The Pilgrims Page: Immerse yourself into our Catholic past – Mackinac Island

Mackinac island is between Lake Michigan, Lake Huran, and Lake Superior. The earliest inhabitants, as known from dating artifacts found on the island, are from around 900 AD. However, for the sake of this article, we’ll focus on the history that starts with Catholicism, which dates to the 1670s. The French Jesuits were the first to minister on the island to the Huron indigenous people and French traders. They built a church dedicated to St. Anne.

During the Revolutionary war, soldiers built a fort on the island, adding more people. The war of 1812 saw the fort used again before it was eventually closed and turned over to the National Park Service. The early 1900s brought wealthy people to the island to escape the summer’s heat and to stay at the Grand Hotel. The guest list of this hotel is quite impressive, with five presidents, Mark Twain, and Thomas Edison. The hotel even hosted the first public demonstration of Thomas Edison’s phonograph on the porch. The Catholic priests were always present ministering to whoever came.  It was Catholicism that remained consistent as different groups of people came and left through the years.   

Today the island still does not allow cars or motorized vehicles, other than emergency vehicles and snowmobiles. Horse and cart make deliveries and are the local taxis. Because of this, the one thing you will notice right away is how quiet the island is. All you hear is the waves of the water hitting the shore, the clicking of horse hooves on the pavement and, of course, the human voice.

You may wonder what makes this place a pilgrimage place? This was the beginning of the spread of the Catholic faith in the Midwest. It was here that Venerable Samual Mazzuchelli and Venerable Bishop Baraga first came as young priests. Two men, who now are up for sainthood, started their missions here, which then spread throughout Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. St. Anne’s church has a wonderful museum that invites people to learn about their Catholic past. It includes many artifacts from those early years and from the two great priests up for sainthood. For example, it includes letters of correspondence from both priests, baptismal records from the 1670s, a 1760 copy of the book, The Imitation of Christ, and a parish register that predates the U.S. Constitution by almost 100 years! This pilgrimage spot is an immersion into the past.

Today people are drawn to the charm of the island, or maybe the island’s famous fudge, but conditions back in those early missionary days were rough. As pilgrims, we should appreciate the efforts of those early missionaries to bring the Catholic faith to the Midwest. They persevered because of their faith and zeal to bring Jesus to those in the most remote places in the world. Back then, it was this little remote island in the Midwest.