HOUGHTON — Students and clergy at Michigan Technological University celebrated a special outdoor Mass on Feb. 10 and 11 in an ice chapel built as part of an annual tradition in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Since 2016, St. Albert the Great University Parish, which serves Michigan Tech students, has built the ice chapel as part of the university's annual Winter Festival. The chapel, dubbed "Our Lady of the Snows," has attracted media attention and pilgrims each year since the parish began the tradition.
"It was a cool, fun thing we stumbled into," Fr. Ben Hasse of St. Albert the Great told The Detroit News. "It wasn't a careful strategic plan ... it's probably become our most widely recognized event."
Each year, hundreds attend a handful of special Masses in the chapel, built by an army of student volunteers. This year's chapel included "stained ice windows," a side altar dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and various inlets and crosses embedded in the snow.
(Photos by Karla Dorweiler | Special to Detroit Catholic)
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