Pilgrimage to Mariazell

Between the unending stream of reading assignments, the prospect of my pilgrimage to Poland this coming weekend and my first midterm next week I cannot possibly post about the multitude of events that have occurred over the last few days and do them even an inkling of justice. Therefore, I will write solely on the highlight of this past weekend, namely, my pilgrimage to Mariazell.

The background behind Mariazell is rich in history and legend. A summary can be found at sacred-destinations.com.

The legend:

On the evening of December 21, 1157, a Benedictine monk named Magnus was in a forest looking for a place to build a monastery. At one point, his path became blocked by a huge boulder that was too big to go over or around, so Magnus took a small wooden statue of the Virgin Mary he had in his knapsack, knelt in prayer, and asked the Virgin Mary for guidance. Soon there was a great rumble and the rock split in two, allowing him to pass through.

Some facts:

Magnus and some locals built a shrine to the small wooden statue of Mary which was rebuilt multiple times to give us the Basilica in which the statue is housed which we have today.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Mariazell is the most-visited Marian shrine in Central Europe.

Emperor Joseph II dissolved the monastery and and banned pilgrimages there during his reign.

The ban was lifted sometime after Joseph II's death and today more than 1 million people visit Mariazell every year.

Conveniently, Mariazell is only about twenty miles from Gaming.

This used to be a small chapel

So, on Friday morning at 7AM roughly fifty or more students, faculty/staff and children of faculty/staff departed by bus where we were then dropped off at the nearby nature park. From there, we would have to hike 18 miles (or 29 kilometers) to Mariazell along the Erlauf River through the foothills of the Austrian Alps.

Erlauf River/foothills of the Austrian Alps

However, with eighteen miles to traverse I couldn't stay too long in one place to enjoy the trail's beauty without being left behind and so I walked, and walked, and walked. The first half of the hike was largely uneventful. I simply walked in silence, soaking in the natural beauty I had become completely immersed in. The Erlauf river was clear and vividly blue and green, there were countless waterfalls, high-arching bridges across the river that had to be crossed single-file, wild mountain goats and so much more.

Then the foothills opened up slightly, the river deepened and we got to do this:

Shortly after we discovered a cave:

Then, we found my favorite location along the entire hike:

And if you think it's cool when Kevin jumps from ten feet how much cooler is it when he does it from thirty?

For the final three hours of the hike we left the river, traveling instead through the countryside, passing by farms until we came a small town about five kilometers outside of Mariazell.

Without the beautiful Erlauf River and surrounding mountains to distract us, every minute of that final couple miles dragged on forever. However, we eventually made it - and just in time for 4PM Mass, after which we had some time to enjoy the beauty of the basilica and pray.

Then, after a full day consisting of an eight hour hike, Mass in Mariazell's Basilica, and some free time to explore the town and church ourselves, we finally boarded a bus back to Gaming. However, not before I got a souvenir:

Salzburg/Munich Part 2

At 10AM Saturday morning the buses arrived at Max-Joseph Platz in Munich, Germany. Our first stop of the day was Frauenkirche Cathedral for Mass followed by a short tour which consisted mostly of standing in Marian Platz waiting for the three surrounding clock towers to strike noon. At this point it was windy and very cold and I was sick and possibly dehydrated so you can imagine that I wasn't particularly enjoying myself. However, our tour finally ended and our free time in Munich began. I quickly joined the first group I found that was going someplace warm where I could get something to drink.

The group I found myself with consisted of Fr. Brad, Anna, Katie, Chris, and Bill Jones. The place: none other than Munich's famous beer hall, the Hofbrauhaus. The irony however is that while at this famous German beer hall I never actually had a beer. Instead I ordered a coke and water, because beer does not help much with dehydration. I did however try the beer hall's famed white sausages which I found delicious even in my unwell state.

After a couple hours spent in the beer hall Bill and Chris left us for the Olympic Stadium while the rest of us decided to search for some cafe we had heard about that serves thirty varieties of hot chocolate. Our trek first led us through the open-air markets which we wandered around in for awhile. We then found ourselves in a shoe store so Katie could buy a pair of Birkenstocks, because apparently they're far less expensive here than in the United States. The cafe eluded us a while longer as we took several wrong turns but eventually we found our way.

I ordered the strawberry-flavored hot chocolate and settled down to listen to Fr. Brad's entertaining stories for the next hour. For my family back home: Fr. Brad reminds me very much of Chuck Biewer, so you can perhaps imagine how much fun he'd be to hang out with for a day. We decided that next we'd go to the English Gardens when another group from Franciscan arrived at the cafe and one of their members, Joan, decided to join us.

We eventually met with some other people from our university including the resident director Vince, and Fr. Seraphim. We didn't stay long at the gardens because we had to be back at the busses soon but we did see the Japanese lake/island and some people surfing on the river - as well as Fr. Brad preaching to the ducks. Unfortunately, we had to grab dinner on the go to get back on time.

Japanese Lake

Fr. Brad preaching to the ducks

The next morning we went to the Salzburg Cathedral for Sunday Mass. The mass was in German so of course I couldn't understand what was being said. However, the five organs, enormous choir and orchestra kept me feeling fairly involved. Besides being in German, the mass was different than what I was used to in another way: at communion, instead of forming lines, everyone just leaves their pews to receive the Eucharist as a crowd - which I thought was much better than our silly lines.

Finally, after lunch again at the Sternbrau, we left Salzburg for our return trip to Gaming. However, we did make one stop on the way at Mondsee where we got to tour the church where the marriage scene in The Sound Of Music takes place, as well as swim in the lake. Thus ended our trip.

Church at Mondsee

Lake at Mondsee

Oh, and my health has finally returned to me.

Day Trip to Vienna

On Saturday, Franciscan University made its day trip to Vienna. At 10AM our buses arrived at the church Kapuzinerkloster in old Vienna where we then had Mass. The student body then split into groups and we began our walking tour of Vienna. As we walked through the city Father Seraphim Beshoner, head of our group, pointed out the most notable features, most important of which was probably the Irish pub (and I don't say that to trivialize all the other notable features. The Irish pub is just that

important). We stopped and toured several churches and historical buildings including St. Stephen's cathedral and the Hofburg imperial palace. Also, I met Sammy, the 7 year-old son of one of the FUS staff, on this trip. Sammy's pretty cool: he can speak German, English, and Slavic (though being bi- or trilingual isn't uncommon here like it is in the United States), and he's very witty as well.

Sammy (left), Father Seraphim (right)

We then ended our walking tour with lunch around 2PM at Melker Stiftskeller where I got to try their house beer, Hofbrauhaus Traunstein . . . at least, I believe that's what they call it. Once we concluded our lunch I was on my own until the buses departed at 8PM. Wanting to see the Schonbrunn palace I joined a group of about a dozen other students and together we hopped on the underground and emerged twenty minutes later outside the park that surrounds the Schonbrunn itself. Here we were able to walk the gardens, get an excellent view of the city below, and tour the palace itself. We eventually got lost in the park as we tried to find our way back to the underground but eventually we found our way . . . only to get lost again in the city looking for the Opera house - which is where we were to meet the buses. Unfortunately we didn't have the time to stay for the Opera or stop at that Irish pub we walked directly past (the very same Father Seraphim had pointed out earlier) so we got some food to go before returning to Gaming.

Steve and I enjoying our lunch

Outside the Greenhouse at the park

brother and sister household

looking down on Vienna

Today, the students finally had an opportunity to tour the Kartause itself. The Architect, who not only owns the Kartause but was responsible for its renovation over twenty years ago, gave a talk in the church highlighting the importance of the Kartause from its conception to its present day. I don't know his name as he was introduced to us simply as The Architect. Even his secretary who has worked for him for over 25 years refers to him so. We also got to visit the bell tower, library, ballroom, and the three chapels present on the grounds - one of which is a beautiful Byzantine chapel with its religious icons hand-painted by the ITI theology students who used to stay there until last summer.

Apparently the Kartause monastery used to have a series of secret tunnels as well, until the Russians destroyed them during their occupation. Now, however, I must return to my studies as classes begin again tomorrow and I'm supposed to have the entire book of John read by that afternoon.

Oh, also, I was told today that I look like Peter Pan. I thought that was pretty hilarious.

Tuesday, August 25th

Night came and morning followed. The second day.

My room has a large window. So large, in fact, that the sun, peaking over the foothills of the Alps, poured copious amounts of light into my room at 5:30AM. Unable to sleep any longer I rose, too deep in a mental torpor to feel anything. That is, until I clumsily pulled back the curtains and saw this:

Thus began my second day in Austria.

At 8AM Dr. Franz Schneider gave the entire school a talk on just about everything there is to know about the country Austria. Immediately afterwards the whole student body crammed into four buses and we drove to the nearby monastery Melk in the valley by the Danube river. This is Melk:

Fun-size!

This is Melk before mass:

After a guided tour, lunch, and mass at Melk we then travelled to Durnstein, a town of enchantment dubbed by the inhabitants of Austria as "the most romantic place ever." With only little over an hour in Durnstein we practically ran up a mountain in order to walk among the ruins of Durnstein's castle - where, coincidentally, King Richard the Lionhearted had once been imprisoned by the king of Germany.

it's no wonder that King Richard didn't stay imprisoned for long. I mean, look at the place.

After racing back down the mountain so as not to miss the buses we actually had a few minutes to spare. Hot from our hike we decided that logically the best course of action would be to jump in the Danube. However, still missing my bags I had only the clothes on my back and decided that just wading up to me knees would be sufficient. Although I still plan on jumping head first into the Danube river some other time.

Then, that evening after returning to Gaming, Christmas had decided to come early. Leaving the Kartause for only ten minutes to go on a short walk, simply because I had nothing else to do, I returned to the lobby to find that my luggage had been secretly delivered in my absence. Maybe I should have jumped in the Danube after all.

me not jumping in

After checking to make sure that my extra crunchy peanut butter had made it through security it was time to go the local tavern, Urs, for the first time. This mad adventure was lead by none other than the glorious Steve Eddleson, with Will Goggins, Julian, and myself along for the ride. We all ordered half liters of Stiegal - except Will who got some girly drink I can't pronounce or spell. Not too long after drinking my Stiegal (which turned out to be the equivalent of two American beers) I decided to go back to the Kartause and go to bed. I also decided to start a beer diary. So far I've tried: Kaiser beer, which I didn't like; Weisenburger beer, which was better than Kaiser; and of course Stiegal beer which is the best I've had yet.