Prominence and Presence: The Co-opting and Re-consecration of High Places in Southeastern Wisconsin

Abstract

In southeastern Wisconsin, many Roman Catholic churches exhibit a “Cathedral Effect” because of their imposing foundation on topographically prominent locations. A companion attribute to prominence was (is) presence, the feeling of numinosity (awe or a divine presence) and, in conjunction with prominence, the likely reason why high places were originally consecrated. However, the predilection for the consecration of high places was not unique to the Catholic Church or southeastern Wisconsin. Part of an ancient tradition or attribute, high places intervisible with other prominences had been favored as being sacred by indigenous peoples in the mid-continent of North America (and elsewhere) for millennia. In historic times, one priest, Father Kaspar Rehrl, was responsible for selecting the majority of the high places on which to found Roman Catholic churches in eastern Wisconsin. Fr Rehrl came from Salzburg, Austria, bringing the custom of building churches on prominences with him. But Fr Rehrl was operating from more than church edict, doctrine, or local custom. During his journeys walking the Indian trails and because of his personal devotion, Fr Rehrl had not only rediscovered the ancient American Indian shrines on prominences in the Wisconsin Territory, he respected and re-consecrated them. In essence (this article argues), Fr Rehrl was acting on an archetype that led him to the very same high places another, earlier culture had favored.