EDWARDSVILLE - Benna Denue is someone who is pleasant and known as one of the faces of St. Boniface Catholic Church around the Edwardsville area.

Denue has been a member of St. Boniface for a little over 20 years and considers most in the church as “family.” Today, she plays a key role working as parish office manager/administrative assistant at St. Boniface Church under the Rev. Jeff Goeckner. Some view Denue as the glue of St. Boniface Catholic Church.

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“We take good care of the ‘old church’ as we call it,” she said. “There are a lot of memories in that church for generations of people. We have some families who have come here for four or five generations. It is a beautiful church. The outside of the church will draw you in and when you are inside, you will find we have a wonderful priest in Father Jeff Goeckner and also a great congregation.”

Father Goeckner and Benna are very close and work together in unison to represent the church in a positive way, she said.

Benna started working at the church in 2000 and worked solid until 2009, and came back in 2011 full time.

She said she sees Father Goeckner as the “best” in his role with the congregation he can be.

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“He is my boss and is my supervisor, but he is also my priest,” she said. “Sometimes it is hard to separate the two. Being a priest is Father Goeckner’s vocation, but he is also a person, just like you and I. He is a great man. He has nieces, nephews, brothers and sisters and he is close to his parents. He is just everything rolled into a priest and of course, he is the shepherd of our church.”

Benna has significant gardening skills and she feels right at home working in St. Boniface’s beautiful garden around the church. She and some other volunteers keep the outside of the church sparkling in the spring to fall months.

A total of of about 1,600 families belong to St. Boniface in Edwardsville, so it has a very large congregation.

“We have a lot of tradition,” Benna said. “We have several generations that worship here and send their kids to the school.

“I have people ask me when are you going to retire and stop working and I tell them I love the people I work with and I love the parishioners,” she said. “So I can’t retire. Once people attend Mass, they think the homilies are written just for them.

“It is a wonderful church. It is just a good place for me to be at this stage of my life.”