Frederic Baraga
Frederic Baraga, VDS ( born June 29, 1797 in Mala vas / small village, Markgrafschaft Krain, Empire Austria, † January 19, 1868 in Marquette (Michigan ), United States ) was a Slovenian -born American and Roman Catholic missionary, bishop and philologist.
Life
Frederic Baraga was born Irenej Friderik Baraga in the manor of Mala Vas ( former municipality Kleindorf No. 16) near Dobrnič in Carniola, which now belongs to the Slovenian community Trebnje.
He grew up in the time of the Napoleonic wars in which the territory of today's Slovenia for several years a part of the Illyrian Provinces of the Empire of France had before it again after 1815 was a crown land of the Empire of Austria. Therefore, the school language changed hands several times in his childhood between French and German, although his mother tongue Krainerisch / Slovenian was. In addition, Latin and Greek were compulsory languages in secondary schools. Thus Baraga was multilingual at the age of 16 years, which was very useful to him in later life.
Priesthood
Baraga enrolled first at the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna before he entered the seminary. On September 21, 1823 he was consecrated in St. Nicholas Cathedral in Ljubljana as a priest. As a young priest, he was a staunch opponent of Jansenism and wrote at this time a spiritual book in Slovenian entitled Dušná Paša ( food for the soul ).
In 1830 he volunteered to serve the Bishop Edward D. Fenwick of Cincinnati as a priest for the growing community and its vast mission field. A year later, Baraga became the Ottawa Indians Arbre Croche Mission (now Cross Village ( Mich.) ) sent to complete his studies in the Ottawa language, which he had begun in Cincinnati.
As a result, he published in 1832 the first book ever written in the Ottawa language; " Otava anemia - Misinaigan " was the title of the Catechism and Prayer Book. After a short stay in a mission agency in today's Grand Rapids, 1835, he moved northward to ( Chippewa ) to work with the Ojibway Indians of La Pointe (Wisconsin ), a former Jesuit mission on Lake Superior.
In 1843 he founded a mission station at L' Anse ( Michigan). At that time he was given the nickname " Snowshoe Priest " because it hundreds of miles each year had to travel on snowshoes in the harsh winters. He also helped to protect the Indians from impending relocation and published a dictionary and a grammar of the Ojibway language. Although these are of great historical value, they are not considered nowadays as the base stations that language.
Episcopate
1853 Baraga was by Pope Pius IX. appointed Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Obermichigan and on November 1, 1853 consecrated by Archbishop John Baptist Purcell at the Cathedral of St. Peter in chains of Cincinnati (Ohio ).
Baraga was from January 1857, the first bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sault Sainte Marie ( Michigan), which emerged from the Apostolic Vicariate of Obermichigan, 1865 Diocese of Sault Sainte Marie- Marquette and is now known as Diocese of Marquette.
As of July 27, 1852 he began to keep a diary ( primarily in German, with English, French, Slovenian, Chippewa, Latin and Italian epithets ), which describe the events of his missionary journeys and his relationship with his sister Amalia. At that time, the area experienced a population explosion, as thousands of workers to the copper and iron ore mines near Houghton, Ontonagon (Michigan) and Marquette streamed. For his few priests it was to be there to challenge for the needs of immigrant miners and autochthonous. On the other hand, this also meant the regional boom, especially the transport links on Lake Superior.
However, in winter the snow shoes were the only means of locomotion, which he still used even with 60 years of life. The last major challenge Barage had to cope with the ethnic diversity of his diocese, where in addition to autochthonous also the earlier French settlers and the new German and Irish miners lived. Difficulties arose because of the language barriers: While Bishop Baraga himself eight languages fluently, he found little priest with the same skills.
Bishop Baraga traveled twice to Europe to raise funds for his diocese. In this case, a jewel cross and a bishop's ring, he was handed over by Emperor Franz Joseph I, however, the Bishop sold.
He also wrote numerous letters to the Congregation of Propaganda Fide, in which he talks about his missionary work. These letters were then widely published and led both the St. John Neumann and P. Francis Xavier Pierz to move to the United States. Baraga was famous for his work throughout Europe. In his last ten years of life, his health constitution took more and more down, he became deaf and suffered a series of strokes.
He died on January 19, 1868 in Marquette. He was buried in the crypt of the local Cathedral of Saint Peter.
Honors
Bishop Frederic Baraga was declared by the Roman Catholic Church of the Venerable Servant of God. The place Baraga, Baraga the Township, the Baraga County and the Baraga State Park (all in Michigan) bear his name. By Jack E. Anderson a statue Baraga in L' Anse ( Michigan) was designed. A Catholic school was named after him in Iron Mountain in Bishop Baraga Catholic School.
A memorial cross, erected in Baraga himself as a reward for reaching the shore during a storm on Lake Superior in 1846, today in Schroeder ( Minnesota) is at the mouth of the Cross River. The wooden cross was replaced by one made of granite, which has survived the ages.