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(Christmas)

The Legend of Big Joe the Church Bell

Inside the 260-foot German Gothic steeple of St. Francis de Sales Church near Cincinnati, Ohio, hang ''Big Joe'' -- the largest church bell and the largest swinging bell -- that is, a bell designed to be rung with a clapper instead of a hammer or mechanical piston - ever cast in the United States. It weighs 37,000 pounds, has a 9-foot diameter at its base and measures 7 feet from its rim to its crown. Named after from Joseph T. Buddeke, the parishioner who presented it to the church, Big Joe was intended to be a replica of “Big Ben” in London, except that Big Ben was never a swinging bell.

(Note: The World Peace Bell is larger but was cast outside the United States.)

According to a legend, ''Big Joe'' was swung in its steeple just once, in January 1896. It responded with a serious E flat in the third octave below middle C. At that moment, every window facing the church for several blocks is said to have been blown out of its frame. The peal of the bell could be heard for fifteen miles. So the story says that it was decided that the big bell must never swing again. The church immobilized the bell by removing the clapper and installing a mechanical device that strikes a hammer against the outside of the bell.

It’s probably just a legend with no historical basis. ''Big Joe's'' cast-iron clapper is on display at the Verdin Company museum in Cincinnati. There is a slight flattening on one side, indicating more wear than one would expect if the bell had been swung on only one occasion.

Walter C. McKelvey, commenting on the legend, wrote: “Is not this the tragic picture of Christmas as lived out by many people? The mightiest and most joyful song of the ages, because we are afraid of its effect, is too frequently reduced by human behavior to little more than a faint tinkle.”

So, dear friends, this Christmas don’t be tapping the bell with a hammer when the most glorious news the world has ever heard deserves to be proclaimed with the proud swinging of a massive bell. Let the news ring out! Christ is born!

--Rocky Henriques, www.timothyreport.com