Maria Stein Shrine of the Holy Relics

The Maria Stein Shrine traces its origins to 1843, when Father Francis de Sales Brunner brought relics from Rome to serve German immigrants in Ohio. The relic collection was formally established in 1875 by Father J.M. Gartner, who rescued relics from looted Roman churches. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

The story begins in Switzerland in the 1840s, when Father Francis de Sales Brunner of the Society of the Precious Blood prepared to cross the Atlantic. German Catholic immigrants in western Ohio needed priests, and Brunner answered the call. Before leaving, he spent time in Rome, where he acquired relics that he carried with him to the New World. He arrived in Ohio in 1843.

The following year, three Sisters of the Precious Blood established a convent near St. Johns, Ohio. They named it after the Mariastein Abbey in Switzerland, meaning Mary of the Rock, a gesture that connected their new home in the American flatlands to the sacred geography of their homeland. In 1846, the Maria Stein site was formally established as the third of ten convents founded by Father Brunner. A permanent brick structure followed in 1860.

The collection's transformative moment came three decades later. In the early 1870s, Father J.M. Gartner of Milwaukee traveled to Rome during a period of lawlessness following Italian unification. Churches had been looted and their contents scattered. Gartner found relics in pawnshops and being sold by street vendors. He purchased and rescued as many as he could. When Pope Pius IX learned of his efforts, the pontiff entrusted Gartner with 175 additional relics, asking him to take them to America where they would be safe.

In 1875, Father Gartner chose Maria Stein as the permanent home for the collection, formally establishing the Shrine of the Holy Relics. The choice was deliberate. The convent was already a center of devotion, and the surrounding region, settled by German Catholic farmers, had produced a landscape dense with churches and religious practice. By 1892, two chapels had been built to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims.

The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, acknowledging its architectural and historical significance. In a pivotal transition on December 8, 2017, the Sisters of the Precious Blood transferred the land deed to the laity. The shrine now operates as a lay-managed institution, sustained entirely by private donations.