Francis Xavier Pierz

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Francis Xavier Pierz (Slovenian "Franc Pirc") (1785-1880) was a Roman Catholic priest and missionary to the Ottawa (tribe) and Ojibway Indians. He is also responsible for attracting large numbers of German Catholics to settle in Central Minnesota and is therefore referred to as "The Father of the Diocese of Saint Cloud."

"Father Pierz" was born on November 20, 1785 to a peasant family in Kamnik, Slovenia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He entered the seminary of Ljubljana in the fall of 1810 and was ordained on March 13, 1813 by Bishop Antonius Kautschitz. Two of his brothers would also become priests. After seven years as assistant pastor of the mountain parishes of Kranjska Gora and Fužine, he was appointed as the parish priest of the village of Pece. 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 lead to his being awarded a special medal of honor by the Carniolan Agricultural Society in 1842.

In 1835, he departed for the missions of the United States after years of eagerly reading the letters of The Servant of God Frederic Baraga. He arrived in the Diocese of Detroit on September 16 and presented his credentials to Bishop Frederic Rese. As the oncoming winter had already frozen Lake Superior, Father Pierz was prevented from immediately joining Father Baraga in Wisconsin and was instead assigned to the Ottawa (tribe) Indians of Cross Village. In the summer of 1836, Bishop Rese transferred him to the mission of Sault Ste. Marie, where Father Pierz fought to keep the struggling mission alive, while sailing to various other missions around the shores of Lake Superior.

On June 28, 1838, he finally was able to visit Father Baraga at La Pointe, Wisconsin. After a very friendly visit, Baraga persuaded Father Pierz to re-establish the mission at Grand Portage, Minnesota. The formerly great trading post had been deeply affected by the decline of the fur trade, but the Ojibway Indians who continued to live there had turned to harvesting the fish of Lake Superior and selling their catches to the American Fur Company. A "half breed" agent for the Company named Pierre Cotte had carefully been preparing them to be received into the Catholic Church. Father Pierz was deeply impressed by how easily the Ojibway of Grand Portage embraced Catholicism.

It has heen written since that Father Pierz did his best work in the short time he was stationed at Grand Portage. He arranged for the clearing of a plot of farmland which, in keeping with Indian ways, was owned and worked in common. The produce was sold to nearby white miners. A school was founded for the children of the mission. His letters provide a vivid glimpse into daily life on the mission. The missions at Fort William, Ontario and Isle Royale were also under his jurisdiction. But in October, 1839, he was ordered to leave his beloved Grand Portage and take over the mission at Harbor Springs, Michigan.