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:

Weekend in Gaming

While most of the student body went to either Switzerland or Prague in the Czech Republic I spent my weekend back in Gaming. This is partly due to my peculiar financial situation but also because 1.) I want to explore Gaming itself and 2.) I have what can only be described as a literal mountain of homework sitting on my desk. It should also be noted that I got a job cleaning the Mensa after meals. So, on Thursday evening, after slaving away with my mop and bucket, I met my roommate Jason G. at the Keller (the Kartause restaurant) where we enjoyed a few beers and more importantly the company of his grandfather who was visiting from the States. I probably had close to a liter of the Keller's light beer which is more alcohol than I've had before in one sitting. As a result I now believe that I truly understand what Benjamin Franklin meant when he said, "God gave men alcohol because he wanted them to be happy."

Friday I had plans to hike to the waterfall outside Gaming with a half dozen students, including good friend Andrew Rall. However our hike was delayed by a thunderstorm. The rain began to let up by 4PM and we decided to brave what was left of the inclement weather. Of course after hiking the three miles to the waterfall it began to downpour once again so that upon returning to the Kartause we were all fairly drenched. Still, it was a pretty great time to be had.

Every night also consisted of movies, beers, and board games until Sunday came and I'd hardly done any homework. I wish I could say that my weekend had consisted of lots of productive and profound studying but sadly most attempts just ended in impressions of books on my face as I napped. I did get a fair amount done throughout the day on Sunday but unfortunately I have enough homework still that the school week is going to be incredibly hectic. However, on a positive note, I definitely aced my history test this morning.

What little profound studying that may or may not have actually occurred.

unproductive, not profound "studying" that definitely occurred

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.