Assinins, MI
The Catholic presence in Assins, Mich. dates from 1660 with the arrival of the Jesuit missionary, Father Renee Menard. In 1840, an early L’Anse settler named Pierre Crebassa wrote to Father Baraga at LaPointe, Wis. inviting him to come to the L’Anse area. Crebassa explained that a number of Native Americans came to him for readings from his old French Bible. Pierre Crebassa repeated his invitation every year until Father Baraga agreed to visit in early 1843. When he left in June, he encouraged Crebassa to carry on the work of the church.
Sign of Holy Name of Jesus Church – Photograph property of the BBA
Statue of Bishop Baraga teaching, located on the original grounds of the Assinins site. Photograph property of the BBA
History of the Mission at Assinins
This new Assinins mission became one more stop in Father Baraga’s travels. However, this place of hardship turned to triumph for Father Baraga, when, in September of 1844, the Holy Name of Jesus Church was dedicated at the present site known as Assinins named after a chief baptized by Father Baraga.
L’Anse and Assinins were the home base of the priest’s labors from 1843 to 1853. A rectory built at the site became his home during frequent stops on his far-ranging travels to missions in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
On this site, he opened a school and helped build homes and a church, while at the same time writing his exhaustive Grammar and the Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language. Father Baraga was elevated to Bishop in 1853. He became the first bishop in upper Michigan.
At the original Assinins site is found a beautiful statue to Baraga and the Native American parishioners, the old Assinins School where Father Baraga held classes and the cemetery where lie the remains of Chief Assinins, along with many of Baraga’s contemporaries.
