On This Date in Nativity History
9 May 2014
On this date, Nativity held the Mass of Christian Burial for Pastor Father Richard Martin, who died from complications from diabetes the preceding Saturday. The day preceding the Mass, parishioners and others stood in the midday heat for hours in a line that extended out of the church and well into the surrounding grounds to view Father Martin’s casket and share condolences with his family. Parochial Vicar Father Bill Korpi described that day in these words:
“Well, it turned out that on the day of the viewing we were supposed to start at 11:00 and by 10:00 there were people who couldn’t even get into the church, and they were standing outside. By the end of the day the line was wrapped around our building a couple of times. . . We were trying to get them inside because it was a blistering hot day. . . The funeral director estimated that 20,000 people came through that day. I thought we’d get 5,000 and we got 20,000 people. . . The viewing started at 11:00, and the line never ended the entire day, there was never even a small break in the line. The last people came through at 11:00 at night. People were still coming in when I said, “Okay that’s it.” It was the most amazing thing.”
The next day the Mass was scheduled to begin at 12:00 noon, preceded at 11:00 am by music by the combined Nativity choirs and cantors. Many parishioners attended the daily Mass that day that began at 7:30 am, and stayed in their pews after that Mass concluded so they would have a seat. The church was packed to beyond capacity, and via closed circuit television the Mass was televised to hundreds more in the school cafeteria. Attendance that day was estimated at more than 5,000.
