Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Traveling America's backroads, history and road trip enthusiasts - Noah and Noodles - unearth fascinating locations overlooked while traveling.
Living out of a van, they research and visit each story location to share the (often shocking) secrets held within.
If you love travel, history and thoughtful storytelling - join us on the road!
Backroad Odyssey : Travel, Van Life & Lost Locations
Ave Maria Grotto - A Monk Builds His City
A miniature city crafted from recycled materials lies in the Alabama woods.
One solitary Bavarian Monk is behind its construction.
Noodles and I join the thousands of visitors stopping to admire this humble monk’s startling creation - This is the story of the Ave Maria Grotto.
Works Cited:
https://georgiabulletin.org/commentary/2013/11/a-real-life-fairy-tale-brother-joseph-and-the-ave-maria-grotto/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEF8n2GqQpM
https://pilgrimsprogress.blog/2021/09/06/a-brief-history-of-the-benedictine-order/
https://www.durhamworldheritagesite.com/learn/history/benedictine-order/definition
https://www.messynessychic.com/2021/07/13/when-injury-killed-his-humble-dream-he-built-a-whole-miniature-world-instead/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WblURwNX-VU
https://www.avemariagrotto.com/about.html
https://www.thecrazytourist.com/30-amazing-hidden-gems-in-alabama/
Noah and Noodles here!
We want to extend a heartfelt thanks to every listener of Backroad Odyssey.
Your support fuels our passion and inspires us to keep sharing stories and discover overlooked locations.
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Cruising down the street. I wonder where this road would lead. So many possibilities. Care to share what you think. Oh Noodle, what do you see? Back Road Odyssey. Back Road Odyssey, a miniature city crafted from recycled material, lies in an Alabama wood. One solitary Bavarian monk is behind its construction. My dog Noodles and I join the thousands of visitors stopping to admire this humble monk's startling creation. This is the story of the Ave Maria Grotto. We are en route to see the Ave Maria Grotto in central Alabama, about an hour north of Birmingham, something like that.
Speaker 1:I'll start by saying this, though, because it's important I can't speak for my dog noodles, but I myself am not particularly religious. I went to Catholic school for most of my early life and never found a way to fully embrace it. But I will say this it's undeniable that there's something enduring, something kind of timeless about works of art that derive from religious belief spiritual belief. I think of the Sistine Chapel, the Tion Ton Buddha statue, angkor Wat in Cambodia I could go on forever. But the point is this there's something about having a deep-seated belief in something that drives humans to accomplish extraordinary, improbable, even sometimes kind of unnecessary feats. All of this is a bit of a preface to this. Many of these religiously inspired structures, these statues, temples, sites, works of art require and required many, many people putting in many, many hours.
Speaker 1:But our destination today begins and ends with one person, a solitary immigrant monk quietly laboring in a small town in rural Alabama. For every dark night there is a brighter day. Harriet Morgan, death, impermanence, hardship these are facts of life for the young Michael Zawiddle. In his small Bavarian hometown. He witnesses his mother's death, nearly drowns, almost burns to death and narrowly survives a pandemic which gives him lifelong heart palpitations. Anyone would be forgiven for wanting to leave such a painful place. Traveling Benedictine monks visits his hometown in 1881, the 14-year-old Michael can hardly resist the call to leave with them. The monks had come from of all places St Bernard's Abbey in Coleman, alabama to recruit students for their newly established monastery. For Michael to leave with the Benedictines, but really in any conceivable way, is a blessing. Within a year, 15-year-old Michael crosses the Atlantic, dons the title Brother Joseph and, upon entering the country through Ellis Island, slowly makes his way south to the Alabama monastery grounds that he would, for the remainder of his life, rarely leave. Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Benedict of Nursia. It's worth for a second, looking into what the young Michael just signed up for.
Speaker 1:What is a Benedictine monk? Most simply put, the Benedictines are a loose Catholic religious order, basically kind of a federation of monasteries that all adhere to the teachings of St Benedict of Nursia, who lived during the 6th century CE. Who lived during the 6th century CE. And the essence of this Benedictine mentality can be summed up in the following Latin phrase Ora et lucora, pray and work. Labor for a Benedictine is relevant and even essential to the human and sometimes spiritual experience. This mentality, this work mentality, seeps into everything young Michael will go on to do. If the body is strong, the soul weakens. If the body weakens, the soul is strong. Benedicta Ward, the Desert Father's Sayings of the Early Christian Monks.
Speaker 1:A small town in the American post-war deep south seems like an unlikely place for a young Bavarian boy to settle down. But alas, the young Michael dives right in, throwing himself into his studies with the full and unconditional intent to become a priest. But it wasn't meant to be. An incident happens Reminiscent of his misfortune-filled early years. The accident-proned Michael is crushed by a heavy church bell, leaving the jest already under five foot youth with a permanent hunchback. And this becomes a problem. At the time, physical abnormalities were considered a distraction, something parishioners would easily be distracted by, and a noticeable hunchback to the Benedictines at least rendered Michael's priestly dreams null and void. But physical labor, it seems for the Benedictines, was still on the table.
Speaker 1:Still young, but in poor health, michael now Brother Joseph works as a housekeeper for the Abbey's priests, a job he still very much wanted but could never have. Years later he works for the Abbey's coal-fired power plant, often laboring for periods of up to 17 hours straight, watching gauges, shoveling heavy coal, waiting for time to pass. Time often is a gift to wandering minds, and Michael's mind, from then on, was always moving. If he could no longer study for the priesthood, something new must fill his time, give him purpose. So one small question starts to form at the back of his mind what would this purpose be? If you build it, they will come Field of Dreams To pass the time between dusty shovels of black soot.
Speaker 1:Michael would construct small, picturesque caves called grottos, to house small statues of the Virgin Mary. The first two he built sold very quickly. He then received an order for 500 additional grottos, which he completed, and he lost count after making over 5,000. This creative work seems to have struck something deep with inside Michael a desire to create Ora et lacura, pray and work. For Michael, the work was in all caps In time.
Speaker 1:He branches out from grottos and builds model buildings and structures and locations, tiny recreations of places that he finds interesting. He begins with a detailed model of the city of Jerusalem, completed in text 1912. The structure is installed in the monastery garden, and here's where the story gets a little more interesting. This was a side project, a way to pass the time, and only meant for the residents of the monastery. But quickly, word of the tiny Jerusalem gets out. Curious locals and beyond begin to visit to see the masterfully crafted tiny city. So many visitors pour into the monastery that Michael was told to halt any further projects he was thinking about doing, citing the movement as disturbing the operations of the monastery. So years pass after being denied the chance to move his little project to another place and make further projects. Finally, cooler heads seem to have prevailed Because they approve a small patch of sloping land for Michael to do with as he wished.
Speaker 1:The world is but a canvas to our imagination. Henry David Thoreau. With the time in between, repetitious prayers and long shifts, shoveling coal. Michael builds small replicas of religious sites, fairytale locations and, most strikingly, historical locations. And most strikingly, historical locations, undoubtedly inspired by the many hours reading about history which he loved In time. Hundreds of beautifully detailed buildings and sites lined the gentle slope near the monastery, all, it has to be said, made from concrete bits of broken pottery, chicken wire, shells, anything and everything Michael could find. Interestingly, though, of the hundreds of beautifully intricate models Michael makes, only two locations are physically visited by him during his lifetime One, a model of St Bernard's Abbey within the monastery that he was staying at, and two, a model of St Bernard's Abbey within the monastery that he was staying at, and two, a model of a building within his hometown. Beyond this, every single one of the more than 150 models are created using postcards, descriptions in books and his own seemingly limitless imagination.
Speaker 1:I'm at the grotto now, let me. Let me describe what I see. So you first enter a building, you pay your $8 entrance fee, then you exit through the back. From there, you kind of see a sloping hill with a winding sidewalk that leads all the way to the bottom. On this sidewalk there's replicas of churches, holy sites and historical places, but the real showstopper comes at the end, which is where I'm at now. I'm at the end of the sidewalk, at the bottom of this slope, all right, how do I describe this? Hundreds and hundreds of structures populate every available surface, every crevice of this kind of large hill. I see St Peter's Basilica, Roman temples, famous landmarks from all across the world, all made expertly to scale, incredibly detailed.
Speaker 1:If we walk in up close here you see just how resourceful Michael was, or more likely, had to be. He utilized thrown away flooring, tile, anything it seems he could get his hands on. I was talking to the front desk incoming in and the person there, very nice, said that he would take regular trips to the dump to get materials to build all of this, all of what I'm looking at now. But here's the thing you have to go close. You have to go close to look at what he implemented, the materials that he implemented. It's hard to describe being here. It's artistry. But I digress a little bit. In the middle of this civilization, upon a hill, there's a truly massive grotto with the Virgin Mary in the center, hence the name, the Ave Maria Grotto. But stepping back again, this whole complex would take a village years to make To think that this is the work of one single person is something else.
Speaker 1:You can picture him crouched over at the end of a long day trying to get every detail of his latest project exactly right. I was reading a bit about him coming here and apparently his disposition was that of a shy and a quiet person, even when compared to his fellow monks. He would pick up a gardening tool, pretend to be the gardener, just so that he could avoid questions, conversations and, most notably, recognition. Most notably recognition, which further begs the question right, why did he continue to build? Obviously it wasn't for himself.
Speaker 1:Years pass, prayers are prayed, back-breaking work ensues, and yet Michael continues to create, to build, to obsess. Simultaneously, appreciation for the grotto continues to grow. As Michael ages, visitors flock like seagulls to see his creations. But Michael, brother Joseph, never changes, it seems. In a way, it's the work itself that provides meaning, not the results of the work. It's the act of building that provides satisfaction for him. Otherwise, we can only imagine that he would look around at the over 150 models and say I've done enough. Ora et lucara, pray and work For Michael, these two Benedictine words seem to be synonymous.
Speaker 1:Work is prayer, prayer is work. It provides meaning, a drive, a purpose. Michael, brother Joseph, continues to create until his last replica is completed at 80 years old. Three years later, in 1961, he passes away, leaving behind the vast fruits of his labor. Nothing will work unless you do.
Speaker 1:Maya Angelou, I'm back in the van, give me a second. Here's my initial thoughts, starting with this. The simple fact that one person could continue to create in a decade-long unbroken chain until, quite literally, he physically couldn't, is astonishing. In my own life I get interested in a hobby or an activity, and I'll do it for a while, but it rarely keeps my interest. Definitely I'm nowhere near the level of effort, skill, work that Michael put into this grotto his entire life. But here's the thing I bet and I'd wager there were days, weeks, even years where Michael had no to little desire to keep his project going. But he did, and there's a word for that Dedication Long, continuous, intentional dedication, both as a monk right, he still prayed every day, he still read the scriptures every day, he still worked a very physically demanding job but also and I think he probably would hate me for using this word as an artist.
Speaker 1:You can't stand at the bottom of the hill of the grotto and fail to appreciate the sheer, dedicated artistry of it all. What is the Ave Maria Grotto? It's simultaneously an interconnected sculpture, a form of religious worship, a roadside oddity, a simple and extended way to pass the time. It's, paradoxically, everything and nothing all at once. Whatever the grotto is, and whatever you personally perceive it to be, you have to admit the five-foot, hunchbacked, underappreciated Bavarian Benedictine monk behind its construction has a story worth telling, a story that's told in every spare tile, broken shell and cut chicken wire. Within the oddly impressive, endlessly fascinating, wholly incomprehensible Ave Maria grotto, it's Noah here. Thank you so much for listening to Backroad Odyssey.
Speaker 1:Let's get into it. Would I recommend you going out of your way to see the grotto if you're near Birmingham, alabama? Yes, yes, I would, and here's why Not every location you go to is going to be show-stopping, life changing, but the grotto, especially if you know the story behind its construction, is special, not necessarily in a cultural way or even a religious way. I said in the beginning I'm not particularly religious, but it's a unique experience, given the story. Personally, what I got from it going to the grotto made me think about myself, how I spend my time. You know, I started to think about the things in my life that take a long time to build. You know this podcast, for example, a lot of daily unnoticed work. But sometime from now, whatever you are working on personally, you're going to step back and see the true scale of all of your efforts, and to me, that is what I got from the grotto and that's why it's worth going to see.
Speaker 1:After Michael's death, the Abbey's handyman, lee I hope I'm saying this right, I'm sorry if I'm not Schweiger continued to preserve the site and even added a few of his own creations in Michael's style. These include the Great Wall of China, the pyramids and, my personal favorite, a crosswalk for the local chipmunks who inhabit the grotto. Value in the time and the research that Noodles and I put into each episode. I would greatly appreciate you. Taking a minute to rate or write a review. Really, really, really helps, and I personally appreciate it. I'll leave with this, whatever you're working on right now if it doesn't feel like it's adding up to something. Think about the grotto. Think about the time it takes to make something lasting. It's work. It's continued work, it's relentless work, but in the end, the work will speak for itself. So keep at it. We're two. Next, be good to each other. Backroad Odyssey.
