Ven. Frederic Baraga, the Snowshoe Priest

American Catholic History

Noelle & Tom Crowe

History, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Education

5 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Frederic Baraga was the first bishop of the Diocese of Marquette, in Michigan’s upper peninsula. He had come to northern Michigan as a missionary in 1831, after immigrating from the Austrian Empire — an area of it that is in modern day Slovenia. Baraga proved a tireless missionary, traveling hundreds of miles by foot, including in snowshoes during the long, harsh winters, as well as by boat. He converted thousands of Chippewa and Ottawa and other natives, and he ministered to the settlers, including those who came north for the copper boom. He faced resistance from Protestant missionaries, French fur traders, and the U.S. federal government, all of whom had their own agendas for the natives. Devotion to him began shortly after his death in 1868. He was declared Venerable in 2012.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to American Catholic History, brought to you by the support of listeners like you.
0:11.0	If you like this podcast and would like to support our work, please visit Americancatholic
0:16.2	history.org slash support. I'm Noelle Heister Crowe. And I'm Tom Crow.
0:21.6	Today we're talking about one of the most remarkable men in American Catholic history,
0:26.4	venerable Frederick Baraga.
0:28.0	You know, I feel like we say one of the most remarkable on these episodes a whole lot.
0:31.5	We do.
0:32.4	But there's good reason.
0:34.3	The church in this country took root and grew so quickly because of the sheer number
0:38.6	of remarkable men and women who came over as missionaries and founders. Bishop Raga, whom
0:44.6	almost no one knows about, is definitely among them. And another one of those is our favorites,
0:50.1	one of our favorites, Father Samuel Matsukelly. Matsukali was a Dominican who had come over from Italy and was the first major missionary
0:57.2	in the extreme north of Michigan.
0:59.4	And then his work mostly happened in present-day Wisconsin.
1:02.5	We talked about Father Matsukeli in an earlier episode, which will probably redo, but his
1:07.2	story was, as we say, remarkable.
1:09.6	The other reason Father Matsukali enters into this episode was that he and Father Baraga were each other's confessors and spiritual counselors.
1:18.4	They were the two main missionaries in a huge territory and relied on each other a great deal.
1:24.7	Nowadays, they're both listed among the venerable by the Catholic Church.
1:28.5	But back to Baraga, because we've got a lot to get through in this episode. He was the first
1:33.2	bishop of what is now the Diocese of Marquette in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. As a missionary priest
1:39.3	and later bishop, he was an absolutely tireless shepherd of souls. Right. Even as bishop, he would walk hundreds of
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