Francis Xavier Pierz ( or Franc Pirec; ) (November 20, 1785 – January 22, 1880) was a Roman Catholic priest and missionary to the Ottawa and Ojibwe Indians in present-day Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario, and Minnesota. Because his letters convinced numerous Catholic German Americans to settle in Central Minnesota after the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, Fr. Pierz is referred to as the "Father of the Diocese of Saint Cloud."
Early life
Father Pierz was born to a peasant family in Godič, near the town of Kamnik in the Hapsburg-ruled Duchy of Carniola within the Austrian Empire (now Slovenia) on November 20, 1785, and baptized Franz Xav. Pierz. As most middle class and upwardly mobile families in Carniola were at the time, Francis Pierz was raised bilingually, and was fluent in both the vernacular Slovene language and in Standard Austro-German. He entered the major seminary of Ljubljana in the fall of 1810 and was ordained on March 13, 1813, by Bishop Kovacic. Two of his brothers also became priests.
After seven years as assistant pastor of the mountain parishes of Kranjska Gora and Fusine in Valromana (Bela Peč, in Slovene), he was appointed parish priest of the villages of Peče and Podbrezje. In later years, all of his former parishes would become sources of Slovene immigrants and pioneer settlers of Central Minnesota.
After years of attempting to improve farming methods among the poor farmers of his parish, he published the book Kranjski Vertnar (The Carniolan Gardner) in 1830. His efforts led to his being awarded a medal of honor by the Carniolan Agricultural Society in 1842.
Missionary
In 1835, Pierz departed for the missions of the United States after years of being inspired by the published letters of the Slovenian missionary priest, and future Bishop of Marquette, Father Frederic Baraga, who worked in present-day Upper Michigan and Wisconsin.
Following a particularly difficult and terrifying Atlantic Ocean crossing that he later versified in the poem ''Pesmi od svojega popotovanja, Fr. Pierz arrived in the Diocese of Detroit on September 16, where he presented his credentials to Bishop Frederick Rese. As Lake Superior had already frozen, Father Pierz was prevented from immediately joining Father Baraga in Wisconsin and was assigned to the Ottawa of L'Arbre Croche, in what is now Little Traverse Bay Reservation in Michigan.
With the assistance of a Catholic Odawa Chief known as Sharp Knife, Fr. Pierz was very successful at making converts, even though the Ottawa dialect of the Ojibwe language was a terrible struggle for him to learn.
One of Fr. Pierz's particularly devout converts was a 15-year old Odawa girl who took the Baptismal name of Marie and who died soon after entering the Church, but in whose sanctity Fr. Pierz firmly believed and upon whose intercession he later strongly relied. Fr. Pierz also composed a long work of narrative Slovenian poetry about Marie's life and death, which he titled Pesmi od ajdovske deklice ("The Song of the Indian Girl").
Fr. Pierz later wrote of Marie, "Never did I know a more pious soul; never did I witness a more beautiful death than that of this pure young lady... Her blessed death accomplished much good in my mission, confirmed the faithful in piety, and brought about the conversion of many pagans. Henceforth, her parents lived very pious lives and zealously practiced their religion, but soon followed their daughter in death. Her father always wore the rosary around his neck, visited pagan lodges, spoke amid many tears of the mercies of God regarding his own conversion and of the life of his blessed daughter, who thrice was granted the happiness of a vision of her transfigured Savior, and brought to me a number of Indians eager to learn the Christian religion."
In the summer of 1836, Bishop Rese transferred Pierz to the mission of Sault Ste. Marie, where Father Pierz fought to keep the struggling mission operating. He also sailed to other missions around the shores of Lake Superior, where he served Catholics among the Ottawa and Ojibwa, who spoke Algonquian languages.