Holy Hill

About this property

The Basilica and National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians at the Holy Hill is a Roman Catholic Marian shrine in Hubertus, Wisconsin, United States, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the venerated title Help of Christians. The land and the shrine serves as a religious pilgrimage and attracts approximately 300,000 visitors each year. Pope Benedict XVI raised the shrine to the status of Minor Basilica via Pontifical Decree on 11 July 2006. The shrine is located atop a high kame in 400 acres (1.6 km2) of woods. Visitors can climb a 178-step observation tower to view the Milwaukee skyline, about thirty miles (50 km) southeast. At approximately 1,350 feet (410 m) above sea level, it is one of the highest points in southeastern Wisconsin. Near Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail, it is about four miles (6.5 km) east of Erin Hills, a championship golf course which hosted the U.S. Open in 2017. Tradition says that the hill was first discovered by Europeans 353 years ago in 1673 by Father Jacques Marquette with Louis Jolliet. However, modern historians view this tradition as untrue, though the Order of the Society of Jesus were likely the first Catholic priests to set foot on the hill. The U.S. government owned the land until 1855, and the hill was known as "Government Hill" because surveying work was done there. Forty acres were purchased by Fr. Paulhuber of Salzburg, Austria. The first white resident of the hill was a hermit named François Soubrio. Around 1862, an area farmer found him living on the hill. Soubrio had heard about the hill when he was working as an assistant to a retired professor in Quebec, Canada. He had found an old French diary and map dated 1676 showing a cone-shaped mountain in Wisconsin. The diary described how the author placed a stone altar, raised a cross, and dedicated the hill to Jesus's mother Mary. The diary account corresponds with Jesuit missionary work in the area between 1673 and 1679. The name "Holy Hill" was first given to the place by Irish settlers in the area. Father George Strickner dedicated a log chapel as the first Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians on May 24, 1863. A set of wooden crosses were placed for the Stations of the Cross in 1875. In the winter of 1879, Fr. Raess sent a proposal to Archbishop John Henni to construct a new shrine to Mary. Construction began that spring. Pilgrims began flocking to the shrine, and it was decided that a religious order should administer the shrine. A group of Discalced Carmelites came from Bavaria at the invitation of Archbishop Sebastian Messmer, and the Shrine of Mary was put under their care on June 26, 1906. The building now known as the Old Monastery Inn and Retreat Center was completed in 1920. The second shrine was removed in 1925 so that a third shrine could be built. The cornerstone of the third and present shrine was placed by Archbishop Messmer on August 22, 1926. The present church was completed and consecrated in 1931.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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