A year after Stephen and Hannah Schneider got married at St. Paul in Ham Lake, they wanted to start a family. But the two 28-year-olds battled infertility when they decided in 2019 to try for their first child.
“One month turned into two, turned into three, turned into five, turned into 10,” Stephen recalled of their attempts to achieve pregnancy. “And we’re like, ‘Oh man, this is not what we thought was going to happen.’”
Enter a painting at Immaculate Conception in Lonsdale commissioned in 2009 by the pastor there at the time, Father Troy Przybilla, who, coincidentally, is the pastor of the parish the Schneiders belong to now, St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony. The couple found out about the painting from Hannah’s confirmation sponsor at St. Paul, and the woman encouraged Hannah to go with Stephen to the Lonsdale church and pray before the image of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary, and ask for their intercession to conceive a child.
The 20-by-30-inch painting, featuring a visibly pregnant St. Anne, was created by local artist Eric Menzhuber, an art teacher at Holy Spirit Academy in Monticello. The idea was to have an image connecting to the parish’s namesake as a way of drawing people to a true and deeper understanding of this important event that brought the Blessed Virgin into being. Both Father Przybilla and the current pastor of Immaculate Conception, Father Nick VanDenBroeke, noted that some people mistakenly believe the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Christ.
Stephen and Hannah, however, were fully aware of the correct meaning of this term as they headed down to Lonsdale for Sunday morning Mass and prayer at the image in January 2020. It was about an hour drive from their home, “far enough away to be a little bit of a pilgrimage,” Hannah said.
After what Stephen described as a “beautiful Mass,” the couple made their way to the image, which is located on a wall just to the left of the sanctuary near the Communion rail. The pews eventually emptied, and they took advantage of the ensuing silence to offer up their petition for conceiving a child.
The two “lit a candle and just asked for the Blessed Virgin Mary’s intercession — in our marriage, in our life, and made an act of consecration and a petition and a prayer at that moment,” Stephen said. “It was cool for us. We had done a consecration to Mary to start our marriage, and so it really was just a beautiful experience of spiritual growth. (Then) we left — our hearts full and just the grace of the day with us.”
Two weeks later, Hannah took a home pregnancy test. It was positive. Their son, Maximilian, was born in October 2020. Almost two years later, in July 2022, they had a daughter, Agnes. Although they got the concrete result they had been hoping and praying for, they are quick to point out that their pilgrimage to Lonsdale has had an impact beyond the conception of their first child.
“We really saw a spiritual growth from that,” said Stephen, who recently was chosen to be one of 12 parish representatives for the Synod Evangelization Team at St. Charles. An important part was “letting God direct our life and be OK and trusting with the plan that he has in store for us,” he said. He believes it will be a lesson that lasts a lifetime.
When Father Przybilla first entertained the idea of commissioning a painting of the Immaculate Conception, he did not have this kind of result in mind. Rather, he simply wanted to put up a piece of artwork befitting the name of the parish.
After arriving in 2007, he learned that the church previously had a large image of Mary on the back wall behind the altar, but it had been taken down when the walls were repainted. To him, the interior of the church “seemed like a blank canvas,” and he wanted some artwork to go up.
So, he began praying about it. Time after time, a thought kept coming to him: the Immaculate Conception.
“The image just kept coming, so much so in prayer that it was distracting,” he said. “It was hard to even pray in the church because every time I’d pray, I would get these thoughts about the Immaculate Conception.”
He started searching online for ideas on how to paint this important event, then contacted Menzhuber, who once had been a seminary classmate and who has made art for local churches and The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul. The two discussed the content of the image — specifically, St. Anne being pregnant with Mary — and what it would cost. For the size Father Przybilla wanted, Menzhuber’s price was $5,000.
Not affordable, the priest thought. He started to consider downsizing the image to lower the cost. While he was discerning the financial aspect, a woman approached him in the sacristy one day and said she wanted to donate to the church.
“And I said, ‘Oh, really?’” Father Przybilla recalled. “And she goes, ‘But, I want it to be for artwork.’”
Next, he asked how much she wanted to give. “And, she said, ‘$5,000,’” Father Przybilla said.
“And so I thought, ‘OK, Lord, you want this to happen.’”
With the financing secured, Father Przybilla sat down with Menzhuber to plan the artwork. Key visual elements for the painting were a tree stump in the foreground, signifying the “stump of Jesse,” a Scriptural message referring to the lineage of Mary and Jesus; a landscape showing small remnants of snow and the appearance of birds to signify the coming of spring after a long, cold winter; and a brightening sky signifying the coming of dawn.
“Mary’s Immaculate Conception is the anticipation of the Son of God to bring light to the world, to bring warmth to people’s hearts with his love and his mercy,” Father Przybilla explained.
The finishing touch of Menzhuber’s creation was capturing the landscape of rural Lonsdale, with its mixture of woods, agricultural fields, lakes and rolling hills. Father Przybilla calls the region “beautiful country.”
Menzhuber studied and photographed the Lonsdale countryside before putting brushstrokes to the canvas in order to have visual elements for his painting. Although he found Father Przybilla’s idea to be a bit unusual, Menzhuber, 47, said he “loved” the concept and “was just really happy to be a part of it.”
As the painting took shape and eventually found its place in the church interior, Father Przybilla began thinking about couples struggling with infertility, and began praying for them. Eventually, he had prayer cards made, and he now suggests a visit to the painting in Lonsdale if he talks with couples who are having difficulty achieving a pregnancy. He has heard of a few success stories, like what happened to the Schneiders, and is glad people are taking the time to go to Lonsdale to pray, no matter the outcome.
One of the painting’s admirers is Father VanDenBroeke, who came to Immaculate Conception in 2017 and has found continued inspiration from Menzhuber’s artwork.
“I love the image because it shows the Immaculate Conception in a way that’s not generally portrayed,” Father VanDenBroeke said. “I think it teaches a lot about not only Mary and salvation history… but it also has a powerful connection with pro-life, and that all life is precious in the womb.”
The Schneiders have not gone back to the Lonsdale church since their first visit but have told select friends about their pilgrimage. More opportunities to talk about it could come from Stephen’s new role with the Synod and the increased opportunities for conversations it likely will bring.
“We like to try to tell the story because it’s a cool story,” said Stephen, who noted that he and Hannah got a reproduction of the image and now have it hanging in their bedroom.
Meanwhile, Father VanDenBroeke welcomes anyone who might want to visit his church and pray before the painting. Near the painting are a statue of Mary and a relic from her veil.
“I would invite anyone to pray generally to Our Lady, asking her to help us to follow Christ her son, and more specifically for couples who are seeking to conceive a child,” he said. “The image is beautiful, and so it inspires us in our faith. That’s … what Catholic art should do.”
