Overflow crowd, church luminaries remember Tacoma priest who collapsed during Mass

Cars were parked on a grass slope on the edge of the parking lot and along streets three blocks from the church.

So many people visited Tacoma’s Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church to say goodbye to Rev. Michael Wagner on Wednesday that the funeral Mass was broadcast to an overflow crowd of more than 100 at the neighboring school.

Wagner (pronounced VAHG-ner) served as priest for less than seven years, but he had the impact of somebody who served much longer.

Wagner collapsed April 10 while celebrating the morning Mass at the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where he also was the priest. He suffered a ruptured cerebral aneurysm and was taken to a hospital. He died May 2 at the age of 48.

On Wednesday, Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain told a series of stories that reminded him of the strength of Wagner’s faith.

Wagner was born in communist Poland in 1969 and fled in the mid-1980s with his father. He started a coffee shop, Insomiax Coffee, in Seattle in 2002 but always dreamed of becoming a priest.

He went Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, before being ordained at Seattle’s St. James Cathedral in Seattle in 2011.

Sartain remembers a time when Wagner mentioned he didn’t like the “crucifix where Jesus has no spine.”

Confused, Sartain asked for an an explanation. Wagner showed him that the molds used to create the crucifix’s left an open space on Jesus’ back.

“It was an insult to Christ, Father Michael figured, to neglect to give him a spine, because Jesus was courageous, intentional and determined in following the path his heavenly father had given him,” Sartain said. “Jesus was not spineless. Neither was father Michael spineless. He was deeply rooted in our Catholic faith and his conviction that Jesus had died for all.”

Wagner previously served at St. Michael Parish in Olympia and churches in Montesano and Elma before coming to Tacoma.

He was an outdoors enthusiast who loved hiking, snow camping and reading.

Wagner developed an understanding of the power of images to help deliver messages of faith, Sartain said. Before an Easter service, Wagner brought Sartain five rosehead nails in a denim pouch. Each nail represented the wounds of Christ and helped people “understand what Jesus had done for us,” Sartain said.

Sartain still has the nails.

“The nails he gave me will always be a poignant reminder of Father Michael himself but also his determined and very vivid faith,” he said.

For a priest young in experience, compared to many of his peers, Wagner also was wise.

Sartain said Wagner once gave one of the best pastoral responses he’d ever heard. Wagner had changed the time of mass in hopes that more people would attend. Attendance quintupled.

But some who preferred the other time asked why he’d made the change.

“He responded simply and with a glint in his eye,” Sartain said. “‘Because I love you.’”

This story was originally published May 9, 2018 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Overflow crowd, church luminaries remember Tacoma priest who collapsed during Mass."