CARBONDALE, Ill. — Almost 800 years ago, St. Francis of Assisi created the first live Nativity scene. His goal, it is said, was to remind the Catholic faithful of the spiritual aspect of Christmas. The tradition spread to churches across Europe and, later, to the rest of the world.

Almost 70 years ago, a student at Southern Illinois University attended church regularly at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Carbondale. He was particularly fond of the Nativity scene displayed on the rectory porch every Christmas season. The set was a gift from the pastor at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Germantown sometime in the early 1940s.

After graduation, William Joseph Burns left Carbondale to continue his education. He served in the U.S. Army, taught, and was a political consultant and speech writer. He returned in 1961 with his wife, Barbara, and young son, Michael.

The family attended church at St. Xavier, but the Nativity pieces hadn’t been displayed for quite some time. In 1963, the figures were discovered in the basement of the church by the Rev. Mel Haas. Haas took them to the SIU School of Art and Design, where they were carefully cleaned. Since then, the set has been displayed inside the church, just to the right of the altar.

But the damage was done. The pieces showed signs of wear and tear, of having been left out in bad weather in the early years and stored rather haphazardly after they were rediscovered. Watching the pieces deteriorate even further bothered Burns, and he wanted to do something about it.

“He wanted to have them completely restored,” said Barbara Burns, widow of William Burns. “It was a project of passion that began in the ‘90s.”

When the Burns patriarch was stricken with myelodysplasia in 1999, talk of restoring the beloved pieces ceased, as Barbara and the family cared for their husband and father.

“The project was set aside to fight his disease,” Barbara said .

Her husband died on March 3, 2008.

The Nativity pieces were never far from Barbara’s mind, and in 2013 she began to seriously consider the project.

“I was thinking it was something I wanted to do for my husband,” Barbara said, sitting on the front pew at St. Xavier’s, looking at the pieces temporarily placed near the altar. “It was something I wanted to finish for him.”

Barbara talked to Father Bob Flannery about beginning the restoration work in earnest. They approached SIU, but the school declined to be part of the project. She reached out to artists Polly and Marion Mitchell for help finding someone who would take the leap and help restore the set. Ted Mueller was the man the Mitchells recommended.

“I met with Barbara, and we talked a lot about the project,” Ted said. “I took one of the pieces back to Chester with me, worked on it, brought it back, and they were happy.”

The Nativity set – which includes 15 people, 19 sheep, a cow, a camel, an ox, an elephant and a donkey – is thought to be German in origin. The wood from which the figures are carved is a soft wood, likely Linden or Pear, often used by German carvers and artists. There is no artist’s mark on any of the pieces.