The grounds are full of shrines, including one to Saint Maximilian Kolbe, a martyr of Auschwitz, but the feature that causes jaws to drop is Memorial Chapel, an underground shrine whose black light mural depicts the end of the world: an Ultraviolet Apocalypse.

Understandable perhaps, since the creators were Polish Carmelites who had probably felt a close acquaintance with the end of the world. After serving in Poland’s Free Army during World War II, they were banished to Siberia. They made their way to the northwest Indiana in 1950 and began ministering to the large Polish-American community in the Chicago area.

In 1954, the Carmelite fathers began creating the place of faith and contemplation in Munster. The Holy Mother Grotto, an elaborate three-level catacombs built entirely above-ground, used 250 tons of sponge rock painstakingly glued into place, inside and out. Other rock ornamentation, marble statuary, stained-glass windows and accents of fluorite, dogtooth calcite, dolomite, and rose quartz complete the décor.

Carmelite Shrines, Munster (Photo: CatholicSanctuaries via Flickr)

Together with the various exterior shrines and statuary on the monastery’s grounds, the ambience is one of meaningful — if slightly offbeat — solemnity. The unexpected, dayglo-tinged biblical end-times tableau — Christ and Gideon raising the dead, hands reaching out of the ground, neon-yellow crosses zooming across the ceiling — that will endure longest in your memory.

Munster’s Carmelite Shrines are open to the public every Sunday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Easter to November 1, or by appointment through the week. To arrange a visit, contact the monastery at 219-838-7111, carmelmunster@yahoo.com. Or visit the website.