Holy Valleys and Holy Lands: Selected Historic Catholic Sites along the Lower Ohio and Middle

Mississippi Rivers Author(s): Clyde F. Crews Reviewed work(s): Source: U.S. Catholic Historian, Vol. 18, No. 4, Religious Geography: The Significance of Regions and the Power of Places, Part Two (Fall, 2000), pp. 50-63 Published by: Catholic University of America Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25154744 . Accessed: 28/12/2011 12:48
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Holy Valleys and Holy Lands: Selected Historic Catholic Sites Along the Lower Ohio and Middle Mississippi Rivers
Clyde F. Crews "Tell me the landscape inwhich you live, and Iwill tell you who you are..." Ortega quoted in Belden Lane, Landscapes of the Sacred (NY: Paulist, p. vii 1988)

y Gasset,

For

twenty-five history. Before

years now, I have been researching, teaching and writing there were five years of graduate work in New York that,

stint of study at the British Museum in City (Fordham) and a semester's London. During all that time I have almost always tried to keep my self and my emotions out of my written work. Even when I was asked to write an entry for this special topical issue, I sought to produce an essay and travelogue that was of personal opinions. But before I let this essay on its own, Iwould like tomake a certain admission. loose to fly or The words that follow have a certain personal passion under-riding I observed my twenty-fifth encoded into them. Two years ago, just before of ordination as a priest, I set out on a regional journey, revisiting anniversary some of the places that helped to shape me into who and what I am. Many of the sites noted below were on that itinerary. I came to realize more profoundly on these travels something I had more vaguely known before. I don't mean to say, of course, that places like New York and London did not leave their mark on me. But the simple fact was that I could not discover the person I had come to be without a Bardstown, Gethsemani, Loretto, St. Meinrad (where I did pas there as deep sub-stra toral studies) or a Cathedral of the Assumption standing ta, living stones of my life. In these spiritual centers and commitment, tradition and creativity, devotion justice. These and I had found both openness and the concern for social full of facts and a minimum

in themselves, nurtured remarkable people of faith places, powerful in their turn (knowingly and unknowingly) have nurtured me. May they ? ? lead a the pages that follow though they may seem to be dispassionate 50

Holy Valleys and Holy Lands few readers at least to know ty to which Centuries had today Louis;

51

something of the intensity of faith, hope and chari can help to give such steady rise. these sites set foot upon the land, Native Americans before the Europeans sacred ready in far western sites along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. at Cahokia evidence of the Mound Builders at Angel Visitors near St.

reverenced can find atWickliffe

Indiana, and at Serpent Mound they almost certainly regarded structed ceremonial earthen "mountains"
day.

near Evansville, Mounds Kentucky; in southwestern Ohio. Along these streams that as sacred rivers, Indians had laboriously con that punctuate the landscape to this

of these same rivers, today's pilgrims will find along the contours and vibrant evidence of a Catholic culture that began to implant itself in strong a permanent fashion in the middle Mississippi and lower Ohio River Valleys in Also the late seventeenth tlements these the lower Ohio took institutional and eighteenth centuries. Most notably, these historic set to the eastern end of form in cathedrals in Cincinnati to the west. With and in St. Louis on the Mississippi Valley on selected sites of Indiana. the lands in and southern

as "book-ends," we will concentrate on north central Kentucky between, focusing

Metropolitan

Cincinnati

seem to have dictated that the ancient faith in English-speaking Logic would colonial America would have established its roots along the eastern seaboard and then moved and relentlessly westward. progressively History doesn't nec essarily, though, Catholicism would
ward.

follow

such

in fact move

American geographical logic. Actually, west and to a certain extent spread back east southern Ohio. Outside some fleeting commu Catholic

That was sacramental

the case, ministries

in any event, with around Gallipolis, until

nity did not come into being The first permanent Catholic December, Fenwick 1818. The based

the first permanent the first decade of the nineteenth century. in Ohio was opened in Somerset, in chapel served

by the Dominican priest Edward in the west in Kentucky. It would be the (1768-1832) away same Fenwick who would be named the first Bishop of Cincinnati on June 21, 1821 when Rome of Bardstown and estab separated Ohio from the Diocese as its see city. lished Cincinnati Described

area was

by his fellow wilderness bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget as "a mis traveled seemingly in sionary full of zeal and humility," Fenwick ceaselessly his new task. He went to Europe to gather other missioners and funds for his work. And Ottawas he traveled throughout his vast diocese, with special attention to the and other native populations. His lot was one of frequent physical dis

52

U S. Catholic Historian and penury Petit and sometimes in her concise decidedly anti-Catholic of Fenwick Sister opposition. the turmoil connected

comfort Loretta with

The On Scott

reports biography the building of the first cathedral at Cincinnati:

pro-Cathedral the following crept under was drawn by oxen to its new

site amid

shouts

of derision began

and hatred. . Mr. .

Sunday

during and

the Holy supported

Sacrifice, it until

the building props were

to sway.

the building

replaced.1

Visitors and secure and Plum Fenwick's architect Greek

to the city of Cincinnati strong today will find an extraordinarily successor church to that early ecclesial endeavor. Located at Eighth across from City Hall on one side and the famous Streets downtown,

Isaac M. Wise

Temple on the other, stands the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains. successor as bishop, John B. Purcell called upon Henry Walter, the to render a new cathedral who designed the Ohio State Capitol, in style. on November 2, 1845, the building still conveys a sense of solemni It served ty and majesty. as the cathedral until 1938 and its function and status church 1957 as the bishop's was in restored remained

Revival

Opened

^ifllfiwffiBlll^^P

-'* .llllpinBtt -Fjfe?flf

and has

so ever impressively since. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati bers some today num half million

Catholics

within

its

and approxi boundaries, serve 85 parishes mately the city of Cincinnati and its suburban Across and area. the Ohio diocese River lies the of

from Cincinnati city

Covington, Kentucky. The diocese, separated in from that of Louisville 1853, boasts one of the most remarkable Gothic cathedrals in the nation. Basilica of situated The Cathedral Cathedral at Covington. the Assumption,

Holy Valleys and Holy Lands at Twelfth and Madison Streets downtown, was dedicated

53

(though not yet com

pleted) on January 27,1901. Covington Bishop Camillus the vast structure historian. northern

Maes who conceived the idea of (1846-1915) in the relatively small town was Belgian-born and a published into his As architect he selected Leon Coquard who incorporated from Chartres, elements of French Gothic Kentucky masterpiece and St. Denis. To enter in some sort to medieval

the Covington Cathedral today is to be France (ironic in this city with such a transported strong German heritage). Most striking of all to this observer are the windows. Over eighty in number, they dazzle not only by their size, color and intricacy, so could delight a church historian but by their subject matter as well. What Paris, Reims of glass canvas of the Council of the Covington basilica by Robert Ephesus study T. Krebs is quite apt in its title: the Celestial City. on West in Covington, Sixth Street, stands another commanding Nearby urban structure, (Mother of Muttergottes much transfixed before the vast on the north wall? A recent God) Church, opened in 1871, easily recognized its portico and narrow by towers. The Joyful mys are teries of the Rosary celebrated Johann in murals Schmitt and by the
iai^iiB|^WjJM||^-x: ^ j,^;:*'')'-: . '." 'JhTi^W"':.-' : ?.:i$?

as to stand

Glorious Mysteries
stained glass windows.

in the

Metropolitan Louis
At America's diocese was the

St.

time established

that at

first western

Bardstown, travelers Cincinnati would perhaps arduous steamboat revolutionize

Kentucky, from passing to St. Louis to make their

have needed weeks The journey. to which was travel times OW Cathedral, St. Louis, Missouri.

54

U.S.

Catholic

Historian

can tra in this region had not quite made its impact as yet. Today, motorists the same terrain in about six hours, using Interstate 71 south to Louisville and then Interstate 64 west until the city with the great Arch appears along the same travelers would shore. Those pass through not the one Mississippi's verse mega-diocese but (that once had several states in its jurisdiction) of Covington; and Belleville, Evansville, Indiana, through today's of Louisville and Indianapolis. Illinois; as well as the archdioceses St. Louis and its environs have a Catholic history as rich as it is complex. of Bardstown dioceses

in the area in 1674, followed by Jesuit Jacques Marquette made his appearance were made at Kaskaskia Settlements and fellow Claude Allouez. Jesuit, are near today's well on the east bank of the Mississippi. Cahokia (These known Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows near Belleville). On the west bank arose sites still held reverent in Catholic the earliest Florissant, (where Perryville St. Rose and St. Charles where labors in 1818 and where The Archdiocese 550,000, about St. Genevieve, memory; in the region was founded), seminary Duchesne began her American Philippine historical lies buried.

she now

of over today counts a Catholic population a fourth of the area's total inhabitants. The city of St. Louis of St. Louis in St. Louis The

(visited in January, 1999 by Pope John Paul II) contains some 67 parishes with
well County. The city also boasts both a "new" as is a structure former, on Lindell Boulevard, a that produce in style, well mosaics famed for its stunning Romanesque sense and presence in Roman Catholic rarely attained Byzantine mystical force behind the extraordinary and architecture. The driving episcopal John Glennon immense structure was Archbishop (1862-1946) (later Cardinal) an additional hundred as an "old" Cathedral. who presided over its consecration in June 1926. Jesuit historian William Barnaby witness as stood for contemporaries Faherty noted that the attendant festivities to the Catholic Church's "exalted eminence." Faherty also cites one of as denoting the consecration "one grand sunburst of

his predecessor historians exaltation."2 spiritual Under

looms a solitary, stately the soaring St. Louis Arch on the riverfront on October and the Old Cathedral, consecrated 26, 1834. Classical presence, chaste on its exterior, the church exudes a charm and warmth once the visitor to an era of pioneer faith, for here its portals. It stands quiet witness as Benedict led by such ecclesial giants of the wilderness Flaget, worship the first It had been Rosati Simon Brute and Joseph Rosati. (1789-1843), has entered was Bishop Cathedral of St. Louis (after it had been separated from "Lower Louisiana" and

New Orleans by action of Pope Leo XII on July 14, 1826)who had brought the
was yet a Vincentian, to reality. Rosati, project from conception another of those zealous and tireless bishops who graced the frontier at precise insight and energies. We shall be ly the right moment with their imagination, others. meeting

Holy Valleys and Holy Lands

55

The Kentucky
Late about

Holy

Land
Father Rosati a band of European seminari in the woods of Kentucky, Seminary There they would remain for the winter brought

ans destined

in 1816, the young for St. Louis

to St. Thomas

four miles

south of Bardstown.

on to the valley of the Mississippi. It was to study English before advancing that this sturdy band of future St. Louis clerical leaders should be fully fitting the nation's in the Bluegrass "incubated" State, for there Rome had established first inland diocese. a diocese had been constituted 8, by Pope Pius VII on April as the establishment of the dioceses of New York, 1808, day Resourceful wilderness of and Boston. Catholics mostly Philadelphia ? as early as 1775; had entered Kentucky stock individually Maryland/British settlements by 1785 they began to arrive in "leagues" and to establish along John Carroll for a priest, these creek-ways. they petitioned Bishop Although Bardstown the same set up the first congregations in effect by their own lay spiritual pioneers two years, priests began to arrive, but none would have a long efforts. Within tenure until the arrival of the redoubtable Stephen Badin (1768-1853), the first as the first (1763-1850) Joseph Flaget a nova-like of Bardstown, burst of creative energies began to appear in Bishop the land. It was during this golden generation that the once remote Kentucky church became the center for the growth and development of Catholicism and upper South. Three significant communi throughout much of the Midwest ties of religious women were formed service and health care. These were (1812); the Sisters Dominican Sisters monks from of Charity inWashington would to carry out the work of education, social in Marion the Sisters of Loretto County of Nazareth in Nelson (1812); and the County priest ordained in the United States. With the appointment of Benedict

In addition, the Trappist (1822). County their primal American house south of in 1848, shortly before Flaget's demise. Bardstown as educators Jesuit Fathers were welcomed and the Sisters of the Good as workers troubled young women. In this same era, several among Shepherd were and academies the entire population, established, colleges serving France found and otherwise. earlier St. Thomas down the Ohio, on a flatboat noted floating in 1812. Flaget's in the wilderness in great Cathedral opened was in 1819, and a diocesan The Catholic Advocate newspaper, by 1836. Eight of Flaget's priests from this era would go on to serve Seminary had actually had its first classes and took lasting root on land at the site

Catholic

Bardstown publishing as bishops

across America.

150 years after Flaget's death, a drive through the "Kentucky Holy Today, Land" of Nelson, Marion and Washington Counties (about an hour south of remains a moving of sacred sites still very much alive Louisville) experience

56

U.S. Catholic Historian

is a palpability here both in terms of spiritual experience and not begin to do any justice to this land in so historical sensibility. We could short a compass as these pages. And while these locations are within easy dis and vibrant. There tance of one another, and all could be reached in a single day's drive, they take time to savor and absorb. One could visit, for example, St. Joseph's Proto a separate article by in Bardstown here because Cathedral (not described Bardstown Brother Thomas discusses sites) and within fifteen min Spalding utes be approaching and his seminarians simple, appealing as his cathedral before the edifice the original dwelt. The log house at St. Thomas church Farm where here dates Flaget to 1816 com

one could easily reach in less than half an of Gethsemani hour the Abbey (where Thomas Merton spent the 27 years of or any of the three area motherhouses. These four religious his religious life) houses from and women creative to this day represent the administrative for nearly 750 men headquarters under religious vows. And though their numbers may be reduced are quite lively and a generation ago, these large "plantation grounds"

and served Flaget pleted in 1819. From old St. Thomas

at Bardstown

was

religious centers at the start of this new century. in the Bardstown should be mentioned churches Two remarkable vicinity even if briefly. Holy Cross, the primal parish of the Bardstown diocese, here,

dates to 1785 (the church building was dedicated in 1823) and continues to
and historic ceme life. It is surrounded by a picturesque in its parochial (built 1855 with older sections) tery. And St. Rose of Lima near Springfield tower situated high atop its hill. makes for a remarkable sight with its octagonal a Dominican it serves to remind the visitor that on these grounds the As parish, in 1805. They also foundation their first American Dominican Fathers made thrive staffed
Davis.

an early college

here attended

by no

less than a very young

Jefferson

is in some sort to take an imaginative To visit any of the three motherhouses turrets and cupolas rise up to greet to some European clime. Towers, journey invite the the pilgrim visitor, and formal, immaculately clipped cemeteries care row of the piously deceased, walker. Row after cross-marked of the hundreds on hundreds named and dated, remind today's wanderer fully and service, and undoubtedly lived faithful lives of holiness of women who and wit as well. kindliness ruminative Here is a world where hardwood polished ? fully habited nun the formal parlor with divans, devotional statues, and a in a great while Once have not yet disappeared. ? walks by. Here also is a veil and habit all seemingly come to grips of vowed community in which the women floors

center work-a-day with the most cutting-edge house features

social questions of the new century. Each mother for example, stands a at its heart a striking church. At Nazareth, to St. Vincent de Paul, consecrated structure dedicated French Gothic July 19, 168 feet in length, the church internally features triforium 1854. Measuring

Holy Valleys and Holy Lands balconies, columns, graceful dark wood

57

and dazzling panels stained traditional that first saw glass

light inMunich. Out

front on of the church, kindly guard, stands the statue of the foundress community, remarkable of the

Catherine Spalding (1793-1858).

At finds Civil structed War Loretto a church one con

the during and bril in by

liantly restructured the last generation

archi contemporary tect Frank Kacmarcik along gest Also statue founders munity, Charles arms that sug sim strength, at Loretto of one of is a the lines

plicity and solidarity.

of the com Father Nerinckx,

folded,

looking

every
Beethoven.

bit
There

like
is

Father

Nerinckx

statue at Loretto.

also a statue depicting the American proto-priest Stephen Badin who long lived on these grounds. Nearby are a cabin once used by Badin and a log chapel of Nerinckx. Among discovers inWashington the Dominican Sisters near Springfield County, one not only the stately buildings one has come to expect. Here one finds an especially lush rolling terrain, emerald green in season. There is the addi tional attraction here of the energies of the young. For here is situated the and see as you walk

appealing campus of St. Catharine Junior College. to arrive at the Abbey of Gethsemani It is still awesome

58

U. S. Catholic Historian

-^^^^^ %Q&^As<?s'y M^^M/m^ |i ^t^Mf^^^^K^f.I.'.

' I, I

iiiii

v 1 J|k

.! i ""'Bj^^^^^^C I I" i *l ' f i^^^^^^HKI

' 11 "r

'

JiilH^^HR

iLjii

1.......L-1,

flLiilllP

Abbey

of Gethsemani.

into the plaza before the great church the searing words carved into stone: God in 1941 has now been demol Alone. The old gatehouse that greeted Merton ished. It was famous for its inscription wishing peace to all who entered: Pax Intrantibus. Retreatants weeks come all over the nation to spend time here (two two for women). These and the many day visitors per month; for the solemnity of the liturgy and the Divine Office. They come espe and chanting service of Compline with its night blessing for the moving now come from for men for a time of peaceful the simple grave of Thomas comrades. come quiet and introspection. in the Merton, marked Outside the church (starkly

cially of the Salve Regina. They They come to stand over same white fashion and Cistercian

as that of his monastic

again, as at so many Land, the place is one where heritage, holiness, and charity are all palpabilities. Here

ing monks, possibly denim work clothes.

in its beauty) the visitor may catch only a glimpse of pass in their black and white habit, but more likely in their stops honest in the Kentucky Holy search, interfaith trust

Metropolitan
As

Louisville
back to

the hour's and begin you leave this "knob country" trip on a side road (Ky. 247) from the Abbey, your drive begins Louisville Run Road. By the side of the intersections with names like Whiskey see a hearty helping of "Bathtub Madonnas" ? statues of the Blessed in upturned bath-tubs about two feet in height enshrined usually

featuring road you Mother partially

Holy Valleys and Holy Lands buried

59

in the earth. Back on the old federal highway, you drive past a sufficien out the Bernheim Forest back through Bardstown, of distillery warehouses, cy into Louisville. Road and then the interstate takes you directly seat was Here in the urban capital of the Commonwealth (the diocesan able. Close is unmistak in 1841), the Catholic presence of the city and suburban Jefferson County of population identifies itself with Catholicism. The city and its suburbs boast some seventy two Catholic universities and a four parishes, nine high schools and academies, transferred here from Bardstown to 25%

In fairly sizeable numbers you will find sis like number of Catholic hospitals. as well as Benedictine, ters working communities here from the motherhouse and Ursuline and Good Shepherd nuns, Mercy Sisters, and Little Carmelite, are to be found Carmelites, men's orders of the Poor. Among Sisters For and Xaverians. Resurrectionists Passionists, Franciscans, Dominicans, with the only this far south, it is a surprisingly Catholic-oriented city, being size locally being the Southern Baptist. With tradition of comparable religious a metropolitan Louisville sits nearly mid slightly over one million, population

way between theKentucky Holy Land andwhat might be called theHoly Hills
of southern But before Indiana. taking a virtual visit to Indiana, a stop is in order in downtown at the hallowed Cathedral of the Assumption. Louisville Though a predecessor church and cathedral stood on this same land since 1830, the American parish Gothic structure of today was dedicated October 3, 1852. Here in the under

Cathedral

of the Assumption,

Louisville,

Kentucky.

60 croft

U.S. Catholic Historian lies entombed An the saintly first Bishop of theWest, Benedict Joseph Flaget a visitor to George from the French Revolution, and friend of Henry Clay, Flaget was, for his day, a man of strong faith who friendships. He was also a prelate of deep but complex exile

(1763-1850). Washington ecumenical would the more

at times confide heroic

pastoral The Louisville

feelings of utter spiritual dryness and inadequacy. All does he appear then when we learn of his reputation both for as well as for extraordinary kindness. and institutional accomplishment Cathedral

a stunning restoration has recently undergone that for contemporary (with due allowances places its appearance liturgical usage) the parish population has close to that of the 1880s. Over the last generation, soared from 200 to over tive Cathedral faith base, worship, downtown. Heritage has become It also 1,600. The parish, working together with an imagina a wide community and inter Foundation which has a watch-word in Louisville service, for excellence in Catholic of of to the street people especially annual Festival recognized nationally

education

and community features a widely

arts events and spiritual devel Faiths for the city as well as regular performing of is also looked to as a center for worship programs. The Cathedral opment and at faiths on "state occasions" such as Thanksgiving, many inaugurations, times of community included Cardinal Muhammad with celebration or sorrow. Visitors Bernardin, Joseph Ali, Kathleen Norris, Karl Rahner and Elie Wiesel. A hallmark of the restored Cathedral has been the azure blue stars. The interior of the structure intimate abound:
who once in a gallery registers note that slave is now baptisms); the organ loft 100

of the last generation have the Dalai Lama, Martin Marty,

stretch, place,
+ of entries

as Gothic, presences
the slaves

ceiling beset too great a could be described, without and radiant. For those who know the history of the

worshipped baptismal

(over

in the Cathedral's

+ of

the mourners

who

gathered service

to pray of February,

for the fallen 1862;

of both

the North

and

the South

in

a Civil War

memorial

+ of Catherine a school,

Spalding,

of

the Sisters

of Charity hospital;

who

helped

to found

on

these

grounds

an orphanage

and a primitive

+ of earlier Francis

famous

visitors

as reported

by old parishioners report, Thomas

? Dorothy Merton. Day,

Babe

Ruth,

Cardinal

Spellman,

and, by his own

The Louisville

Cathedral

from a building incidentally, tists who had the delightful four blocks away

across the street, of a family of den three generations surname of Canine. The great church stands only from the mighty Ohio River. Cross that stream on one of the sits on Fifth Street downtown that housed

Holy Valleys and Holy Lands and you have crossed into the Archdiocese three highway bridges at Louisville of Indianapolis, that noble city itself is some 110 miles to the north. though

61

The Holy Hills of Indiana

The southern next destination and Indiana tour takes us into the heartland of in this imaginary to the historic Benedictine of St. Meinrad Archabbey

founded in 1854 by monks of the Swiss Abbey of Einsiedeln. The drive of

leads through some handsome, hilly ter slightly over one hour from Louisville one hundred miles to rain, quite distinct from the flatlands of central Indiana take us to the Franciscan the north. A very short detour off Interstate 64 would Monastery dedicated Center of Mt. St. Francis in Floyd County with itsMary Anderson to the encouragement of artistic, creative and spiritual life. Yet anoth er short deflection from die main highway leads along State Road 37 to the at Leopold. The statue of the Madonna Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation to so in of

but moving inside St. Augustine Church there is a modest one, and is said a private vow to do been placed by three area residents who made The gravestones while held captive in the Civil War prison of Andersonville. roots evidence of the Belgian the idyllic church yard at Leopold give steady have the town. At

the Benedictine St. Meinrad, often called "The Hill" by its students, a School of Theology monks and their colleagues staff for offering degrees

Archabbey

Church,

St. Meinrad,

Indiana.

62

U.S. Catholic Historian for the priesthood and also for lay ministry and spiritual enrich is based on The Hill also, producing Abbey religious objects as as publications, and bringing its share of revenue to the Archabbey. (At Press the making of cheese, fruitcakes and bourbon fudge serves a simi

those studying ment. well

Gethsemani

as well as impressive. and grounds are extensive buildings on some Once more, the visitor feels more like a pilgrim who has happened scene. And once more, as at Gethsemani distant European and many other of can be provided for a few the sacred sites of these pages, rooms and hospitality days for visitors at very reasonable fees. all else here is the Archabbey Church, opened in 1907 accord Dominating to the design of Brother Adrian Wewer, O.F.M.,and ing basically Romanesque a massive in its style. The church has just undergone and highly effective restoration and will invite the seeker within by its luminosity as much as by its Stained glass windows crafted in Munich and installed in 1908 focus on the Beatitudes while over the apse a massive representa

lar function.) The Archabbey

art and architecture. here

tion of Christ (painted by Dom Gregory deWitt in 1943) holds forth a book
shrine in the church is a "Ego Sum Vita." The "Black Madonna" proclaiming recent collection A more in Switzerland. from the mother of abbey gift of great women of Jewish and Christian tradition is offered in the art vignettes from the archabbey all uphill) is the little shrine of Our Lady of St. Monte (and seemingly grounds built in the late nineteenth and still the site of seasonal Cassino, century, Marian devotions. work of Jeanne Dueber, of Loretto. About stands yet another holy hill of southern Indiana. But because we have crossed out of Spencer and we have also traveled out of the Archdiocese into Dubois of County, in the little town of of Evansville. and into the Diocese Here, Indianapolis hidden religious architectural Ferdinand, we come upon one of the genuinely treasures of mid-America. The Benedictine Sisters (who first came here from of a vast in Covington in 1867) saw to the construction St. Walburga Convent church to crown their convent hill. Built to the plan of architect Romanesque Victor Klutho between 1915 and 1922, the structure stands 170 feet long, 55 across from crypt to dome feet and 137 feet in height top. Twenty-six Benedictine fashioned stately, museum German was the woodwork be found in the stained glass, while a German firm from Oberammergau. is inviting, Here the mood by and mystical. It is a stunning place to enter, rest and pray. A small room stands nearby across the cloister hall. Not one but two cemeter saints will About fifteen minute's drive to the northwest of Meinrad a Sister a mile

names reminiscent of the their cross-marker by the church, of the community. heritage and you arrive at Drive another eight miles or so due north from Ferdinand, one of the largest churches you have to gaze upon Jasper. Here be prepared ies stand close

Holy Valleys and Holy Lands ever seen in small-town America.

63

pleted who founded

in 1880 and features

Revival edifice was com The Romanesque on the grounds a statue of Father Joseph Kundek, for much of the immi the town of Ferdinand and was responsible

to the area in the mid-nineteenth century. gration of German Catholics to Hoosier sacred sites have yet more driving to do as they head Visitors west to the Wabash Valley. There they will find the restored village of New an early nineteenth near Evansville, Harmony, structure not to be munities. A contemporary Johnson's Roofless Church, enhanced by the a drive north along From Evansville, seat of Indiana the first diocesan Vincennes, was removed Catholic bishops, Brute was intellectual faith, century site of two Utopian com at New Harmony is Philip missed artwork of Jacques Lipchitz. to 41 brings U.S. the pilgrim from 1834 to 1898, when the see

to Indianapolis. The Old Cathedral (a.k.a. St. Francis Xavier in 1841. In the crypt lie buried the early Indiana Basilica) opened the diocese's founding bishop, Simon Brute (1779-1839). including yet another missionary brought to the frontier another from France, a former physician, one recalls the the mission call. When by

of the Midwest (e.g. Brute, integrity and zeal of these primal bishops one can wonder and reli how vastly different Fenwick, Flaget and Rosati) diminished these American lands would be today if less worthy, more giously clerical leaders had been present at the age of settlement. Yet another worldly drive north Providence to the motherhouse the visitor of the Sisters of bring and the St. Mary of the Woods College, just outside Terre Haute. will Revival Church of the Immaculate architect Diederick Bohlen, to foreign designed by Conception, is not to be missed. Inside and out it is lands. Here too is to be found the

The Renaissance

Indianapolis another case of a seeming shrine of Mother Theodore the ancient

transport

Along all too briefly I hope, that today's visitors may well be more than mere tourists. They are in can be palpable. Here histo fact pilgrims, for these are lands in which holiness are places where balanced and ry still lives. Here spirituality, wit, creativity service are vibrantly alive. These holy lands, hills and valleys ? community sites and communities ? with their immense structures, range of historical continue to enliven and enhance the bodies, minds, and spirits of a people.

in 1998. Guerin, beatified we have glimpsed rivers and valleys of middle America, sites sacred to American Catholic history. But we have seen also,

Notes
1. Loretta Petit, Friar 2. William in the Wilderness: Edward Dominic Fenwick Barnaby Faherty, Dream by the River: 1981), 165. (St. Louis: River City Publishers, Two Centuries (Chicago: Opus, 1994), of Saint Louis Catholicism 19. 1766-1980.