• Sunday-What'sUP June 8 - 10:30 pm

Yesterday after dropping off Edie at a meeting at Keweenaw Bay, I had a few moments to drive over to L'Anse and visit with Bishop Baraga. He's still standing there, on the cliff overlooking the peninsula. Reading the plaques and memorials gave me some inspiration to put together a summary of the Bishop's life for this week's Pasty Cameo.

We have featured the shrine previously on the Pasty Cam, but I had never looked that closely at Frederic Baraga's life. I'm sure the history of this region is richer because of rare people like him who were multi-lingual, able to minister or communicate fluently in eight different languages.

In reading the account, I found that Baraga was born in Slovenia, and was not French as I mistakenly thought at one time. At a concert a couple of years ago in Saint Peter's Cathedral in Marquette, we noticed the signs indicating that a crypt in the church is Bishop Baraga's final resting place. It was quite a journey.

Have a good week :o)

I watched today's cameo, and realized that I hadn't seen some of the others so proceeded to watch them. What interesting stories there have been, and I thought I'd seen them all. The ones about Fr. Marquette, and Robert deLaSalle were most interesting. Thank you for enlightening me on subjects that I wasn't so sure of. The cameos are absolutely wonderful ideas. Loved today's too. I also like the way you now have them set up to just choose the ones you haven't seen. Still hoping they'll be made into discs for us.

Another great cameo. THANKS

I saw the statue as it was being created, in Lake Linden I think it was. The pieces were huge and it was very hard to imagine how they would all fit. I'm always too excited to get to the Keweenaw, but now I'm determined to stop and see the completed statue.

I had many visits to the Bishop Baraga statue as it was being built in Lake Linden. Art Chaput did all the modeling and welding and Jack Anderson was the designer. a good discussion of this took place on Oct 18, 2003 in the archives.

maija, I, too, was fortunate enough to watch them work on hammering out this beautiful piece of art in Lake Linden years ago. Fascinating experience! Needless to say, the Cameo is super!

A couple of visitors have asked about the newer looking complex near the end of the Cameo. That is the orphanage at Assinins, which was a part of the missionary work of Bishop Baraga.

The statue was fabricated by Jack Anderson. Jack and I went to Mackenzie High School in Detroit. His uncle Jake Anderson ran fishing charters out of Lac La Belle. Jack died an untimely and accidental death a few years ago in Lake Linden. He was a great guy.

Charlie--Thanks for the wonderful Pasty Cameo. Father Baraga is
a great favorite of mine. His journal makes fascinating reading and
I have used his 'Ojibway Language Dictionary' to translate a number
of words. He had the foresight to help the Keweenaw Tribe
purchase their land, saving them from being relocated when so
many other native groups were. I enjoyed seeing his tomb in
Marquette. The cloth on his tomb is beautifullly embroidered with
native designs.

This summer while I am UP, I hope to check out the various
churches that he started in the UP.