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Francis Xavier Pierz
Francis Xavier Pierz (Slovene: Franc Pirc or Franc Pirec; German: Franz Pierz) (November 20, 1785 – January 22, 1880) was a Slovenian-American Roman Catholic priest and missionary to the Ottawa and Ojibwe Indians in present-day Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario, and Minnesota. Because his letters convinced numerous Catholic German Americans to settle in Central Minnesota after the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, Fr. Pierz is referred to as the "Father of the Diocese of Saint Cloud."
Father Pierz was born into an ethnic Slovene peasant family in Godič, near the town of Kamnik in the Hapsburg-ruled Duchy of Carniola within the Austrian Empire (now Slovenia). On November 20, 1785, he was baptized as Franz Xav. Pierz. Despite the coercive Germanisation campaign by Emperor Joseph II, Francis Pierz was raised and educated bilingually. He became literate and fluent enough in both the vernacular Slovene language and in Standard Austro-German to later compose Christian poetry in both languages. He entered the major seminary of Ljubljana in the fall of 1810 and was ordained at Ljubljana Cathedral on March 13, 1813, by Bishop Anton Kavčič. Two of his brothers also became priests.
After seven years as assistant pastor for the Catholic Church in Slovenia of the mountain parishes of Kranjska Gora and Fusine in Valromana (Bela Peč, in Slovene), he was appointed parish priest of the villages of Peče and Podbrezje. In later years, all of his former parishes would become sources of Slovene immigrants and pioneer settlers of Central Minnesota.
After years of attempting to improve farming methods among the poor farmers of his parish, he published the book Kranjski Vertnar (The Carniolan Gardner) in 1830. His efforts led to his being awarded a medal of honor by the Carniolan Agricultural Society in 1842.
In 1835, Pierz departed for the missions of the United States after years of being inspired by the published letters of the Slovenian missionary known as, "The Snowshoe Priest", and future Bishop of Marquette, Father Frederic Baraga, who worked in present-day Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Wisconsin.
Following a particularly difficult and terrifying Atlantic Ocean crossing that he later versified in the poem ''Pesmi od svojega popotovanja, Fr. Pierz arrived in the Diocese of Detroit on September 16, where he presented his credentials to Bishop Frederick Rese. As Lake Superior had already frozen over, Father Pierz was prevented from immediately joining Father Baraga in Wisconsin and was assigned to the Ottawa of L'Arbre Croche, in what is now Little Traverse Bay Reservation in Michigan.
With the assistance of a Catholic Odawa Chief known as Sharp Knife, Fr. Pierz was very successful at making converts, even though the Ottawa dialect of the Ojibwe language was a terrible struggle for him to learn.
One of Fr. Pierz's particularly devout converts was a 15-year old Odawa girl who took the Baptismal name of Marie and who died soon after entering the Church, but in whose sanctity Fr. Pierz firmly believed and upon whose intercession he later strongly relied. Fr. Pierz also composed a long work of narrative Slovenian poetry about Marie's life and death, which he titled Pesmi od ajdovske deklice ("The Song of the Indian Girl").
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Francis Xavier Pierz
Francis Xavier Pierz (Slovene: Franc Pirc or Franc Pirec; German: Franz Pierz) (November 20, 1785 – January 22, 1880) was a Slovenian-American Roman Catholic priest and missionary to the Ottawa and Ojibwe Indians in present-day Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario, and Minnesota. Because his letters convinced numerous Catholic German Americans to settle in Central Minnesota after the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, Fr. Pierz is referred to as the "Father of the Diocese of Saint Cloud."
Father Pierz was born into an ethnic Slovene peasant family in Godič, near the town of Kamnik in the Hapsburg-ruled Duchy of Carniola within the Austrian Empire (now Slovenia). On November 20, 1785, he was baptized as Franz Xav. Pierz. Despite the coercive Germanisation campaign by Emperor Joseph II, Francis Pierz was raised and educated bilingually. He became literate and fluent enough in both the vernacular Slovene language and in Standard Austro-German to later compose Christian poetry in both languages. He entered the major seminary of Ljubljana in the fall of 1810 and was ordained at Ljubljana Cathedral on March 13, 1813, by Bishop Anton Kavčič. Two of his brothers also became priests.
After seven years as assistant pastor for the Catholic Church in Slovenia of the mountain parishes of Kranjska Gora and Fusine in Valromana (Bela Peč, in Slovene), he was appointed parish priest of the villages of Peče and Podbrezje. In later years, all of his former parishes would become sources of Slovene immigrants and pioneer settlers of Central Minnesota.
After years of attempting to improve farming methods among the poor farmers of his parish, he published the book Kranjski Vertnar (The Carniolan Gardner) in 1830. His efforts led to his being awarded a medal of honor by the Carniolan Agricultural Society in 1842.
In 1835, Pierz departed for the missions of the United States after years of being inspired by the published letters of the Slovenian missionary known as, "The Snowshoe Priest", and future Bishop of Marquette, Father Frederic Baraga, who worked in present-day Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Wisconsin.
Following a particularly difficult and terrifying Atlantic Ocean crossing that he later versified in the poem ''Pesmi od svojega popotovanja, Fr. Pierz arrived in the Diocese of Detroit on September 16, where he presented his credentials to Bishop Frederick Rese. As Lake Superior had already frozen over, Father Pierz was prevented from immediately joining Father Baraga in Wisconsin and was assigned to the Ottawa of L'Arbre Croche, in what is now Little Traverse Bay Reservation in Michigan.
With the assistance of a Catholic Odawa Chief known as Sharp Knife, Fr. Pierz was very successful at making converts, even though the Ottawa dialect of the Ojibwe language was a terrible struggle for him to learn.
One of Fr. Pierz's particularly devout converts was a 15-year old Odawa girl who took the Baptismal name of Marie and who died soon after entering the Church, but in whose sanctity Fr. Pierz firmly believed and upon whose intercession he later strongly relied. Fr. Pierz also composed a long work of narrative Slovenian poetry about Marie's life and death, which he titled Pesmi od ajdovske deklice ("The Song of the Indian Girl").
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