The calendar may say spring starts tomorrow but the snow covered landscape this Sunday doesn’t show any hint of spring yet. With an enclosed bell tower and a small onion dome, St. Mary Orthodox Church was established in 1909 in a small village of Cornucopia on the south shore of Lake Superior.
Still White Sunday
As part of the thirty buildings in the 1900 town replica of Stonefield Historic Site, this church has a little different look with the two doors, one for men and the other door for women. It is said that one reason to have the men seated on the one side and the women on the other side was that there would be less distraction from the opposite sex and more focus placed on reason for being at church.
Stonefield’s Church
The weather is nice today, but I’m not sure I would climb the bell towers at Holy Hill during a thunderstorm. The third and present church on the site was completed 1931. A diary found, which dated to 1676, described how the author dedicated the hill to Jesus’s mother Mary after making a stone altar and raising a cross, which corresponds with the late 1600s Jesuit missionary work in the area. Holy Hill Basilica and National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christian is located in southeast Wisconsin.
Third Church on Holy Hill
A month ago, this church was surrounded by a color backdrop but now in the first week of November, the brilliant autumn foliage has fallen to the ground as winter approaches.
Colorful Sunday
On October 9, 1859, in an area northeast of Green Bay, WI, Adele Brise saw for the third and last time, the vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary between a hemlock and maple tree. The Blessed Mother told Adele to teach the children their faith. Adele’s dad built a small wooden structure at the site of the apparition and a larger chapel was built in 1865. The present chapel for Our Lady of Good Help was completed in 1942.
Twelve years after Adele’s vision, the 1871 Peshtigo fire headed towards the chapel. The Sisters, school children and area families as well as some livestock, fled to the Shrine’s chapel for protection. Sister Adele lead them in the rosary and they lifted the statue of Mary and processed around the outside of the chapel pleading for protection. The fire raged all around the compound and flames arched over it, but the fire never touched the chapel or the people there.
Although the outside of the fence posts were charred, the five acres around the Chapel of Our Lady of Good Help had been spared from the total firestorm devastation that surrounded it.
Chapel of Our Lady of Good Help
Although some churches have opened with a limited number of people attending, others still remain closed on this Sunday morning due to the current pandemic. St Mary’s Orthodox Church in Cornucopia was settled in 1909 by Eastern European immigrants who settled in Northern Wisconsin because of the good farming conditions.
St. Mary’s Orthodox Church
In the summer, there was leaves on the trees and there were people visiting the Holy Hill Basilica, but on this spring Sunday the trees bare and the shrine ground are empty to slow the spread of the Coronavirus.
Summer at Holy Hill
A light coating of snow this morning did not close this pretty old chapel. Sometime snow storms may prevent a service but this Hyde Chapel, which was built in 1861, closed in 1957 and now only used for special events. But many more churches were closed this Sunday, not because of snow or declining membership, but because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Closed Chapel
The coronavirus made an impact on churches in the state today, with some closing completely or low attendance due to the virus concerns.
Empty Church
The day remained cloudy most of this Sunday, giving the snow a duller white color without the sun sparkling off the snowflakes. St Mary’s Orthodox Church in Cornucopia was founded in 1909 by Eastern European immigrants who settled in Northern Wisconsin because of the promise of land ownership and employment in the logging industry. Although many families migrated to other parts of the region when the lumber era ended.
Sunday White
