Background
For some time now, I have had a growing interest in the history of my ancestors and the original emigrants to our area of Ohio from Europe. I stated at the beginning of this blog that my trip to Germany was sort of the last step back in tracing my “roots.” I am from Midwest Ohio. Many of our German ancestors traveled up to this area via the Erie Canal from Cincinnati, Ohio. Before then, they were true Germans living over here in Europe. Although I do not know specifics about where MY personal family came from in Germany, I do know a little bit more about the other half of my “family” at home- the Church community.
After many immigrants made their way across the big pond and settled in Ohio, they were really in the wilderness. They did not speak the native language and they literally lived in the woods. My grandpa once said that a squirrel could travel from Toledo to Cincinnati without ever touching the ground! This is a far cry from the English speaking communities and flat fertile fields that now grace the countryside. The transformation happened in part due to hard work for sure. Faith also made these early years possible. God’s country indeed…
Back in the day, there were no big churches in this area and for a Catholic foreigner this made practicing faith difficult I’m sure. Back in 1844 (this is still 15 years before the Civil War mind you), Fr. John Babtist Purcell decided to fix the problem. At the time he was the bishop of the Cincinnati archdiocese and he had a mission to get some help up to the Germans in our area. Enter Francis de Sales Brunner and his mother Maria Anna. After a pilgrimage to Rome, they both soon became a part of the Precious Blood community within the Church. Fr. Brunner joined the already founded Congregation of the Most Precious Blood. In 1834, Maria Anna Brunner informally founded the Sisters of the Precious Blood. She died not long after, but her work continued. When Francis de Sales Brunner received word from Bishop Purcell that missionaries were needed in Ohio for the German speaking folk, he departed for Ohio. Just before Christmas in 1843, Fr. Brunner showed up in New Orleans with eight other priests. They arrived in Cincinnati on New Year’s Eve and then made their way north. Many interesting details lie within that entire history, but I won’t labor the reader here. I would suggest visiting the Catholic Encyclopedia or the history page for the Sisters of the Precious Blood for more reading. What I’m getting at is this… They brought over the beginnings of the American Precious Blood community that would support our region of Ohio for many years after.
One particular community in Ohio lies just east of my hometown and is called Maria Stein. This is where the motherhouse for the Sisters of the Precious Blood used to be located before moving to Dayton. It is also where the Maria Stein Shrine of the Relics and Spiritual Center are currently located. Does the name look foreign? That is because it is German. It translates to “Mary of the Rock”, and it comes from a monastery and famous shrine in Switzerland. In fact, the Brunners lived in this area of west Switzerland for quite some time. With all that history in mind, I decided I was going to go and visit this region of Switzerland on my third pilgrimage while in Europe.
The Trip
The Swiss city of Basel lies just north of Maria Stein and it is placed exactly on the boarders of Germany, France, and Switzerland. This is where I traveled to and stayed the night for the weekend. At 6:00 AM I was out the door of my apartment. At 7:00 AM I was on a westbound train for the Black Forest region of Baden-Wuertemmberg. At 1:00 PM I was stepping out of the Swiss train station in Basel.
I couldn’t check into my hostel until 3:30 PM, so I spent a couple of my initial hours exploring the pharmaceutical capital of Europe. It was very comparable in beauty to many of the southern German cities, and the entire community spoke German. German is the official language of Switzerland, despite its borders with France and Italy. Although the language is shared, they do not use the Euro. They still use the Swiss Franc as a unit of currency. I lost some money in the exchange since the Euro is currently stronger, but I was now armed with a new brand of bills… including a 5 sF coin. In the city, I took advantage of the tram network and foot friendly city streets to see the old city market, a local flee market, the Rhine River, and a couple of Swiss shops. You probably already know that the Swiss are famous for their watches, knifes, and cheese. It wasn’t too difficult finding any of these things… finding them cheap was another story, however! They are true craftsmen down here, and they take great pride in that fact.
Later in the afternoon, I was finally able to check into my hostel and drop off my pack. I wanted to head straight to Mariastein before the day was gone. I hoped on Line 10 which took me out to the far city limits in Flüh. It was about a 45 minute trip south. Once in Flüh, I walked the remaining three or four kilometers to Mariastein.
If anyone was to call this a pilgrimage journey, they wouldn’t be kidding. Mariastein is certainly off the beaten path. It is on a giant hill just south of Flüh and the climb was rather steep. Despite the cool weather, I was sweating by the time I reached the top. Once I arrived, what I saw was perfect. I’m not sure why exactly the sisters called our area of Ohio Maria Stein (outside of the fact that they came from that region), but I could almost guess because of how similar it looks, feels, and smells. At the top of the hill was a flat plain with fields. Patches of woods surrounded the fields, and I swear I could smell Mercer County air. When I approached the village of Mariastein, wafts of cut wheat and dairy farm were very welcoming to me. I was instantly back at home when I closed my eyes.
Walking past the farm buildings and gardens, I entered the village and found a couple of Cafés and some shops selling goods of the monastery. Unfortunately, the shops were mostly closed, but one could easily find local made wine, cheese, milk, and candles. I was of course more interested in seeing the shrine, so that was my first stop.
Way back in the middle ages, it was said that a mother and her children were out in the fields one day when the mother lost sight of her children. They had apparently fallen into the valley and when their mother found them, they were calming picking flowers at the bottom of the valley. They claimed that Mary had saved them. From that point on, the Mother of God was venerated on that cliff-side by pilgrims and supported by the local monastery. Later a shrine was built into the rock face for a veneration chapel.
I traveled through the labyrinth of tunnels leading to the shrine beneath the monetary, and it was certainly a beautiful sight upon arrival. The Madonna with Child was placed directly on the rock face in front of the pews in the chapel. A small alter depicting Mary’s assumption stood next to this figure. I can’t say I felt the timing was more right with the celebration of Mary’s assumption being this Monday. A definite calm and peace pervaded the cavern and I enjoyed my time there.
After my visit to the shrine, I walked around the village and enjoyed the ambiance. It was a much less “commercialized” pilgrimage site than Altötting was. The lack of prominent tourism was refreshing. I literally felt like I was in the middle of nowhere and isolated on this tiny little hill next to the monastery. It was very peaceful with the cool evening air and setting sun. After grabbing a bite at one of the cafés, I joined some of the other visitors at 8:00 PM in the basilica where the monks were holding compline (late evening monastic prayers of the canonical Office). At around 9:00 PM, I took back to the road and made the peaceful trek back down the hill and caught a night bus back to Basel.
The following day, I was up early and found mass at St. Anton’s just outside of the city center. I then had breakfast back at the hostel before checking out. And yes, the breakfast was the same as everywhere else in Europe… breads, cheeses, cold cuts, fruit, and muesli. No complaints from me though. After fueling up, I was quickly back at the train station for my return train. The weekend went fast, but then again, I did spend about 12 hours of it on trains and trams. I didn’t mind though. I had some good books, so travel went quickly.
My biggest joy just comes from being in the area where Francis de Sales, Maria Anna Brunner, and other missionaries lived before coming to Ohio where they helped start the community I was blessed to grow up in. What is also cool is that I can now say that I was in the “real” Mariastein next time I’m visit the one in Ohio.
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