Home Town or Home Community:

Blumenfeld, SK

Our Story:

The Blumenfeld church is the original church in the district of Leader, Saskatchewan. The first German settlers came to the district from Romania in 1908; they built the church seven years later. Rev. Henry Kelz, OMI, with the help of his parishioners, built a grotto to Our Lady of Sorrows using far-away fieldstone. In it they placed a pieta statue. As a result of an August 15 meeting of the Catholics of Blumenfeld in 1934, it was decided to make annual pilgrimages to the site. The following year on August 5 they met again, this time with their Bishop from Gravelbourg. The pastors then petitioned Bishop Melanson to dedicate that day to Mother Mary. His reply on June 22, 1936 read in part:

Blessing of the Shrine
Year: 1936
Place Name: Leader, SK

I am happy to give permission to the Fathers of the Colony or District of St. Mary to hold each year a pilgrimage on or about the 5th of August, Feast of Our Lady of the Snows, which pilgrimage will be a regional celebration in honor of Our Lady of Sorrows, at Blumenfeld. I think this place is approximately the centre of the district.

Blumenfeld
Year: 1987
Place Name: Leader, SK

Source 

Dr. Joseph Lozinsky and Heather A. Kolla, ” Mary as Mother” (St. Peter’s Press, June 1987, revised July 1987)

Contact:
Our Lady of the Prairies Foundation
Box 22076
Saskatoon SK S4A 1Y4
Canada
info@ourladyfoundation.org