Holy House of Tiffin

A small house in Tiffin has been home to three priests from three different families since it was built in 1940. The unique occurrence proves that fostering holy vocations requires both a healthy Catholic community and a strong domestic church.

BY ELISHA VALLADARES-CORMIER

To the ordinary passerby, Steve and Dena Schreiner’s home on Ella Street in Tiffin seems simple enough: three bedrooms, one bathroom, just over 1,100 square feet. There are close to two acres of land behind the house, a perfect spot to garden or for children to run around. All these observations hold true, but there’s even more than what meets the eye. Not only is Fr. Paul Schreiner, Steve and Dena’s only son, a priest for the Diocese of Toledo and pastor of St. Mary Parish in Vermilion, but he is the third priest over time to come from that same home.

Fr. Eugene Miller, who was born in 1928 and died in 2012, grew up in the home and was ordained a priest for the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity in 1955, serving in several posts throughout the world. Additionally, Fr. Kenneth Alt, whose family sold the home to the Schreiners in 1979, was ordained a priest for the Missionaries of the Precious Blood in 1978 and currently serves as parochial vicar for a group of parishes in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, which are northwest of Dayton.

“Three priests coming from this little place … and it is a little place,” Dena said with a chuckle. “It’s a really neat story when you think about it.”

At the time, the Schreiners only knew about Fr. Kenneth’s recent ordination, so continuing a legacy of producing priestly vocations wasn’t on their radar when they purchased the home just after getting married in 1979. They were both 21 years old at the time and were focused on finding a place they could make into a home to start their family. Dena had lived in Tiffin all her life and her parents lived just a few minutes down the road from the Ella Street house. When they laid eyes on the house, they knew it was the perfect place to raise their kids.

The Schreiners raised four children in the home — Marie, Paul, Renee and Mary — and the space was quickly transformed to accommodate the family’s changing needs. Dena homeschooled the children, so the kitchen table doubled as a massive desk for schoolwork during the day. The living room was a perfect place to both read a book and pray a nightly family rosary. With two kids to a room, however, romping around in the spacious backyard became a staple for sanity, Fr. Paul said.

“It’s hard to fathom how the other families, who had more children, got by with the small amount of space,” he said, laughing. “But we shared a lot of love, making the most of what we had.”

At some point during the family’s early years, Dena learned of Fr. Eugene’s connection to the house through one of the priest’s sisters, Joanne Brickner, who still lived in Tiffin. Eventually, Fr. Eugene returned for a surprise visit to see his old stomping grounds. “He told us stories about growing up here,” Dena said.

In his high school years, Paul began discerning the priesthood in earnest, but he said that he didn’t feel any extra pressure knowing about the two priests who grew up in the house before him. Rather, he said it was the domestic church his parents cultivated and the Catholic community in Tiffin that stoked the fire of his vocation.

“My parents provided the most important thing: the faith and knowing we were loved and supported no matter what the Lord was calling us to,” Fr. Paul said. “And there were so many priestly and religious vocations coming from the Tiffin area who had a fervor to serve their people, it was a testimony of the faith.”

In fact, a particular impression was made on Paul by Fr. Richard Dunn, a retired priest residing at the St. Francis Home in Tiffin. “He displayed the faithful life of a priest — once a priest, always a priest. And I was able to receive his chalice after he passed. He left such a strong impression on me.”

When Paul became a seminarian for the diocese in 2009, the ties to the house became even stronger. He met Fr. Kenneth Alt at a Serra Club event in Tiffin, where they discussed growing up in the same home. At another Serra Club event, Joanne Brickner told thenBishop Leonard P. Blair, who served the diocese from 2003 to 2013 when he left to become archbishop of Hartford, Conn., about the connection, to which he reportedly promised with a wink to buy the house in order to cultivate more vocations, should Paul be ordained.

Fr. Paul was ordained a priest in 2015 by Bishop Daniel E. Thomas, achieving a trifecta of priests to come from a single humble home in Tiffin. And as much as some might want to say it is something intrinsic to the house — Fr. Paul jokes that “maybe it’s the well water or the Sandusky River down the road” leading to the unique pipeline of priests — the Schreiner family knows there’s no doubt that it speaks to the power of the Holy Spirit in the home and the parish. Really, they say, it’s a fulfillment of the diocesan prayer to “foster Holy Disciples, Holy Families and Holy Vocations, so as to become a more Holy Diocese of Toledo.”

“I don’t think there’s anything special about the house,” said Steve, who recently celebrated 43 years of marriage with Dena. “These were all hard-working families who raised the families in the faith.”

Fr. Paul agreed, saying, “My upbringing really shaped the roots of my faith through the domestic church in the home and in my home parish. You never know what God might use to call a young man or woman to serve him in the Church.” 