Courtesy National Shrine of St. Joseph

National shrines can be huge complexes anchored by beautiful churches or basilicas. Visitors to the National Shrine of St. Joseph in De Pere, Wisconsin, are more likely to be surprised by its simplicity, said Michael Poradek, the shrine’s director.

“It’s very, very small and simple, and very quiet, which we feel is representative of St. Joseph as being a quiet, humble saint,” Poradek said. “I think it’s a unique place.”

The national shrine is a prayer space attached to Old St. Joseph Church where visitors pray, light candles and leave prayer intentions in front of a crowned statue of St. Joseph.

People have asked, “Why not build something much larger?” Poradek said. But there’s never been a sense of that tradition for this particular shrine, he said, and yet a strong devotion to Joseph is fostered there.

“It’s just a small, quiet place of prayer,” he said. “As we accommodate the sacramental needs of visitors, offering Mass, reconciliation at various times during the year, and prayer opportunities, we believe we’re continuing to touch people who wish to go to Joseph and pray.”

The shrine’s beginnings can be traced to the late 1880s, when Father Joseph Durin, a Missionary of the Sacred Heart, served as pastor of St. Joseph church in De Pere, now called Old St. Joseph Church and located on the campus of St. Norbert College, 20 minutes southwest of downtown Green Bay along the Fox River. Father Durin started regular devotions to the saint in 1888, the same year the original statue of St. Joseph holding the Christ Child was installed.

“That’s the start of the shrine, really,” Poradek said.

The original wooden church in De Pere burned down shortly after the shrine began, Poradek said, and one of the only things that survived the fire was the original statue of St. Joseph. Following the fire, Poradek said “the community really pulled together and built the existing stone and wood church that is present on the site.”

In 1891, Father Durin requested that the pope give his blessing to have the shrine’s statue “crowned,” which Pope Leo XIII granted. “He issued a papal bull of canonical coronation, which is a term basically saying he’s giving his blessing to have this statue crowned for devotion,” Poradek said.

By the time the bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay came to De Pere in 1892 to crown the statue, a new, larger statue of St. Joseph holding the Christ Child was in place — the same statue visitors pray in front of today. The De Pere statue shows St. Joseph wearing a flat “mural” crown, while the Christ Child in his arms wears an imperial crown.

About a 4-hour drive from St. Paul, the shrine in De Pere is the only one in the United States with a “papal-crowned” statue of St. Joseph, Poradek said, and he believes it is one of only 17 in the world. The next statue closest to the upper Midwest is in Quebec, at the St. Joseph Oratory of Mount Royal, he said.

The De Pere site has been called a national shrine since 1892, well before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved norms in 1992 for designating national shrines. Shrine staff are working with the USCCB and the local diocese to update statutes and complete other paperwork, and expect to have the title of national shrine ratified soon, Poradek said.

Having been painted over the years, including with some earth-tone shades, the 1892 statue was restored in the past year to its original, more royal colors, and the crowns of St. Joseph and the Christ Child were repaired. From the 1960s until the early 2000s, the statue was located in the church’s crypt. Guests could visit it, but they needed to use steps, reducing its accessibility.

But the refurbished statue is back in its original location, a rotunda connected to the Old St. Joseph Church on the college grounds. The shrine became a ministry of St. Norbert Abbey in 1898.

“People are really drawn to the statue itself and to be able to pray with the statue,” Poradek said. “We’ve seen a large increase in visitors over the past five years, since we moved the statue back to its original location.”

After Sept. 7, shrine visitors can find accommodations, depending on availability, at the nearby St. Norbert Abbey Spirituality Center. Visiting hours at the shrine are 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. 365 days a year. While many shrines close earlier, extended hours are possible because security is present on the college campus, Poradek said. The weekly Perpetual Novena has been celebrated every Wednesday since 1888. The Solemn Novena occurs every March 10-19, concluding with the Solemnity of St. Joseph. For more information, visit norbertines.org/joseph.

Prayer requests can be submitted online or dropped into a tool chest in front of the statue. Requests are included in the weekly novena, too, Poradek said.

Some people visit a second shrine when they travel to De Pere: the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, a Marian apparition site in Champion, Wisconsin. A walking pilgrimage “from St. Joseph to St. Mary” takes place each year. In May, nearly 3,000 pilgrims walked the 21 miles from the National Shrine of St. Joseph to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, and returned by bus.

In 2016, the USCCB declared the site in Champion a national shrine by formal decree, making it the first and only Catholic shrine in America with a Church-approved Marian apparition site.