The Badger Catholic: National Shrine to St. Joseph and St. Norbert's Abbey, De Pere, WI

On our way back from the Good Help Shrine we stopped at the National Shrine to St. Joseph. Basically this "Shrine" is the crypt chapel of St. Norbert's Abbey, so we'll do 'em both in one post. St. Norbert's has a history with the Good Help Shrine which I'll get into on my Anniversary Mass post. Pretty easy to find even though my GPS did not correctly locate the address. The grounds are beautiful, the church, not so much. The "National Shrine" is noteworthy.

The National Shrine of St. Joseph is the headquarters of the Archconfraternity of St. Joseph and home to the Crowned Statue of Joseph and the Child Jesus. It was recognized by Pope Leo XIII as the National Shrine of Saint Joseph in 1892.

The original shrine was located in Saint Joseph Church, De Pere, WI, pastored by Father Joseph Durin. In 1888, Father Durin founded the Association of Saint Joseph and began a perpetual novena conducted every Wednesday, a tradition which continues to this day.

Father Durin’s deep devotion to Saint Joseph also led him to spearhead the campaign for official permission from the Vatican to Crown the State of Saint Joseph and have it declared a National Shrine.

Over thirty bishops and thousands of lay people joined Father Durin in support of this effort. Father Durin made a personal visit to the Vatican to present the petitions and ultimately his request was granted. Bishop Messmer of Green Bay, WI, presided over a ceremony in which two crowns were blessed – a flat or mural crown for Saint Joseph and an imperial crown for Jesus- and the coronation of the statue took place.

I guess this is a very special privelage to have St. Joseph crowned but I don't know the details. Are there any pictures of the original church? I'm told the Norbertine's are basically indifferent to the Shrine by others who visited. I didn't stop in the office, we just went in for the tour so I can't comment to that. But you will see it looks like the Norbertine's went off the deep end with the rest of the religious. If St. Norbert's College is any indication, this order has major problems.

At any rate, as much as I am happy to have this in the state, but look at Canada's National Shrine to St. Joseph, or the Shrine to St. Joseph in St. Louis. St. Louis is probably the more appropriate place to have the national shrine and it's renovation is a tragic but beautiful story.

OK, some photos.