Priest's Crucifix collection boasts rare religious artifacts

RAPID CITY JOURNAL
By Mary Garrigan

This is a Nuevo Leon "Santos" cross circa 1840 original that emphasizes the wounds of the suffering Christ. The crucifix is part of the Rev. D. Craig Cower Collection at the St. Patrick Church in Wall, MI.

MICHIGAN --- A museum-quality collection of about 100 crucifixes is housed at St. Patrick Catholic Church here, including a 750-year-old one that some believe once belonged to Christopher Columbus. Authenticated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Columbus Cross was originally created in Venice sometime around 1256 and found its way to the New World on one of the voyages of Columbus, in or around 1492. The Rev. Leo Hausmann, pastor at St. Patrick's in Wall, finds the small corpus the most interesting piece in the display, but there are about 99 other interesting ones, as well. [link]