by Katie Roiger
Prairie Catholic correspondent
NEW ULM – Our Lady has many titles that encourage her children to turn to her in confidence and hope, and her evocative local name, “Our Lady of the Prairie,” is no exception.
Rededicating the Diocese of New Ulm to the Blessed Mother under this name has been on Bishop Chad Zielinski’s heart almost since his installation in September 2022. Combined with a specially commissioned painting and a pilgrimage evoking the area’s history, the rededication is intended to encourage parishioners to renew their relationship with Mary and seek her intercession.
In his previous role as the bishop of Fairbanks, Alaska, Bishop Zielinski understood the importance of understanding an area’s culture and history in order to understand its people. The bishop’s far-flung former diocese encompassed several ethnicities, including many whose faith backgrounds extended to the Jesuits’ first visit in the 1800s.
Regardless of personal history or location, Bishop Zielinski found that healing and hope are two uniting elements that the faithful consistently seek.
“There is a profound need for healing,” the bishop said of the Church at large, adding that in Fairbanks, one very effective tool for spreading the message of divine healing was a local painting titled “Our Lady of the Arctic Snows.” The painting depicts the Blessed Mother and her infant son as Yupik Eskimos, wearing traditional garments. The bishop had a prayer coin created with the image on one side, and he frequently gave them away on visits.
“I would give it to suffering people and say, ‘I’m praying for you,’ and sometimes when I came back later, they still had this coin,” he said.
Damien Walker, founder of The Studio of Saint Philomena in New Zealand, award winning artist, restorer, gilder and consultant has been commissioned by Bishop Zielinski to create an icon artwork of Our Lady of the Prairie. (Photo submitted)
After familiarizing himself with New Ulm, Bishop Zielinski wanted to emphasize the same message of healing in the parishes and area faith communities throughout the diocese. A search for a local image of Our Lady of the Prairie found only one statue in Bird Island, so the bishop expanded his quest. This led him to Damien Walker, founder of The Studio of St. Philomena in New Zealand. Walker specializes in creating and restoring church art and won a prestigious contest for creating the country’s national Marian image. “Ko Hāta Maria, te Matua Wahine o te Atu,” which translates as “Hata Maria, the Mother of God,” depicts Mary and the Christ Child inside a traditional Māori meeting house.
“New Zealand is bicultural,” said Walker. “There’s been a great division, and the image brings dialogue and conversation. The whole point of it is to use art to bring healing.”
Unknown to Bishop Zielinski at the time, Walker had a personal reason to love the message of God’s divine healing as accessed through Mary and the saints. At 18 years old, around the same time that he was planning to open his studio, Walker was diagnosed with an aggressive form of blood disease known as polycythemia. His specialist was not hopeful, but his mother was determined to pray for a miracle.
“Mom got the oil of St. Philomena and put it on my head, heart, and all the areas I was in pain, and then started praying a novena to St. Philomena,” Walker said. “Lots of people were praying. Next morning, I got up and started walking. I hadn’t been able to before. I’d been bedridden for six months.” A follow-up visit to his specialist revealed that the disease was gone.
When Bishop Zielinski contacted Walker about potentially creating a painting of Our Lady of the Prairie, Walker flew to Minnesota last spring to see the diocese and learn about its history.
“I did a lot of time just observing as much as I could and listening to the bishop’s perspective,” Walker said. “I visited the museum [Brown County Historical Society], and the curator there is an awesome guy. I visited a lot of the sites of the big historic battles. It gave me a beautiful perspective on the area. It’s given me the opportunity to understand the essence of what Our Lady should be for your culture.”
Following Walker’s visit, Bishop Zielinski commissioned the artist to create a nearly life-sized image for the Diocese of New Ulm in honor of its upcoming consecration on June 22, 2025, at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New Ulm. A replica of the image will be processed throughout the diocese from June 22 – 29. On June 29, all pastors will dedicate their Area of Faith Communities to Our Lady of the Prairie. The painting has been funded solely through the generosity of individual donors, and its creation process has taken Walker roughly a year. Using a technique similar to the one popularized by Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and other Italian Renaissance masters, Walker uses layers of thin glazes to create the Blessed Mother’s image.
“She’s developing herself in a way that’s surprising me,” said Walker, adding that, when finished, the painting will reflect elements of the diocese’s Native American and Western European heritage.
Both Walker and Bishop Zielinski see art as a unique pathway to experiencing divine love, healing, and connection. “When an iconographer paints an icon, there’s tradition that goes with it,” Bishop Zielinski said. “What I saw in Damien’s work is that he gets the theology behind colors, proportions, the way that Jesus holds his hands – it’s not just a piece of art. The whole theology behind architecture and art is that you’re entering into an encounter with Christ that is sacred.”
“There’s a lot of hope with this image,” Walker said about “Our Lady of the Prairie.” “There’s a lot of strength because she’s very strong, but there’s a gentleness, too. I think this will be very relatable.”
To celebrate the rededication and the painting’s unveiling on June 22, Bishop Zielinski asked the diocesan director of Evangelization, Leonard Gutierrez, to plan a local pilgrimage. From Sunday, June 22 to Sunday, June 29, Gutierrez and some young adult pilgrims will walk from Area Faith Community to Area Faith Community in the diocese, (close to 90 miles), beginning at the Cathedral in New Ulm and stopping daily at different churches for Mass and holy hours. Walker is currently planning to make an appearance at the pilgrimage, and everyone is invited to join.
“This is a beautiful way to show people what life is like in our diocese,” Gutierrez said regarding the pilgrimage. “I think what makes this special is that it helps people to understand that their life right now is a pilgrimage, that they don’t need a whole week away from normal life. They can participate in a small way, but they’re participating with the rest of the Body of Christ.”
Gutierrez said he thinks that the rededication, painting, and pilgrimage combined will help lead the faithful to Jesus through Mary: “People will be able to look at Mary and say, ‘Mary gets me; she understands me,’ and they can relate to her in a very special way.”
Ultimately, the goal of the rededication is to lead the world to Our Lord through His mother, starting with the Diocese of New Ulm.
“Our Lady is so powerful,” Bishop Zielinski said. “We look around the world and see Our Lady leading people to Christ.”