Mount Carmel, Saskatchewan: High land, with a wide, wide view

Our Lady of Mount Carmel: Mary at the shrine 
near Humboldt, Saskatchewan © SB

I was recently in the Humboldt, Saskatchewan, area and visited Mount Carmel, the site of a Roman Catholic shrine to Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Even living on the Prairies, I think of the land as flat. But much of it is mildly — or even at time, wildly — rolling.

And the closer you drive to this hill, the higher it looms... and the further you climb, the more you see...

From its heights, wide vistas open.

This lovely place was originally called spathanaw watchi, or "hill of the far view" in Cree.

And patches of native plants remain on the hill, with Dotted Blazingstar, Fleabane, Purple Prairie Clover, Ascending Milk Vetch, Wild Flax, and Silverleaf Psoralea.

In 1921, the land was donated for a shrine and annual pilgrimages up the slopes of Mount Carmel began in 1923.

The statue of Mary, made of white Italian marble, is framed by lightening rods to draw the sky fire of our prairie summers away from her and her baby.

She stands calmly, holding up the child and looking down at the field-stone chapel.

I stand quietly, looking up at her, and then down across fields of yellow-blooming canola and the faraway lakes strung along the horizon.

Looking west down the hill from the statue towards the chapel, and off into the distance beyond. © SB

The view looking east, down from Mount Carmel across fields and lakes. © SB

What is this? The shrine, statue and surrounding views of our Lady of Mount Carmel. 

Location: North of the settlement of Mount Carmel, near Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Canada

Photo date: July 24, 2013. 

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