Food Feature: Sacred grounds

Pious relics both massive and miniscule reside in the hills of Alabama

Driving along the back roads of Alabama, it’s hard to miss the ramshackle tabernacles. But nestled in the rolling green hills an hour north of Birmingham stands the testament of two visionaries, Brother Joe’s grotto and Mother Angelica’s shrine.

Striking, exotic and bizarre, these two spots bring to mind more questions than they answer. Why? Why here? One is massive, the other minuscule, but both are the towering achievements of the faith of two humble individuals with lofty visions.

Decades before Howard Finster created Paradise Garden, Brother Joseph Zoettel crafted his own folk art realm. Born in Bavaria, Brother Joe arrived at Alabama’s St. Bernard Abbey in 1892. Given the responsibility of running the Abbey’s powerhouse, he began shoveling coal into the steaming furnaces.

After a decade in the oven pits, Brother Joe experienced a divine spark of creativity. In his hours away from the furnace, he began carving replicas of historical buildings out of scrap materials.

Eventually, a panorama based on visions and postcards and history book illustrations began to take shape in the abbey garden. Cement, stone, shards of broken glass and discarded objects were reinvented in the monk’s hands. From the Tower of Babel to the Coliseum, more than 100 wonders of the ancient world lined up next to American landmarks like the Alamo.

Looking closely at Brother Joe’s buildings you’ll discover his modest materials. In the Temple of Fairies, a dozen cold cream bottles become translucent blue altars. The double domes of the Cathedral of Mobile, Ala., are fashioned from two discarded toilet bowl floats. The great pyramid of Cheops is built from bathroom tiles. An old birdcage forms the skeleton for St. Peter’s massive dome.

He continued building for more than 45 years, concentrating on the details until the tiny kingdom stretched along a half-mile beside the monastery. Word spread of the monk’s miniature ministry and by the mid-1950s, tourists began to visit the attraction. In 1958, Brother Joe put the finishing touches on his last sculpture. He was 80 years old and the architect of a unique creation. Three years later Brother Joe died and his incredible little world quietly slipped into obscurity. Monks at the neighboring monastery have maintained Brother Joe’s grotto, adding a fountain and a winding concrete walkway that completes the cove’s tranquil aesthetic. The Ave Maria Grotto stands today as the testimony to one man’s pious vision.

Just down the road from Brother Joe’s grotto is a counter monument. Cut from a very different cloth than Brother Joe, who was content to labor in obscurity, Mother Angelica built the Eternal Word Television Network into the world’s largest Catholic cable network, delivering the gospel with high-tech distribution.

While Mother Angelica reached out over the airwaves, the genesis of her towering temple came from a much more personal encounter. Marynell Ford, general manager of the Shrine, explained, “In 1995 Mother Angelica traveled throughout Latin America, announcing to the bishops and congregations the beginning of EWTN’s television and radio service in Spanish.”

During her travels, she was shown the Sanctuary of El Divino Niño in Bogot’, Colombia. “Mother Angelica was standing to the side of the statue, gazing at him,” says Ford, “when the statue turned towards her and said, ‘build me a temple and I will help those who help you.’”

Mother Angelica returned home and began to search for land. By 1996, she broke ground on what would become the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Ala. Today her 13th century-style monastery sits like a mirage off a forgotten country road. It seems as if an angelic construction crew might have airlifted this structure from the Middle Ages to the Alabama hills.

Centered around a wide cobblestone piazza, a 110-foot campanile rises up next to the towering temple. Inside the main sanctuary, the golden altarpiece explodes with reflections from German stained-glassed windows and inlaid marble floors. Stepping through the immense brass portals, carved with scenes from the New Testament by Spanish craftsmen, you’ll feel the strange shift from rural county to heavenly kingdom. Time seems to melt away — you can easily imagine how medieval pilgrims felt entering a sanctuary after months on the road, on horseback or on foot, even though you’ve parked your car and are down the road from a QT and a McDonald’s.

Thirty nuns live on the grounds; they dart around the plaza in full habits welcoming visitors to their impressive sanctuary. The shrine has become a modern pilgrimage site attracting travelers from across the States and Canada. A new pilgrim’s greeting center, designed to resemble a Romanesque castle, is nearly finished below the temple mount. Mother Angelica’s Shrine seems to exist apart from time and space, a spiritual realm from a distant era.

From a folk art universe to a gilded temple, the sacred grounds of Alabama are waiting quietly to be discovered.

The Ave Maria Grotto is located in Cullman, Ala., about one hour north of Birmingham on I-65. Open daily 7 a.m.- 7 p.m. April-Sept. and 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct.-March. 1600 St. Bernard Drive. 256-734-4110. www.avemariagrotto.com. The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady of the Angels Monastery is at exit 291 off of I-65; take Country Road 747 to Country Road 548 and follow the signs. Open daily 6 a.m.-6 p.m. for prayer and adoration. 256-352-0358.

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