Detroit -- Detroit -- When it was first announced that Archbishop Allen Vigneron would be the next chief shepherd of Detroit, he promised that he would hold dear the people of the archdiocese.

Elwin and Bernadine Vigneron with their children: Allen, John, Ronald, Patricia, Mark and Gary, in a 1968 family photo. View more photos from the Vigneron family on our photo gallery page.

As someone who’s been on the receiving end of the new archbishop’s love her whole life long, Patricia Maxwell -- Archbishop Vigneron’s younger sister -- says the faithful of the Detroit archdiocese can be confident in their new archbishop’s promise.

“We are his family, and that’s what he does with us,” said Maxwell, a member of St. Stephen Parish in Port Huron. “He will do that, too, with the people of the archdiocese. He did that in California. He put his all into it. Everyone in the archdiocese is his family, and he’ll do his best to love them and take care of them and lead.”

Indeed, the whole Vigneron family -- especially his mother Bernadine, his father Elwin, and his five siblings -- expressed joy at Archbishop Vigneron’s return to the archdiocese, and confidence that he will be a faithful, loving and hard-working archbishop. Faith, love and hard work, after all, are what the Vigneron family holds dear, its members say.

Proud parents

The new archbishop grew up the eldest of six siblings -- five boys and a girl -- on a 40-acre farm in the Fair Haven area of Ira Township in St. Clair County. His dad worked long days in construction, and his mother instilled in all her children a special devotion to the Blessed Mother.

Elwin and Bernadine themselves were raised in a similar fashion, Elwin in Ira Township and Bernadine in New Baltimore. Generations of Vignerons belonged to Immaculate Conception Parish in the Anchorville area of Ira Township, where the Vigneron children grew up and where their parents still belong. Elwin traces his roots through five generations, to ancestors from French-speaking Canada.

The Vigneron home, which Elwin inherited when the children were young, has been in the family since the mid-1800s.

The Vignerons describe themselves as a normal, rural family that’s always gotten along well, save for the typical sibling squabbles. Their greatest points of pride are their steadfast faith -- every one of the Vignerons remain practicing Catholics -- and their family unity.

“Religion for one thing, and being a family are the most important,” said Elwin Vigneron.

Bernadine recalls Archbishop Vigneron’s childhood. Living in farmland, the boys and their sister worked hard and played hard.

“We didn’t live in a neighborhood and the closest family was down the road, so the kids played together a lot,” Bernadine said.

Regarding Allen, she said he was a “normal young man.”

“He liked to study and read a lot,” she said. “When our families got together, all the cousins would love to play.

“Allen really enjoyed spending time with his Grandma Vigneron, doing chores and helping with the farm animals,” she added.

The new archbishop’s parents are especially proud of their son’s assignment to be the archbishop of Detroit. In an interview five years ago with The Catholic Voice, the Diocese of Oakland’s newspaper, Bernadine enumerated her son’s qualities as a spiritual leader.

“He’s a great boy,” she told the newspaper, “a great man. He’s very humble -- very, very humble… He’s a very hard worker, very dedicated.”

She and Elwin both said, now that Archbishop Vigneron will be living back in Detroit, they’re “happy to have him close to home so we can see him more often.”

Siblings ‘very close’

It was decades ago, but the memory still sticks in the mind of John Vigneron, the second-eldest brother, three years the archbishop’s junior.

In the unheated attic of the family farm house, he and his brother Ronald would sit up listening to their eldest brother Allen, who was home on weekends from Sacred Heart Seminary High School.

“Allen would relay short stories to us -- something I’ll never forget,” John said, recalling “The Most Dangerous Game” as one of his favorites. “I remember just being enthralled with what he was learning. Here I was still in grade school not knowing about literature like that.

“All six of us are avid readers, and I’d like to think Allen had something to do with that,” he said, adding that the Sisters of St. Joseph at Immaculate Conception school made sure they were good readers and spellers, too.

The Vigneron siblings have many different memories of their brother from childhood.

John and Ronald recall playing in the vast farmland -- sometimes swinging on a rope in the barn, riding horses, or taking a boat into Swan Creek, which ran across their property. They recalled the chores they’d do before their leisure time -- preparing the home for dinner, or helping their parents in the garden. They remember the stories Allen told, and how the parish community loved Allen, too.

“He took his altar serving very seriously, and he trained altar boys,” said John, who now lives in Delton on the state’s west side.

The brothers also said that, Allen being the oldest, he took responsibility for their well-being much of the time.

“Between he and my brother John, they were told in no uncertain terms to watch out for me,” said Ronald Vigneron, who is five years younger than Allen and who still lives on the Ira Township farmland. “And they took care of me really well.”

The younger children -- the youngest, Gary, being removed from Allen by 14 years -- remember their eldest brother being away at school much of the time, but sending letters to their parents frequently from Sacred Heart, and later from Rome.

Gary and Patricia recall special trips to Sacred Heart Seminary when Allen lived there. They especially remember the annual Christmas concerts, being small children walking into the towering edifice of the seminary building.

“I remember the seminary being such a huge place to me. It was awe-inspiring,” said Gary, a member of St. Christopher Parish in Marysville. “Obviously for me this was the place that, really, my big brother lived.”

He even recalls meeting Cardinal John Dearden, the then-archbishop of Detroit, during one of his childhood visits.

Gary also recalled how his eldest brother once told him the story of Christmas while sitting in the family living room, and how Allen would tease him about baseball -- Gary’s childhood pastime -- in his letters to home.

“He’d write a lot of things to make an 8-year-old grin,” Gary recalled.

Closer with age

But no matter the childhood memories, the Vigneron siblings said their relationships with Allen have grown stronger with age.

They enjoy their time together as a family, especially. Traditionally, they get together to celebrate during Christmas, and try to take other opportunities throughout the year. Twenty-some family members even flew to Oakland last year for the dedication of the Cathedral of Christ the Light, the cathedral whose construction and funding Archbishop Vigneron had overseen.

“In terms of siblings, we’re very close,” said Gary. “When we get together, we enjoy each other’s company. They’re a treasure to you.”

Because members of the Vigneron family consider themselves “average” and “simple,” they say it’s strange to have attention heaped on them in the wake of Archbishop Vigneron being named to Detroit.

“People I’ve talked to have said, ‘Hey, this is a historical event,’” said Gary. “On the other side, he’s still my brother and I can’t believe that it’s somebody from our little family, our little town that’s making history.”

They’d been in the spotlight before, when the Catholics of Oakland looked at the family as a way of getting to know their new bishop. And they admit there’s often a different perception of priests outside of a family that doesn’t have a priest.

As Bernadine had three priests and one religious sister in her immediate family, they’d been used to holy orders and what it entails. While others see Archbishop Vigneron as just that -- an archbishop -- to them, he’s still a son, brother and uncle. And at a family dinner, he’s as down-to-earth as any one there.

That means joking, too.

“We all have a very dry sense of humor. That’s a family trait,” said Ronald. “If you leave yourself open, somebody will take a shot. Allen holds his own, let me leave it at that.”

As he’s been in Oakland the past half-decade, visiting family has been more difficult. Still, his siblings say, Allen is the brother they’re eager to call, and who’s easy to speak with.

“He truly is a great brother for me, just as far as being able to talk with him,” said Patricia. “I can call and tell him anything. He listens. He never judges.”

When Patricia’s son Mark, a U.S. Marine, went off to war in Iraq, she remembers the comfort she received in talking with her brother.

“His advice was always, ‘Put it in the Blessed Mother’s hands,’” she said. “That’s one of the biggest things he tells us, to pray to the Blessed Mother. He encourages us that way.”

Younger Vignerons

Several of the new archbishop’s nieces and nephews also are used to sharing good times with their uncle, and are happy to have him back in Detroit.

Michael Vigneron, Ronald’s son who’s now 27 and a youth minister with his wife, Anna, at Immaculate Conception Parish, recalls Uncle Allen teaching him how to play Euchre when he was 11 or 12. And he has memories of his uncle picking up his little sister and flying her around the house like an airplane when she was just a few years old.

“That’s one of my favorite memories of the family,” he said.

In grade school, Michael had picked his uncle -- before he was named a bishop -- to be his confirmation sponsor.

“For obvious reasons he came to mind,” Michael said. “For everybody in our family, he’s been that person who you could talk to and he would help you.”

Archbishop Vigneron later celebrated his wedding Mass, just as he had celebrated numerous sacraments for the family. Michael’s younger sister, Katie, now living in Charleston, S.C., says Uncle Allen has always been someone she could approach.

“He’s a very understanding person,” said Katie, 24. “He listens and he really analyzes things… I call him every once in a while when I have an issue and I kind of need to bounce something off of him. He’s very thoughtful, and I think that’s what Detroit needs right now.”

Michael adds that, because his uncle gets along so well with the younger generation of Vignerons, he’s confident that Archbishop Vigneron will bond well with the children in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

“Having all the nieces and nephews that he does, and being close to us and being involved in what’s going on in our lives and being aware of the challenges we’re going to face, I think that a lot of the kids would be able to relate to him,” Michael said. “He’s got some tremendous qualities that I hope would inspire some dedication to the faith and to the Church.”

Gary’s two sons, Garrett and Griffin, now 10 and 9 respectively, say they’re happy their uncle is coming back to Detroit after having been in California for most of their lives.

“I feel proud, and excited that we can spend more time with him,” said Garrett, who recalls going to Oakland for his Uncle Allen’s installation as its bishop in 2002. “We saw him become the bishop of Oakland, and we saw Mass and we went out to eat and spent time with him.”

He says he talks with his uncle about “random stuff” and likes to tell jokes.

Griffin says he and his uncle “like to talk about history,” and has special memories of his uncle taking him to Greenfield Village on his fourth birthday.

“We went on the trains,” Griffin said. “He’s very fun.

“I feel thrilled, excited and proud of him that he’s the new archbishop of Detroit.”

The excitement seems to be present in all generations of the Vigneron family. And when it comes to letting the Church family of Detroit know how the Vigneron family feels about their son, brother and uncle being the new archbishop?

They know, perhaps more than anyone, the dedication he’ll bring.

“He has turned his life over to Christ and the Church. He believes deeply, with all his soul, in the Church’s mission,” said John. “Southeast Michigan should realize how truly blessed they are to have a man who, from an early age, dedicated himself to the Church, and has returned home -- and that they need to pray for him.”