Qualla: Shrine Mont

Shrine Mont: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jon Bidwell, CC BY 2.0. The font where babies are baptized at Shrine Mont is a dugout stone that Native Americans once used to grind corn. The cathedral around it has no roof. Every stone in its walls was pulled by horse or rolled by local people from the slopes of Great North Mountain, the same mountain that hems the open-air sanctuary on three sides. The Episcopal Diocese of Virginia consecrated this strange building in 1925, and it has been holding outdoor services in the Shenandoah Valley ever since.

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Image: Jon Bidwell | CC BY 2.0

Shrine Mont: Seven Springs and a Bishop's Cottage

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit DwayneP, CC BY-SA 3.0. Long before any church was built here, seven springs of cold mineral water drew people to this corner of Shenandoah County. Relics found near the springs point to a Native American settlement, and the waters were said to have healing powers - a claim that brought white visitors b...

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Image: DwayneP | CC BY-SA 3.0

Shrine Mont: The Cathedral Without a Roof

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ben Schumin, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Reverend Edmund Lee Woodward and his wife had bought land at Orkney Springs and vacationed there each year. After Bishop Gibson's death, Woodward cut down a hundred trees, built a log cabin called Gibson Cottage finished in 1928, and oversaw construction of the Cathedral Shri...

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Image: Ben Schumin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Shrine Mont: Building a Retreat From Nothing

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jon Bidwell, CC BY 2.0. Woodward's next project was practical. In 1928 he proposed a retreat that could accommodate 120 guests. Bishop Tucker approved the plan on one condition: it would not appear in the diocesan budget. Woodward built. He raised cottages, a refectory, a kitchen, and a swimming pool, a...

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Image: Jon Bidwell | CC BY 2.0

Shrine Mont: Eleven Hundred Acres and a Childhood Memory

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jon Bidwell, CC BY 2.0. Shrine Mont today covers about 1,100 acres of forest at the foot of Great North Mountain, butting up against the George Washington National Forest. The footprint includes the open-air shrine, the Shelter Chapel beside it, Gibson Cottage where the Woodwards lived, the Virginia Hou...

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Image: Jon Bidwell | CC BY 2.0