The foundation of the Catholic Church in Ohio can be found in Somerset, Ohio.  There, in the early 19th century, Fr. Edward Dominic Fenwick sent his Dominican brothers from Kentucky to establish the first Catholic Church in Ohio -- St. Joseph's in Somerset.  From that first seed, other Catholic Churches sprang up, including St. Patrick in Junction City, OH, and St. Rose in New Lexington, OH.  Earlier this summer a group of five Dominicans, with a few Dominicans-to-be and a few friends of the Dominicans made a pilgrimage to these holy sites in Ohio.  Below is the account of their pilgrimage by Br. Innocent Smith, O.P.:

On Saturday, July 17th, five Dominican Friars and four men and women discerning or soon to enter religious life gathered in central Ohio to walk on a twelve mile pilgrimage to the oldest Catholic church in Ohio. St. Joseph's Church in Somerset, Ohio, was founded by the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 1818. St. Joseph's holds an important place in the cultural memory of the Dominicans, both because it was our first permanent outpost in Ohio and because many generations of Friars were formed within its vicinity. For many years, St. Joseph's Priory served as a house of studies, and later as a novitiate. Many of our brethren are buried in its cemetery, including the recently deceased Fr. Charlie Farrell, O.P., who served as a mentor for many Friars as a senior community member at the novitiate in Cincinnati. Somerset is also part of the ancestry of the Dominican sisters of Nashville and Ann Arbor. The pilgrims included student brothers on summer assignments in Youngstown, Columbus, and Zanesville, a young man who is entering the St. Joseph province novitiate this summer, and a young woman entering the Dominican sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in August. 

We began the pilgrimage with Terce (Midmorning Prayer) and the prayers for pilgrimage at St. Rose Church in New Lexington, OH, which was founded by the Dominicans in 1867. From there we walked to St. Patrick's Church in Junction City, OH, founded in 1820 one of the first outposts of the Dominicans from Somerset, where we prayed Sext (Midafternoon Prayer). We then continued on to St. Joseph's, walking on beautiful county roads through forests and fields. As we walked we sang Irish folk songs, religious hymns, simple Latin rounds, and prayed the rosary. We also sang two of St. Dominic's favorite hymns, the Ave Maris Stella and the Veni Creator, which he used to sing as he walked. When we arrived at St. Joseph's, we prayed the prayers for the end of a pilgrimage, then attended Mass celebrated by Fr. Anthony Giambrone, O.P. After the Mass, we had a barbecue.

One of the many positive encounters we had along the way was with a man who was curious about our endeavor, stopping his car to speak with us. After explaining the destination of our pilgrimage, and mentioning that the Dominicans had probably walked along similar routes as they ministered to Junction City and other churches from Somerset, he asked, "Oh, so you're doing a reenactment?" This question was an opportunity to reflect on the difference between reenactment and revival. One fundamental difference is that reenactment honors the cultural achievements of men, whereas pilgrimage is focused on the holy sites of God, fashioned, it is true, by human hands, but consecrated to God by the rites of the Church. As Pope Benedict has put it, speaking of the pilgrimage of Compostela, the "essential goal of the pilgrimage" is "of a spiritual character".  "This is the true objective, grace, which merely walking the Way alone cannot enable one to achieve and which leads the pilgrim to become a witness to others of the fact that Christ lives and is our eternal hope of salvation." (Pope Benedict XVI, Message for the Compostela Holy Year 2010) 

For a slideshow of images from the pilgrimage, click here.