Frederic Baraga

          Irenaeus Frederic Baraga, the “Snowshoe Priest”, is one of the great missionaries of the frontier age of the United States. A friend of Venerable Samuel Mazzuchelli, the inspiration for Saint John Neumann immigrating to the United States, and one of America’s early bishops, Bishop Baraga’s story of evangelization in Michigan and throughout the Great Lakes region is one more people need to know.

          Frederic Baraga was born to Janez Baraga and Marija Katrina Jožefa on June 29, 1797, in modern-day Slovenia but at the time part of the Hapsburg/Austrian empire.  His family was of noble lineage and reasonably wealthy, but Frederic would follow a more difficult path of life.  By 14, Frederic had lost both of his parents.  He did well in school, even as control over his country changed hands during the Napoleonic Wars and led to school being taught in various languages.  By 16, Frederic’s skill with languages was already evident, speaking Slovenian, German, and French, and knowing Latin and Greek.  He enrolled in the University of Vienna and studied law, graduating in 1821, and then entered the seminary in Ljubljana.  While in Vienna, Frederic Baraga met St. Clement Hofbauer, who mentored and greatly influenced him, including his desire to become a missionary to America.  Baraga wrote the pope, during Hofbauer’s canonization process, stating he “enjoyed the singular blessing” of having Hofbauer as his confessor, a blessing he considered “among the greatest blessing[s] Divine Providence” granted him "during [his] entire life.”

         Baraga was ordained to the priesthood on September 21, 1823.  He spent some time as a parish priest, and battled Jansenism.  During this time he wrote Dushna Pasha, a prayer book for the Slovenian laity that was first published in 1830, the same year he left for America.  (Dushna Pasha has been translated and is now available in English.)  Fr. Baraga’s zeal for the faith led him to respond to the call for priests by Bishop Edward Fenwick of Cincinnati.  He left for the United States on October 29, 1830, arriving in New York on New Year’s Eve.  From there he traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, serving the German speakers in the area while he studied the languages of the Ottawa and Chippewa tribes in preparation for his great missionary work to the Native Americans of the Great Lakes that would span the remaining 37 years of his life.

         Fr. Baraga’s missionary work centered in northern Michigan, but carried through the entire Great Lakes region, including areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Father Baraga was very committed to evangelizing and accompanying the people he reached, traveling hundreds of miles on foot and canoe to visit the souls entrusted to him.  He earned the nickname, the “Snowshoe Priest” for being willing to make these trips by snowshoe even during the harsh Michigan winters.  A story is told that Fr. Baraga once traveled 57 miles by snowshoe to baptize a native girl that he was told was dying.

         Coming soon!

         Venerable Frederic Baraga is entombed in a side chapel of Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Marquette, Michigan. Nearby, you can also visit the Baraga Education Center and Museum, which houses many relics, artifacts and exhibits about the life of Venerable Baraga. The center is housed within the building Baraga lived in as the rectory when he was Bishop of Marquette.  The grounds also include an outdoor prayer garden and a votive chapel. Several other shrines and tributes to Bishop Baraga can be found throughout Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.