Assumption Chapel, also known as the Grasshopper Chapel, is a Roman Catholic Marian shrine, "Calvary Hill" (), and pilgrimage chapel ()Fr. Robert J. Voigt (1991), The Story of Mary and the Grasshoppers, Cold Spring, Minnesota. Page 17. (). Fr. Robert J. Voigt (1991), The Story of Mary and the Grasshoppers, Cold Spring, Minnesota. Page 28. The shrine stands upon one of the tallest hills in Stearns County, and which is known locally as (), meaning "Mary's Mountain", on the outskirts of Cold Spring, Minnesota. The chapel stands in a region of Minnesota largely settled in the 1850s by German-American Catholics who were invited to the area by Slovenian-American missionary Fr. Francis Xavier Pierz We are all ‘living stones,’ descendants of immigrants, by Marilyn Salzl Brinkman, Sartell, St. Stephen, and St. Joseph Newsleaders, September 21, 2017. and which remained, until shortly before the Second World War, a major center for the speaking of the German language in the United States.
Although inspired by thousand-year-old traditions carried from Southern Germany to central Minnesota by its peasant-pioneers, the Assumption Chapel, similar to the St. Boniface pilgrimage shrine in nearby St. Augusta, was constructed in 1877, as a desperate plea for heavenly intercession against the Rocky Mountain locusts; a species of giant grasshopper whose plagues devastated the region between 1856 and 1877. As many local peasant pioneers had emigrated from regions of southern Germany that had been evangelized by Hiberno-Scottish missionaries from the Celtic Church, customs associated with both shrines bear close similarities to traditional Breton pardons or to the pattern days of Gaelic Ireland.
The petition was considered to have been successful at the time and there has not been another Rocky Mountain locust plague in Minnesota since 1877. Moreover, the last documented sighting of live Rocky Mountain locusts in the wild took place in southern Canada in 1902.Canada's History, October–November 2015, pages 43–44 In 2014, the species of insects which was once numerous enough to block out the sunlight and reduce farm families throughout North America to starvation was formally declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Background
Writing in 1997, Jewish-American historian of America's religious architecture Marilyn J. Chiat described the early history of the region as follows, "Father Francis X. Pierz, a missionary to Indians in central Minnesota, published a series of articles in 1851 in German Catholic newspapers advocating Catholic settlement in central Minnesota. Large numbers of immigrants, mainly German, but also Slovenian and Polish, responded. Over 20 parishes where formed in what is now Stearns County, each centered on a church-oriented hamlet. As the farmers prospered, the small frame churches were replaced by more substantial buildings of brick or stone such as St. Mary, Help of Christians, a Gothic Revival stone structure built in 1873. Stearns County retains in its German character and is still home to one of the largest rural Catholic populations in Anglo-America." Marilyn J. Chiat (1997), America's Religious Architecture: Sacred Places for Every Community, Preservation Press. Page 146.
Furthermore, according to Kathleen Neils Conzen, "Stearns County Germans early established daughter settlements at West Union in Todd County, Millerville in Douglas County, and Pierz in Morrison County, later flooded into North Dakota (where 'Stearns County German' remains a recognized ethnicity today), and in 1905 negotiated with the Canadian authorities to establish the St. Peter Colony in north-central Saskatchewan." Kathleen Neils Conzen (2003), Germans in Minnesota, Minnesota Historical Society Press. Pages 26–27.
The first Assumption Chapel was known as (), meaning "Mary, Help of Christians", and was built atop the same hill, which is locally known as (), meaning "Mary's Mountain". At the time of its original construction in 1877, much of the Midwest was suffering from a four year long Rocky Mountain locust plague. At the same time, however, the construction of the chapel was based on a tradition stretching back much earlier.
1856–1857 plague
According to Fr. Bruno Riss (1829–1900), a Benedictine missionary priest from Augsburg, in the Kingdom of Bavaria, the first Rocky Mountain locust plague to strike Central Minnesota began on 15 August 1856, during the preaching of a mission for the Feast of the Assumption by Father Francis Xavier Weninger inside the newly erected log chapel in St. Joseph, Minnesota; following the lifting of a personal interdict imposed against that community by Bishop Joseph Crétin in May 1856. The Rocky Mountain locusts darkened the sky and pounded upon the rooftop of the chapel so incredibly loud that they were mistaken for a thunder and hailstorm. Only after the mission did the real reason for the "storm" become apparent, and the clouds of "hoppers" swiftly devoured both the crops and much of the seed grain, which left the newly arrived German-American Catholic settlers of the region destitute. Fr. Bruno Riss, O.S.B., The First Beginning of St. John's Abbey, "Saint Johns University Record", March 1889 and April 1889.
According to Father Bruno Riss, "This small, voracious yet invincible monster had in a short time devastated all that grows and blooms upon the face of the earth. Within about 2 or 3 days the fields presented the appearance of being newly plowed. Then an indescribable misery entered the homes of the settlers of Stearns County. The entire harvest was a dead loss for those settlers who had taken their abodes in this region during the previous year: those, of course, who had settled during the year of the famine had no crops to lose, as they had not planted any. The first terrible winter was at hand the victuals that remained were soon consumed, prices rose enormously, because the nearest market was at St. Paul, and it required a full week to make a trip with an ox-team. Still, hope did not die." Fr. Bruno Riss, O.S.B., The First Beginning of St. John's Abbey, "Saint Johns University Record", March 1889.
Although the grasshoppers were believed to have been killed off by the 1856-1857 winter and seed wheat stood at $2 per bushel, it became apparent during the spring planting in 1857 that the locusts had simply laid their eggs in the furrows. When the warmth of the sun hatched the eggs, the results were even more catastrophic for the local population than the events of the previous year, as the grasshoppers, "suffered nothing to grow, except peas." Fr. Bruno Riss, O.S.B., The First Beginning of St. John's Abbey, "Saint Johns University Record", March 1889, May 1889.
According to Fr. Bruno Riss, "They found their way into the houses and destroyed whatever clothing they could reach. In the church not a shred of clothing could remain unexposed, everything was locked up in presses. Even the priest at the altar was not secure against their attacks: before Mass the hoppers had to be swept off the altar. The priest had to vest hastily, place the altar clothes upon the altar and be very careful to keep the Sacred Host covered with the Paten, and at the Elevation to leave the palla upon the chalice. During Mass the altar-boys were kept busy driving away the insolent insects with whips from the vestments of the priest." Fr. Bruno Riss, O.S.B., The First Beginning of St. John's Abbey, "Saint Johns University Record", March 1889, May 1889.
According to Father Bruno Riss, George Berger (1823-1897), a St. Joseph homesteader from Oberschneiding, in the Kingdom of Bavaria, George Berger biographical file, Archive Room, Stearns County Historical Society, St. Cloud, Minnesota. raised the question, in a typically self-deprecating example of Stearns County German humor, after Mass one Sunday, "Why does God afflict us with grasshoppers?" Herr Berger then answered his own question, "in his own humorous way", and explained, "God saw that when we lived in the States from which we emigrated, we were good for nothing and wanted to cure us without harming our neighbors and therefore he led us to this place and the grasshoppers after us and now, I hope, we are all cured." Fr. Bruno Riss, O.S.B., The First Beginning of St. John's Abbey, "Saint Johns University Record", March 1889, May 1889.
Fr. Bruno Riss was almost certainly referring to elderly Rockville pioneer homesteader Michael Hanson, Sr., an immigrant from the Luxembourgish-speaking but Prussian-ruled village of Obersgegen and combat veteran of the French Imperial Army who had lost a leg to enemy fire during the Napoleonic Wars, Michael Hanson, Sr. biographical file & Pierre T. Hanson oral history interviews, Stearns County History Museum, St. Cloud, Minnesota. when he wrote about, "an old man [who] dwelled with several of his children on a farm" near St. James Church in Jacob's Prairie. According to Fr. Bruno, "Spring of '57 came: the young brood of grasshoppers crept to the surface, but the old man ordered his sons to sow wheat and oats." His sons replied, "Father, this is in vain; the hoppers will not let anything grow. Let us save the seed." Fr. Bruno Riss, O.S.B., The First Beginning of St. John's Abbey, "Saint Johns University Record", July 1889.
The old man replied, "No, boys, we will do our part and plant as usual. But let me tell you this: if God gives us a harvest, we shall give one third to God and the Church, the second third will be for the poor, while for ourselves we will reserve the balance. Now if the good God wishes to accept of our gift He will permit this grain to grow." Fr. Bruno Riss, O.S.B., The First Beginning of St. John's Abbey, "Saint Johns University Record", July 1889.
According to Fr. Bruno, "And so it happened. It seemed as though the hoppers could not find this farm. The yield about one half of a usual harvest, while farmers in the vicinity has no crops whatever. Agreeable to his promise, he delivered to me two thirds of the entire yield for distribution. How I was edified and touched by the faith of this man. Nor did he make display of his charity, - all was done on the quiet." Fr. Bruno Riss, O.S.B., The First Beginning of St. John's Abbey, "Saint Johns University Record", July 1889.
By May 1857, conditions among the settlers had deteriorated to the point that the four Benedictine priests responsible for the region discussed the situation together and proposed to their parishioners the idea of vowing to make a biannual religious procession and pilgrimage () in perpetuity if the locust plague were lifted. The Benedictines had recalled two Saints, early missionaries who spearheaded the Christianization of the pagan Germanic tribes in what later became the Diocese of Augsburg during a time when what is now the Germanosphere was very similar to the Wild West, who both had a well established reputation for intercession during similar plagues of vermin in Southern Germany. For this reason, the processions were scheduled for July 4th, the Feast of Saint Ulrich of Augsburg, and September 6th, the Feast of Saint Magnus of Füssen. Immediately after the proposal was accepted and a solemn vow was made by the parish missions at St. Cloud, St. Augusta, St. Joseph, Jacobs Prairie, and Richmond, a strong northwest wind blew the locusts out of the region. Even though local settlers had to wait another fourteen months for the next harvest to end local destitution, the religious processions began almost immediately. Fr. Bruno Riss, O.S.B., The First Beginning of St. John's Abbey, "Saint Johns University Record", June 1889.