On March 22, 1976, the community of St. Paschal's Friary celebrated, in simple fashion, a monumental occasion in the history of the Sacred Heart Province. It was on that day that Bro. Ignatius Zwiesler "officially" closed his career of 48 years as cincture weaver for the Province. Spanning a period from June 1, 1928, to date, he completed at least 256,584 yards (9,237,024 inches) of white woolen cords - certainly no small achievement! We in the Sacred Heart Province owe a debt of gratitude to Brother Ignatius for his years of dedication and humble service.

Brother Ignatius demonstrates a hand-operated weaving loom used in 1922.

Actually the story of Brother Ignatius and his woolen cinctures began six years previously in 1922 when, as a young simply professed brother in West Park, he was asked to start weaving some cinctures by hand, the only method known at that time. Accordingly, it took him 11 hours to weave just twelve feet of cord in one day. Realizing this to be a pace not compatible with the demand for cords from the Province, Brother felt it his duty to come up with as many ideas as possible and to begin a series of experiments attempting to construct some type of machine to increase the production rate. The first attempt met with little success. The second, erected out of cardboard, made but little progress as did the third. Six years passed without any great breakthrough. Then in 1928, the fourth machine proved to be a charm as it was now equipped to weave eight inches in one minute - a vast improvement over the handweaving technique! One year later he unveiled his famous fifth machine (shown here in the Teutopolis Museum in 1998) with additional improvements, built more durably and the quality of the cord produced became more refined as well. This fifth machine proved quite adequate until 1954.

During the intervening years (from what we can gather), Brother Ignatius' shop was moved to Indianapolis during the War and then to Teutopolis, Illinois, where he continued to produce an abundance of cords, to say nothing of his other inventive acomplishments. Then in April, 1954, Brother placed a motor onto the machine to increase its speed and thus augment its capacity for production. In fact, the rate was now doubled so as to yield 16 inches in one minute! Now, this aided in accommodating the progressively increasing demand for cinctures not only within the Sacred Heart Province but other provinces, custodies, commisariats, and sisters' congregations as well. Necessity being the Mother of Invention, between 1954-1960 alone, Brother Ignatius produced over 50,000 yards of cinctures for various communities. If our figures are accurate, machines No. 4 and No. 5 accounted for 237,579 yards of cord! These two machines are preserved now in the friary museum in Teutopolis and are on display for the viewing public.

Now back in 1954, Brother had received permission from Fr. Eligius Weir, provincial at that time, to begin a large-scale project for the invention of still another new machine. The project was completed only in 1960 when Brother Ignatius could say that it ran to his complete satisfaction. When the old Teutopolis Seminary was closed, this new machine was then transferred up to St. Paschal's Brothers' School in Oak Brook, Illinois, but it was put to little, if any, use.

When Fr. General Constantine Koser came for a visitation of all the friars in North America in 1974, he also visited Brother Ignatius and his "world renowned" cord machine. Fr. General was overflowing with praise and compliments to Brother and very grateful for all his labor spent in the service of the brotherhood. In fact, ask Brother Ignatius about the color photo of the two of them standing in front of the sixth machine and he'll break into a giant smile recalling the momentous day. This photo remains as one of his few "treasures."

Ignatius thus weaved his "last official" length of cord on March 22, 1976, running the total number of yards woven over those four years to 6,844 - and thus a lifetime output of well over 300,000 (10,800,000 inches)! Incredible by any standard! Brother is engaged at the moment in training Bro. Herman Joseph James, Province tailor, in the finepoints of cincture weaving and in learning the ins-and-outs of the complex machine. The machine is nearly flawless and any possible error has a countering solution somehow worked right into the machine's operation. It could be also added that Bro. Ignatius' shop contains several other inventions, known to no manufacturer, which aid him in the cincture process and now will be passed on to others within the Order.

If one is in the area of Oak Brook and is interested in seeing this process of cincture weaving, Brother Ignatius just beams at the opportunity of giving demonstrations to those interested. He instructs and shares, not with any amount of boasting or pride, but in a spirit of humility and dedication to serving the fraternity. There is a little metal plaque fastened to the side of the sixth machine which bears out the spirit of Brother Ignatius' service to the Order and his dedication to God. It reads:

In 1975, Fr. Vitus Duschinsky, Minister Provincial, asked the Province Tailor, Br. Herman Joe, to take over the cord weaving. He studied under Br. Ignatius for six months, and after learning from his mistakes and the difficulties of the process, took on the cord-weaving operation. From 1975 until 1982, working only in the mornings, Herman Joe wove 34,215 yards. In 1982, Br. Eugene Besand assisted him weaving 42,700 yards of cord before he retired in 1993. Br. Herman Joe then resumed the cord-weaving and has woven 52,181 yards of cord to date.

The cords are only made for the Franciscan Provinces (OFM, OFM,Conv., OFM,Cap., TOR), Poor Clares, and other Third Order Franciscan priests, Brothers and Sisters. In addition to the United States, Br. Herman Joe has provided cords for Franciscans in Canada, Ireland, Brazil and the Holy Land.