Century-old wayside cross restored

While paging through the June 2022 New Earth magazine, little did I know that my co-worker, Mary Hanbury, wrote an article about Catholic roadside shrines that featured a picture of St. Joseph Chapel near Warsaw. After I came across Mary’s article, I had to share with her the excitement of the restoration of a century-old wayside cross coming to fruition this summer just a couple miles to the northeast of the chapel. Mary encouraged me to share this story.

The Frank Marynik Wayside Cross was erected late 1922 or in 1923 by Frank Marynik’s neighbors where the Marais River empties into the Red River in Pulaski Township. The significance of the cross is based on prayerful visions and voices perceived a century ago by Marynik, who farmed in the area.

On June 16, after this past spring’s flood waters receded, my mother Theresa (Perkerewicz) Hapka and I went to check on the cross site, which is just beyond the farmstead where my mom was born and raised. The cross site is a very special place dear to the hearts of my mom and her sisters and to many who lived in or grew up in the area, as is our Polish heritage and Catholic faith and traditions (her father, Joseph, and Frank Marynik’s wife, Angeline, were siblings).

We were a little apprehensive as we approached the cross site as we knew the spring flooding had really taken a toll on the landscape in that area, and we had heard that the cross may have been swept away with the flood. As we walked through the mud and the muck, we saw the cross in the distance with a big log settled on top of it. Miraculously, the cross, which was in an area where the water reached 12 feet, had not gone with the flood! It did have a look of despair—as if Jesus was saying, “I need some attention here!”

With the blessing of the help of retired Pulaski resident farmer Gary Babinski and his loader, four of my brothers and I went to the cross site with plans, materials, hopes, and prayers and we worked together to build it up to withstand future flooding for another century. While one of my brothers was weed trimming the area, he came across “a piece of flimsy tin.” “That’s it”, I exclaimed! That was the shroud that goes above the corpus! Amazingly, that little piece of tin had stayed in the vicinity. The cross was meant to be there. 

With the help of many neighbors of the Frank Marynik Wayside Cross, along with family and friends, the whole wooded and open area around the cross was cleared of flood debris and cleaned up beautifully. We welcomed a group of more than 80 people for the rededication celebration on July 31 at the cross site. Father Brian Moen arrived after the 10:30 a.m. Mass at St. Stanislaus in Warsaw and led the Rosary, followed by a blessing of the land. Emily, Gina, and Hannah Plutowski sang a beautiful Polish hymn, Serdeczna Matko (Beloved Mother). A picnic followed and the rain went north that morning and south that afternoon, and the thunderstorm forecasted miraculously missed us.

It is inspiring that these faith-filled people still feel passionate about a cross in its original wood 100 later. Gratefulness to God for the blessing of Jesus and His cross!

For more details about Frank Marynik’s experiences, see the July 20 issue of the Walsh County Record. Article by Todd Morgan.