Eight men from St. Leonard, Muskego, pause along the Ice Age Trail during a 75.7-mile walking pilgrimage from Holy Hill to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. The weeklong “Wisconsin Camino” included daily Mass, prayer and fellowship at Catholic sites across eastern Wisconsin. (Submitted photo)
May, the month of Mary, has led eight men from the Milwaukee area to walk a relatively new Wisconsin “Camino” of faith between a longtime centerpiece of Catholic life in southeastern Wisconsin and the site of the only approved Marian apparition in the United States.
The men took Monday, May 4, to Saturday, May 10, to prayerfully journey in community on a 75.7-mile walking pilgrimage from the Basilica and National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians at Holy Hill, Hubertus, to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, about twenty miles from Green Bay.
They stopped at numerous Catholic shrines and experienced daily Mass while finding countless moments to fill their faith.
“Pilgrimages are just a chance to get out of your normal routine, and challenge yourself to grow spiritually,” said Paul Lewandowski, who took this unofficial Wisconsin “Camino” (a famous, centuries-old network of pilgrimage routes across Europe that converge on the shrine of the Apostle St. James at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain).
“It just is a step along the way,” said pilgrim Larry Wiemer, who had walked the Camino de Santiago in 2025. “For me, it was a tangible way to stay committed and stay grounded to my faith.”
The men all come from St. Leonard Parish, Muskego, and they arranged the trip with the help of Fr. John Cella, O.F.M., who directs Franciscan Pilgrimage Programs. “I know these guys from the men’s group. We got them started on the Camino de Santiago and they branched out, and they’re doing their own thing,” Fr. Cella said. “What happens to you as you’re on the way there is you come face to face with yourself, with your friends and with your God.”
Pilgrims walk together along a wooded trail during a weeklong spiritual journey through eastern Wisconsin. (Submitted photo)
That encounter began before sunset Sunday, May 3, at Holy Hill, where the men shared fellowship and stayed before getting going on Monday. Fr. Cella provided Mass that morning before a 13-mile journey along the Ice Age Trail to Hartford.
Day two started with Mass at St. Killian Church, Hartford, then a 13.7-mile walk to Dundee in Fond du Lac County. They made a stop at St. Matthias Chapel, New Fane, a mission of Kewaskum’s Holy Trinity Parish.
“We didn’t know this, but a previous pastor of ours that had reopened that chapel, Fr. Jerry Rinzel, is buried in the
cemetery there at St. Matthias Chapel,” said Allen Jorn, one of the pilgrims. “There was a dedication to him inside, a picture of him. There’s a statue from the parishioners of St. Leonard’s there at the chapel. That was a special moment that we weren’t expecting.”
The third day took them from Mass at Holy Rosary Church, New Holstein, on a 12.4-mile jaunt to St. Nazianz, where they stayed at Holy Resurrection Monastery. “We were told we’re supposed to be silent in the monastery, that these monks practice silence, and we’re a pretty talkative group,” Jorn said with a laugh. “I knew that would be a challenge for all of us.”
The eight Milwaukee-area pilgrims share a meal and fellowship during their journey from Holy Hill to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. (Submitted photo)
Day four involved 8 a.m. Mass before the longest trek, 15 miles, to a hotel in Denmark.
Day five led to a 12-mile walk that wrapped up at St. Lawrence Church in Stangelville, just 9.6 miles from the shrine in Champion. The eight men wrapped that part up Saturday morning before Mass at 11:30 a.m. that day.
While each day had its own start and end, the middle moments provided so much grace for the eight guys walking this pathway from Kettle Moraine to Brown County. They recited countless rosaries and chaplets of Divine Mercy.
But there were plenty of other moments of blessing, often letting God meet pilgrims’ places of pain. Jorn described a pilgrim who had a friend pass away from cancer. “He was remembering her along the route, and he had different places where he was going to leave a medal as a dedication to her. They had prayed to St. Peregrine. We stopped at a place that had a statue of St. Peregrine, and he knew right then and there that this was where he was meant to leave this in memory of her.”
The eight men aim to continue caminos as an annual faithful foot journey, encountering God’s love for them as they encounter the beauty of nature, comradeship and Christ’s brotherhood with them.
“Hopefully the first week in May, I will be doing something like this each year,” Wiemer said. “It’ll be my way to kick off summer and get in shape for the rest of summer.”
Fr. Cella capstoned the experience, showing how it reflects the life paths we all take with and to the Lord, and how we don’t go it alone. “Our life is a pilgrimage towards God and the whole experience,” Fr. Cella added. “That’s why we have each other. We have our friends and we have nature, but it’s all part of the process. It’s the journey, and it’s with each other.”
Pilgrims pose outside the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion after completing their weeklong walking pilgrimage across Wisconsin. (Submitted photo)
