St. Boniface Chapel & pilgrimage shrine
The
Christian pilgrimage shrine () () known as
St. Boniface Chapel was built in 1877, similarly to the far more famous "
Assumption Chapel" near
Cold Spring, as a desperate petition for divine intervention from the
Rocky Mountain locusts; a now
extinct species of giant
grasshopper, whose enormous migrating swarms blotted out the sunlight and, as described in the
novel On the Banks of Plum Creek,
Laura Ingalls Wilder, devastated farming communities throughout
North America between 1856 and 1902. Sr. Janice Wedl, O.S.B. has written about the four-year-long
Locust Plague of 1874, "These huge insects destroyed everything in their path - crops, clothing hanging on wash lines, even fence posts. Nothing was safe, and many families lost everything they were growing for winter and all the crops they had planned to sell or feed to their livestock. Though people flailed at the insects, the swarms were so extensive, so pervasive that they had little hope of salvaging their lives without Divine help. The parishioners of St. Augusta and Luxemburg made a pledge to build a chapel and every year make a pilgrimage to it to pray that any future plagues be averted." Local farmer Henry Kaeter donated a plot of land Ignatz Henkemeyer later recalled, "The grasshoppers were real bad. Everything dried up. After we finished at St. Boniface's, the rain started to fall, and all the hoppers flew up and disappeared." Annual pilgrimages to the shrine continued for many years afterwards on June 5, the
Feast Day of
St. Boniface, an English Benedictine missionary, Bishop, and martyr instrumental to the
Christianisation of the Germanic peoples; and who is still revered as the "Apostle to the
Germans",
Patron Saint of the
Germanosphere and the
German diaspora. According to Fr. Robert J. Voigt, "The women decorated the chapel with flowers and choirs took their turn in singing and brought an organ along... Close to a hundred people, representing virtually every family, came. They came on foot, some as far as six miles, walked two by two and recited the
rosary. A large spring wagon accompanied the people and carried the lunch." Local pilgrims praying the rosary upon
St. Boniface's Day, would also add, following every Hail Mary, the additional petition, () ("St. Boniface, pray for us!") According to Fr. Coleman J. Barry, there is traditionally a very intensive rivalry between parish choirs in Stearns County German culture. From the time of early settlement, every local parish choir used
B.H.F. Hellebusch's
Katholisches Gesang und Gebet Buch and the six
Sing Messen found therein until the
Regensburg-style of
Gregorian Chant was introduced beginning in the 1880s. Parish choir-directors often doubled as local school-masters and were traditionally referred to as, (), or "The Church Fathers". Catholic hymns in the
German language (), which were always carefully chosen to fit the occasion, were also traditionally sung during
Low Mass. Due to these intensive traditional parish rivalries, whenever the St. Boniface's Day pilgrimages would be followed by a
Solemn High Mass at the chapel, both parish choirs would take turns singing. The Mass would always be followed with an open air dinner accompanied by dancing and the playing and singing of
German folk music. (see
German Americans in the American Civil War). Sometimes, similarly to traditional
Irish Pattern Days, rivalry between the two parishes would sometimes result in fist fights during the dinner, particularly when alcohol was involved. According to Fr. Robert J. Voigt, "In 1960, Fr. Louis Traufler, O.S.B., told this writer about the events at St. Boniface Chapel, which he himself had witnessed. At the picnic, there would be good natured bickering. The Luxemburgers would call the St. Augustaners (), because they were more prosperous and had meat to eat. The St. Augustaners called the Luxemburgers (), because they had to nibble on bones. At times they would challenge each other to cross a plank over the creek, and each side would try to throw the other in the water. This could end up in a fist fight between the young men... At the end of the day, a bell would ring and everyone would like up for the procession back to their parish churches - to be good boys again. The writer is reminded of what Joseph Knoll of
Pierz told him years ago, () ('Even at a funeral, there must be some pleasure; otherwise nobody will attend'). The parishioners went to the chapel to pray, but also wanted to have some fun." After 1897, the pilgrimages ceased and the chapel was abandoned and forgotten. When asked why the traditional pilgrimage stopped, Mrs. Mary Kenning recalled, "The people who had made the vow were all dead or too old to go. Their children hadn't made the promise so they didn't have to continue the act. I guess it sort of came to a standstill." In 1937, the Henry Kaeter farm was purchased by Martin Libbesmeier, who was intrigued to discover the disused and crumbling chapel near his home. For this reason, when Martin Libbesmeier approached the priest at St. Wendelin's Church seeking instructions on what to do with the ruins of St. Boniface Chapel, the priest urged him to set a match to them. After taking the helm of St. Mary Help of Christians Church in 1958, Fr. Severin Schwieters was influential in convincing his parishioners that the chapel was a highly important local heritage monument and needed to be restored. At his urging, the parishioners moved the ruins to a wooded hill near the original site and reconstructed, as much as possible, using the original wood and other materials. St. Augustine's Church in east St. Cloud donated a new altar and all other items necessary for saying the
Tridentine Mass. By St. Boniface's Day 1961, the chapel was ready for the annual pilgrimages to be revived, which still sometimes continues. Trees were planted around the site by two volunteers in 1962. ==Geography==