder coating that would allow for a thin layer of rust to form on the bell to create an orange patina, she said. The church also commissioned an artist who works with metals to create a tower-of-the-trinity to house the bell just a few feet outside the church.

Parishioners at St. Matthias now lovingly tease Father Matthew Frick, who rings the bell 30 minutes and 15 minutes before each service, by saying that he will likely come up with more “excuses” to ring it.

Frick said pulling the rope makes him think of early rural America when people traveled by horse and buggy, and the sound of the bell would let them know how long they had to get to church. “I like to ring it,” he said unapologetically. “The newness has not worn off!”

Bishop George Sumner is scheduled to bless the bell at 6 p.m., Sept. 23 at St. Matthias. Members of the congregation said they look forward to the blessing. “I love it,” said parishioner Betty Wallace. “I think the bell is happy to be home.”

Prayer for the Blessing of a Church Bell