Little Church in the Wilderness

<p>Little Church in the Wilderness is a novel that is both absorbing and inspirational. The<br />story takes place in the 1870’s when a Catholic priest gifted with the ability to heal<br />both body and soul is sent as a missionary to Upper Minnesota.<br />After the Civil War Father Todd Edward Bose is ordained in Baltimore and his<br />bishop sends him to the village of Whitefish near the Canadian border to form a parish<br />and build a church. His life in the wilderness is filled with many trials challenges and<br />adventures. Upper Minnesota in the 1870’s is sparsely populated with only Indian<br />villages and a few logging towns only accessible by Mississippi River steamboats. A<br />small contingent of Irish Catholic families migrated from Boston to Upper Minnesota<br />in 1870 to scratch a living out of the skimpy soil and harsh winters. They miss access<br />to the Sacraments so they petitioned the local bishop in St. Paul to send a priest to<br />form a parish and build a church. The bishop asks his friend the Bishop of Baltimore<br />to send a missionary. He selects a newly ordained priest Father Todd Bose to serve<br />that Catholic settlement. Young energetic dedicated and gifted with special talents<br />Father Todd accepts his assignment and travels by train boat and horseback to<br />Whitefish. Unaware that God has blessed him with special graces as a healer he settles<br />in the village builds the church and serves his parish as both priest and medic. His<br />unique talent as a healer becomes well-known throughout Upper Minnesota and both<br />Indians and townsfolks ask for his help.<br />Father Todd is an amalgam of the traditional of service dedication and love so<br />characteristic of the many of the priests I have known. All the characters depicted in<br />this story as well as descriptions of places that existed over 100 years ago are fictional.</p>