Portage could soon have a saint in its midst.

Samuel Mazzuchelli, an Italian-born Dominican missionary priest credited with the 1833 founding of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Portage, may be on the verge of being declared "blessed" by the Vatican - the second of three steps toward canonization, or sainthood, in the Roman Catholic Church.

"Someone who once walked on these riverbanks could be a saint," said the Rev. Jim Murphy, pastor of the St. Mary parish.

"The current teaching in the Catholic Church is that all people who strive after Christ's way are saints. But to have someone from our area declared a saint by the church would be highly unusual," he said.

In fact, it would be unprecedented.

Sister Christiane Althaus, a Sinsinawa Dominican sister who is the keeper and guide of a Mazzuchelli exhibit at the motherhouse in Sinsinawa, said Mazzuchelli - who founded the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters as well as numerous Catholic churches and schools throughout the Midwest - would be among the first U.S. saints who did not live on the East Coast.

Although it's premature to call him St. Samuel yet, Mazzuchelli's cause for sainthood took a giant step forward Aug. 21, when Diocese of Madison Bishop Robert Morlino officiated over a ceremony at Sinsinawa, in which diocesan officials formally verified documents attesting to a miracle attributable to Mazzuchelli's intercession.

Althaus was the one who prayed with Robert Uselmann of Madison, who, according to church officials, experienced a miraculous cure of terminal cancer after a prayer using the chain that Mazzuchelli wore around his waist as a form of penance.

Numerous people, over the years, have requested prayer with Mazzuchelli's chain - which was discovered around Mazzuchelli's waist after he died in February 1864 in Benton at age 57.

Many years ago, the chain could be brought to hospitals at patients' requests. Now, it never leaves Sinsinawa, and anyone wanting to use it to pray must do so there, with guidance from a sister such as Althaus.

"We tell them that the chain doesn't heal anybody. It's just a piece of metal," Althaus said. "But we hold it to feel a little closer to Father Samuel. It's God who does the healing."

Uselmann's healing, which took place in 2001, was verified by a diocesan tribunal.

At a ceremony Aug. 21 in Sinsinawa, attended by 400 people, the documents verifying the miracle attributed to Mazzuchelli were formally presented to Dominican Sister Mary Paynter for hand-delivery to the diocesan offices in Madison, where they were sealed with wax and a red ribbon. Paynter then left by car to deliver the documents to the apostolic nuncio (the pope's representative to the U.S.) in Washington, D.C., who will in turn convey them to Rome.

Once the documents are in Rome, Althaus said, it could be a short time before Mazzuchelli is officially beatified, or designated "blessed."

In 1993, Pope John Paul II declared Mazzuchelli "venerable," the first step toward sainthood, in response to a request made almost 30 years earlier.

The designation of "venerable" stemmed from Mazzuchelli's life and work in the frontier area that now encompasses parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota.

Mazzuchelli founded an unknown number of parishes, including the one in Portage, which is the oldest parish in the Diocese of Madison.

Mazzuchelli was 26 years old, and had been in America for about five years, when he came from northern Wisconsin to the Portage area as a missionary to the native tribes and the French fur traders who lived in the area, said Malu Durkin, pastoral minister at St. Mary's in Portage.

"Whenever he was planning to come to Portage," Durkin said, "he had to learn how to sleep on the ground - so he'd practice by sleeping on the floor of his house. The first night, he wouldn't make it all night. But once he could sleep a full night on the floor, he knew he was ready to come to primitive Portage."

Before long, the first permanent Catholic church in the area - a log cabin - was built.

Although Mazzuchelli was a gifted architect, credited with designing and building more than 20 churches in Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois (at least five of which still stand), Mazzuchelli did not build the present St. Mary's church building in Portage.

But the parish celebrated its 175th anniversary this year because it traces its beginnings to the church that Mazzuchelli founded in 1833.

In Mazzuchelli's later years, he spent much time in the state's southwestern corner. He is buried in the churchyard at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Benton.

If Mazzuchelli becomes a saint, Althaus said, it's likely that sites associated with him, including St. Mary in Portage, could be destinations for pilgrimages.

"We already have people asking, ‘When is the canonization?'" she said. "And I say, "Oh, no, no, no - we're not there yet."

Mazzuchelli in Portage

The Rev. Samuel Mazzuchelli is the reason why St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception parish in Portage is (A) deemed the oldest Catholic church in the Diocese of Madison and (B) celebrating its 175th anniversary this year.

But the record of Mazzuchelli's presence in Portage is so sketchy, it took an expert - Dominican Sister Christiane Althaus, keeper of a Mazzuchelli exhibit at the Dominican motherhouse in Sinsinawa - to unearth some details.

Mazzuchelli's time in Portage was near the beginning of what would turn out to be his lifelong mission in the middle American frontier.

Born Nov. 4, 1806, of a prosperous and educated Milanese family, he came to the frontier in 1828, at age 22. After his priestly ordination a year later, he was assigned by Cincinnati Bishop Edward Fenwick to be missionary priest of the whole of the Northwest Territory - which ranged from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and beyond. At times, he was the only Catholic priest for hundreds of miles around, and his ministry extended to native tribes, European-born immigrant settlers, miners, farmers and, eventually, political leaders of the fledgling Territory of Wisconsin.

According to Althaus, Mazzuchelli left Mackinac Island, in what is now Michigan, for Green Bay on April 16, 1833. From Green Bay, he went to Fort Winnebago, near present-day Portage.

This is where he met Pierre Pauquette, who had built a tiny Catholic church - the first to be established in central Wisconsin.

Pauquette's mother was of the Winnebago (now known as Ho-Chunk) nation, so Pauquette was able to interpret for Mazzuchelli when he ministered to the native people.

"Pauquette and his wife were converts," Althaus said, "and proved to be of great service to Father Mazzuchelli."

On July 25, 1833, the bishop of the diocese of Detroit (which then included what is now Wisconsin) conferred the Winnebago mission on Mazzuchelli, and he became its pastor.

His work included translating hymns, a catechism and a prayer book into the Winnebago language.

Pauquette also translated Mazzuchelli's Sunday sermons for the natives who converted to Christianity. Their numbers were up to 200 when Mazzuchelli left Fort Winnebago for Detroit to have his new catechism printed.

Mazzuchelli left Fort Winnebago in 1835. Pauquette died the following year, and was buried under the church he built.

That church building was a log cabin. The current St. Mary's church, at 309 W. Cook St., is the parish's fourth building, and was completed and dedicated to St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in 1859.

 Mazzuchelli talk slated

The Dominican sister who carried to Washington, D.C., the documents verifying a miracle through the intercession of the Rev. Samuel Mazzuchelli (1806-1864) will speak in Portage at 7 p.m. Sept. 18.

Sister Mary Paynter will talk about Mazzuchelli and his cause for sainthood at a women's deanery meeting at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Portage.

Malu Durkin, pastoral minister at St. Mary, said registration will begin at 4:15 p.m., followed by a 5 p.m. Mass, a 6 p.m. dinner and the presentation at 7 p.m. Cost for the dinner is $11.50.

Paynter was commissioned to carry the sealed documents supporting the beatification of Mazzuchelli to the apostolic nuncio (papal representative to the United States) in Washington, D.C. According to Sister Christiane Althaus, who is also a Sinsinawa Dominican, Paynter had to travel by car because she lacked diplomatic status - and, without such status, the package with the documents could have been unsealed for inspection before she would be allowed to board a commercial airliner.

Mazzuchelli is the founding pastor of the church that later became St. Mary's, the oldest Catholic parish in the Diocese of Madison.

 

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